Focusing on equity: Q&A with Asma Mahdi

When Asma Mahdi joined Better World Group in 2019 from the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, our CEO Cecilia Estolano asked her about her long-term professional goals. Her answer: to build a practice that inserted racial equity into environmental advocacy and planning. Nearly four years later, Asma has been promoted at the firm as a Principal and is leading BWG’s emerging Racial Equity vertical, which now counts up to eight clients and projects who have tapped her to help them prioritize the needs of communities who have faced the brunt of climate impacts, have regularly been left out of environmental consideration and whose cultural needs are often not reflected in official climate policies. Below she shares more about why addressing racial equity is crucial to meet the challenges of climate change, how organizations and government agencies can lead with justice, and how Better World Group is helping to chart that future.

Q: It seems commonplace now for corporation and government agencies to incorporate racial equity in their work, but you saw a need for these principles to be applied in the environmental space. Tell us about your vision and how equity-focused work has evolved in the green movement.

A: Early in my tenure at Better World Group, I worked with state agencies and departments in Oregon to incorporate equity-focused goals into the state’s climate adaptation plan. Focusing on equity meant that Oregon was making an explicit commitment, in writing, to prioritize spending its climate dollars internally on developing needed infrastructure and resources and in communities that have faced environmental harm because of previous racial discrimination. This work felt groundbreaking – and uncommon. As I worked on other environmental efforts that ranged from ocean protection to land conservation, it became clear that every area could benefit from carefully thinking about how to help vulnerable communities who had the most to lose from climate change. Since that time, leaders such as President Biden to Governor Gavin Newsom have made commitments to focus on racial equity and frontline communities. We’ve been lucky to partner with several more agencies in thinking about how to make those goals into policy reality. But there is still so much work that can be done.

Q: What are some examples of how you are helping incorporate equity into environmental policy?

A: The pandemic, and the economic and racial injustices that it revealed, along with the summer of racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd, has been an an impetus for organizations and government agencies to deliberately think about how to ensure that underserved communities are included and prioritized. Here are some examples on how we’ve helped steer agencies toward stronger equity policies:

• In the state of Washington, we are working with the Puget Sound Partnership, an agency overseeing the environmental restoration of the area, to ensure that improvements to the health of Puget Sound also help vulnerable communities and create jobs, particularly for groups that are often left out of the planning process. 

• The Resources Legacy Fund brought us on to support the development of California’s strategy for the Outdoors for All initiative under the guidance of the state’s first Deputy Secretary for Access, Katherine Toy. The Strategy, due out in 2023, identifies key priorities including fostering belonging for all Californians at parks and open spaces across the state, and establishing spaces for people and nature to thrive. 

• The California Ocean Protection Council is responsible for protecting the state’s coasts and ocean, and we helped them develop an equity plan that provides strategies and concrete actions on issues that range from how to develop career pathways that better supports a diverse workforce to how to intentionally invest in environmental justice communities across the state, which includes a commitment the Council made to allocating a $1.3 million small grants program for environmental justice. 

These are all clients who know that equity will make their work stronger, and we have been lucky to put a framework in place that can help guide future efforts to think about how environmental efforts and equity should intersect. 

Q: Why was racial equity a career focus for you?

A: From my experience in my graduate program to working in government, I’ve had formative opportunities that have shaped my focus on racial equity. Particularly, I spent some time in the advocacy space, and saw firsthand why it was so important for the environmental movement to focus on communities that have historically lacked investments and have been left out of decision-making processes. Whether it’s the loss of precious wilderness from wildfires or bad air quality from pollution or the impact of droughts on our water supply, we all are now facing the challenges that climate change will bring – but some are facing worse outcomes than others. Government agencies must lead in a future where all residents have the tools needed to thrive despite the threats of climate change, and they must include the voices and needs of the frontline communities that are hit first and worst. Having worked within a federal agency, I knew there was a need to serve as a liaison between government policies, companies innovating in the climate space, and environmental advocates. Serving as the connector has been a theme of much of the work we get to do at Better World Group.

Q: What is your prediction for the year ahead?

A: As places like California, Oregon and Washington demonstrate environmental and racial equity leadership, other places will follow. Even as the threat of a recession looms, we know that climate challenges are not going away. I am hopeful that more agencies and groups that are committed to environmental stewardship realize that bringing diverse voices to the table will make their plans stronger and fairer. We will not survive climate change if any communities are left behind and equity-focused work is about making sure everyone’s needs are included and prioritized.