Equity, Diversity, + Inclusion

We are on a journey to become a fully inclusive, anti-racist, multicultural organization.

illustration of a family surrounded by climate, health, energy, learning icons

Slipstream spearheads equity in climate solutions. Our mission is to cultivate belonging, center equity in our systems and solutions, inspire, and hold Slipstream accountable for inclusion and equity. Our purpose is to accelerate Slipstream's progress towards equity in everything we do.

We believe change-making power comes from a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace. We create space for our colleagues to question, learn, and grow with guidance and support on their journey.

Our work promotes employee safety, value, respect, empowerment, and open-mindedness. Our activities support awareness around ethnicity, race, gender identity/expression, class, age, sexual orientation, and national origin.

To sustain our mission of climate solutions for everyone, we commit to:

diversify our staff
fight for energy justice in historically underinvested communities
partner with environmental justice communities to advance energy equity

Behind the scenes: The building blocks of an inclusive workplace

Slipstream commits to unlearn our biases, learn from the voices of communities that have been historically marginalized, and uplift their voices in our work.

Step Up: Equity Matters Training

Step Up helps us recognize, own, and disrupt our beliefs. All employees participate in their training sessions. Leadership and our EDI team members take a deeper dive to help support fellow Slipstreamers on their journeys.

Lunch and Learns

Members of our EDI team and invited guest speakers host learning events that educate and promote conversation on relevant topics.

Recent Lunch and Learns include:

“Heated: Race, Climate, and a History of Conflicting Ideologies” with Dr. Kimberly Brown-Pellum (she/her) and Dr. Arlisha Norwood (she/her): This lunch and learn focused on the intersection of race and climate and detailed how race shaped climate relations throughout history and today.

“Pronoun 101 Workshop” with T.S. Banks (he/they): This workshop covered several questions around pronouns and provided practice with appropriate use. T built a seminar around definitions/terminology, skits based in Theater of the Oppressed,and discussion with other workshop members.

“National Native American Heritage Month—Cultural Appropriation Awareness”with Slipstream’s Lyra Trap (she/her): This lunch and learn provided a brief overview of the colonization of Indigenous land and the continued harmful practice of cultural appropriation of Indigenous culture.

Reading Groups

The EDI team takes book recommendations from members of the team, Step Up, or our Lunch and Learn guests. All members of staff are invited to participate alongside EDI team members We read chapters of the book and meet to discuss chapters on a regular basis. Our current reading group is taking up Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor and the accompanying journal over eight weeks.

Commitment from Leadership

Our leadership team worked with EDI and Human Resources to build nine core competencies tied to an inclusive leadership model. Leadership works toward these goal in targeted executive coaching sessions that help enhance those competencies and improve organizational culture based on our values.
The leaders of our EDI team, Dannee Livingston-DeTienne (they/them), and Kayla Edwards (she/her) recently completed the program “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as a Leadership Value” through the Wisconsin School of Business.

A Better Environment Starts at Work

We began our EDI journey in 2019. As a mostly white organization, we saw a problem with our workplace diversity and our mission: to advance climate solutions for all, all people should be represented in our workforce. We first questioned our whiteness and the related systemic inequity it produces. The EDI team collaborates with Human Resources to establish:

Equal pay and pay transparency
Equity in benefits
Inclusive policies and procedures, like changes to our PTO policy
Equitable promotion and hiring practices that center questions anti-racism and equity
Processes to eliminate assimilation from onboarding practices
A more inclusive handbook that intentionally removes language rooted in power

Inclusive Meeting Facilitation Guide

Our EDI team worked with Step Up to build a comprehensive guide to help make sure all meeting participants are included and can communicate safely. The framework provides support in calling in and calling out, creating safe communication spaces, and speaking for ourselves, not the group. The guide helps hosts plan good meetings and participants to better engage.

Commitment to Progress

We are nowhere near the end of our journey. To accelerate climate solutions for all, we must learn from all people. We will continue to hold ourselves accountable. We will document our growth and obstacles and admit what we don’t know. We commit to being transparent about what we have learned, the steps we have taken so far, and what we are still doing.