Photo Credit: Roberta Franchuk
Last month marked the five-year anniversary of the Equal by 30 campaign, an initiative led by Natural Resources Canada under the international Clean Energy Ministerial. The campaign asks public and private sector organizations to make a public commitment to work towards equal pay, equal leadership, and equal opportunities for women in the energy sector by 2030.
There is an urgent need for equity in this sector, where the number of women working in the traditional energy industry remains low—in electricity, for example, only a quarter of workers are women—and early indications show that this negative trend is continuing in renewable energy industries.
Within these sectors, not only are women and gender diverse people underrepresented but they often occupy lower-paid jobs, increasing the gender pay gap, and contributing to six per cent of the overall gender pay gap in Canada. This needs to be addressed.
Our commitments
The Pembina Institute, a proud signatory of the campaign, is committed to promoting gender equality within all parts of the energy sector.
As part of our external work, we firmly believe in advocating for policies that support women and gender-diverse individuals to ensure they benefit equitably from the transition to a clean energy economy. When we signed on to Equal by 30, we knew we had our own work to do to achieve equity within our own organization.
- We have established a first set of commitments that guide our efforts. We will aim for equal representation of women at all levels of the Pembina Institute and report on these results annually.
- We strive to prevent discrimination in recruitment practices by considering non-traditional career trajectories and non-standard work experiences during hiring decisions. We also strive for gender representation on every hiring committee to promote diverse perspectives.
Equal pay
An essential aspect of our commitment to Equal by 30 is addressing pay equity. To ensure transparency and accountability, we make our pay bands accessible within the organization and conduct an annual gender-based analysis of pay for Pembina staff. Our analysis includes detailed breakdowns of pay levels for all staff, director-level positions and other roles.
As an organization with a small staff, we understand that achieving complete parity requires ongoing monitoring, and continuous learning and improvement of our culture and policies. While we celebrate our progress thus far, we recognize that these commitments are only the beginning.
We’ll be working to identify new opportunities to improve equity and set an example of what an equitable and inclusive clean energy future can look like, while actively seeking to facilitate the exchange of best practices and knowledge-sharing with our peers, clients and supporters.
By working together, we can create a more inclusive future for all.
Learn more about our commitments to equity, diversity, intersectionality and reconciliation.
Chris Severson-Baker is the Pembina Institute's executive director.
