June 5, 2020
Given the events unfolding around the country – and around the world – in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, the Center for Sustainable Business recognizes the importance of making a public commitment to racial justice.
The recent killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery reflect centuries of individual, institutional, and structural racism in this country. We condemn the ongoing acts of police brutality against Black people and those standing in solidarity with them.
A key step in combatting racism is to admit our own complicity in failing to center Black voices in our programming. Sustainability in corporate and higher education settings severely lacks Black representation, despite the fact that many of the issues we seek to address disproportionately affect Black communities. We acknowledge that we must do more to be anti-racist in our spheres of influence by centering and amplifying Black voices.
This is a time for action. To combat explicit and implicit racial bias and align our actions with our values going forward, the CSB is committed to investing in the resources needed to help us educate ourselves and our partners. We will ensure that future events hosted or sponsored by the CSB will elevate Black people in our field, and we will work to practice anti-racism in our three programmatic areas of knowledge creation, teaching, and training, and thought leadership. We recognize that we can do better and will continue to take actions that support racial justice in our work.