This open letter was written in July 2021 and is reproduced here. This was arguably my first step on the path to becoming the Dark Lord.
For years I have seen your awards. Every year they are announced and I see the promotion of the various winners: the articles in the paper, news coverage, and winners posting about it. I was even involved in contributing to the detailed information form of a nominee (who didn't end up winning) at one of my jobs. I thought that if I could win, it would help my career and generally increase awareness of the work that I am doing. As someone who is actively trying to take the next step in my career, an award like this would probably be very beneficial.
This year I was honoured to be nominated. I appreciate that someone thinks that the work that I have been doing is worthy of national recognition. So I enthusiastically engaged with you when you reached out to me to let me know I was nominated. Your organization asked for more information for the review to see if I would win the award. Delving into requirements for nominees and winners revealed some problematic things. Because of what I have seen, I have decided not to complete my nomination and send this letter instead.
The list of past winners is not very diverse, and very few of them are black (not surprisingly almost all of the past honourees pass the paper bag test). The problematic things I see are partially to blame, in my opinion, for the lack of diversity. I am writing this open letter to highlight these problematic things in the hope that you can reform your process and hopefully increase the diversity (specifically racial and socio-economic) of your winners.
Picture Requirements
Because I am a smart person, who can follow directions, the content of the picture I send will be 85% of my FACE, from my throat up, MATCHING those already on the Clean50 website.
The above is a quote from your application about the requirements for the picture that needs to be submitted with the application. There are further instructions about cutting off hair and other things to reach this requirement. Beyond the obvious condescending tone of the above statement, the requirements uphold a standard of whiteness, and erases other identities. Can't fit your hair or other things on your head into a picture that is 85% face? Cut them out. I am a black man with large hair and a large beard, both of which I wear intentionally and are key to my identity. Why should that be erased for the sake of uniformity? What about people who wear turbans, or headdresses, or just have large hair? The statement above clearly says you don't belong in this group. And if you want to step out of that requirement? Clearly you aren't a 'smart person'.
Summit Requirements
You are asked to commit at this point to being present at the Summit should you be named to the Clean50, and meetings of 125+ are again an option.
If they are not, if we cannot deliver a safe conference, we will postpone.
A negative response will not necessarily exclude you at this point - but a change at the last minute could result in the award offer being rescinded.
We note again, the importance of your being there to serve the core purpose behind the creation of the award. It's very hard to collaborate with people you've never met...
I can understand why attendance at the summit would be encouraged. Getting the winners to meet, get to know each other, and collaborate is immensely valuable to those that attend, but theoretically also valuable for furthering environmental action in Canada. What is problematic is how much emphasis is put on attending the summit, with no financial aid in attending. The quote above from the application clearly implies that not being able to attend is a strike against a nominee, and threatens the person even receiving the award if they have to pull out. And on top of all this you will not mail the award, it has to be picked up in Toronto. How is this equitable? It has been outlined in this study how little funding black-led organizations currently receive. As a public servant, if I didn't live in Toronto, my organization would never fund my travel. And as a parent with a mortgage, I could not justify flying across the country just to get an award. I have been a part of smaller organizations that have no fees, provided vast amounts of value and data, and could still fund participants to attend their conference/summit. How many people who are doing amazing work across Canada (and I know a bunch) who will never win your award because they don't have the resources to travel? And even if by chance they were to win without a commitment to attend, they would never receive your award in hand because you won't mail it to them. This shows your awards are not really about recognizing and celebrating impact, they are about recognizing privileged people who have access to money and resources and leveraging the same.
Labour Requirements
As stated above, collaboration among the winners has many benefits. But to win your award, a nominee has to commit to:
"...attend(ing) the Clean50 Summit (assuming COVID crisis is over) in Toronto for a full day (10-10) on FRIDAY October 1st 2022..."
"invest(ing) at least 6 hours beyond the Summit in advancing the work done by / collaboration with other members of the Clean50... Activities might range from posting advice on line, helping other honourees with their business problems, or continuing to engage with the Clean50 face to face going forward"
"preparing a 1,000 to 1,500 word article, to be submitted within 60 days of their being advised of their selection, that describes in detail some element of the reason for which they were honoured, or demonstrates thought / policy leadership - or provides useful advice to others."
I'm not a consultant, but in my case I would value all of that at about at least $5000 worth of value. How many other awards expect free labour in exchange for the award? None to my knowledge. And what does the nominee get in return? Exposure and promotion provided by Clean50? This is exploitative. Read any social media influencer's content to see why labour in exchange for exposure is exploitative, much has been written on the topic that need not be repeated here. And this is on top of the money that a winner would have to spend to actually get the award and promote the fact that they won. (more on that above and below)
Promotion Requirements
We previously asked about what the INDIVIDUAL considered their most impactful actions over the past 2 years. Please describe the ORGANIZATION's impact / environmental leadership over the past 2 years *
The nominee form asks many questions about the nominee's organization's work like the question outlined above. However if the nominee's organization wants to promote the fact that the nominee won, you make them pay to do so. The nominee is only permitted to promote the win on their personal social media, and has to sign a license to do so. Another set of exploitative practices. If a nominee wins because of work that organization is doing, the organization should also get credit for the win, and be able to promote that. Not that they should have to but there are many organizations, as mentioned above, that don't have the resources to pay fees, no matter how small. On these grounds small organizations having impacts on the ground are excluded by the very nature of the requirements. That is elitist and wrong.
Demands
As outlined above, much of the Clean50 application and award requirements are problematic, elitist, exclusionary, exploitative, and uphold white supremacy. I call on the Clean50 to do the following:
Change your picture requirements. Uniformity can be achieved without erasing peoples' identities. Or maybe just give up uniformity as central to the picture requirements,
Make summit attendance optional (at least for those who don't live in Toronto), or fund travel for all winners. In addition, mail awards to those who cannot attend,
Remove all labour requirements from winners. Stop exploiting them. I'm sure there are many winners that would gladly engage and support the Clean50 without it being a requirement to do so, and;
Remove all promotional/licensing fees for organizations that employ a winner. If you require their data to be submitted, then you should not be charging them to promote the recognition.
I hope that the organization will take action to remedy the situation, given the amazing work that those who may be excluded are doing. Everyone deserves a chance to be recognized.
I also call on all Clean50 Alumni to:
Contact the organization and ask for change, and;
Share this letter with other Clean50 alumni.
In 2021 we need to do better and strive for a more inclusive and equitable sector and just transition to a low-carbon resilient future. I hope you will join that effort.
