4 minute read
ALL INCLUDED
SLL Light Grafitti event in 2019: the SLL aims to include a diverse selection of gender, ethnicity and age when selecting speakers and chairs for panel discussions and events
SLL coordinator Juliet Rennie examines CIBSE, and the society's, policy on inclusivity and diversity
Advertisement
ithin its inclusivity
Wstatement, CIBSE identifies the role its members, affiliates and staff play in advancing the art of the possible. It highlights that an inclusive culture brings resilience, creativity and innovation. The statement lays out the institution's collective goal to ensure that the organisation, together with the building services engineering profession and community, are welcoming to all, for the benefit of all.
As a division of CIBSE, this goal is also central to the SLL’s development. In promoting the value of a quality lit environment, it is also working to ensure that the society and the wider lighting industry reflect this policy. The SLL has sought guidance and advice from the CIBSE inclusivity panel, to increase the diversity of its membership so that it can better support and represent the lighting industry and the public.
The inclusivity and diversity panel, comprising 10 volunteers from across the membership, including from the institution’s board and the executive, was set up in 2017 with a view to shaping the future of the institution and the building services profession for improved business performance. Its aim was to ‘advise and support the institution on all elements of diversity,’ recognising that some groups are underrepresented within the membership and in the profession as a whole.
Its key aims, which the SLL is pursuing,
involve looking inward and identifying where specific improvements relating ‘It is not to the society’s performance in enough to this respect say that the are required. This means a SLL is open to commitment to providing everyone with necessary an interest in training and support light, lighting to develop appropriate and its cultures, applications’ strategies and recruitment processes for all its committees. The first step in understanding and addressing the imbalance within its membership and committees is to identify what might be acting as a barrier to people joining or engaging with the society. It is not enough to say that the SLL is open to everyone with an interest in light, lighting and its applications. To best serve the wide range of disciplines that interact and are related to light and lighting, the SLL must offer active, tailored support through networking, the development of role models, and in providing educational opportunities. In 2019, the inclusivity panel conducted a survey to gain a better understanding of the views of those working and studying in the engineering and construction sector.
The survey looked at education, careers and company policies; membership and chartership, and career breaks and retention.
It identified that the top three ways that professional engineering institutions (PEIs) can help to improve diversity and inclusivity within the construction sector were as follows:
Promoting good practice in organisations Providing positive role models Providing mentoring schemes
The SLL recognises that its members represent a number of disciplines, not exclusive to engineering and construction. However, supported by recent online events, webinars and feedback received, these practices are highly valued by the lighting community. In sharing and celebrating the experiences of its members and those working within lighting and related disciplines, the SLL hopes to create an open forum for education, discussion and mentorship.
In August 2019, CIBSE published its Inclusivity Guidelines for members and staff. The document covers key areas for consideration, including the use of inclusive language and images; meetings and events, and recruitment and governance.
In June 2020, CIBSE sought to reach out to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) members of the building services community to seek suggestions on how to improve the institution and the sector. It acknowledged that it is at the beginning of a journey, with a goal of providing diverse and inclusive opportunities for people from BAME groups within the engineering and construction community.
While there is a long way to go, the SLL aims to include a diverse selection of gender, ethnicity and age when selecting speakers and chairs for panel discussions and events. Due to the spread of the coronavirus, the majority of the society’s events in 2020 were held online. Although this type of event does not provide the same networking opportunities as a faceto-face meeting, it has enabled the SLL to provide CPD content to an international audience. This is an ongoing learning process, but the response from SLL and CIBSE members, as well as the wider lighting and building services engineering community, has been extremely positive. The accessible nature of online events has meant that the society has been able to hold more events than it normally would each year. It has provided the opportunity to encourage new voices, including speakers who have not taken part in previous SLL events. The society has also found that the Q&A format, which generally follows a webinar presentation, acts to increase audience participation.
Going forward, the society is committed to identifying barriers within its own practice and that of the lighting community and, alongside CIBSE and the inclusivity panel, developing strategies to improve inclusivity and diversity.
If you have any feedback or if you would like to contribute to this process, please contact sll@cibse.org
Resources
Find out more about the CIBSE inclusivity and diversity panel:
www.cibse.org/inclusivity
See the results from the 2019 CIBSE inclusivity panel survey:
www.cibse.org/about-cibse/governance/committees/cibse-inclusivityand-diversity-panel/cibse-inclusivity-panel-survey-results
Inclusivity Guidelines for CIBSE members and staff:
www.cibse.org/getmedia/b33e0679-0f6c-4132-a47e-ff98c07c369e/ CIBSE-inclusivity-guidance-Aug2019-spreads.pdf.aspx
See a list of SLL past events and catch up on recordings:
www.cibse.org/society-of-light-and-lighting-sll/sll-events/past-presentations
CIBSE Journal – Call for Renewed Focus on Diversity:
www.cibsejournal.com/archive/PDFs/CIBSE-Journal-2020-04.pdf
CIBSE Journal – How CIBSE’s inclusivity panel aims to improve diversity:
www.cibsejournal.com/cibse-news/aims-of-the-cibse-inclusivity-panel/
CIBSE Journal – Flexible working key to retaining female engineers:
www.cibsejournal.com/news/flexible-working-key-to-retainingwomen-engineers/
CIBSE Journal – CIBSE’s inclusivity benchmarking:
www.cibsejournal.com/cibse-news/cibses-inclusivity-benchmarking/
IALD Impacts of Racism in the Lighting Industry:
