Progress Towards Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals in 2025

In early 2020, Upstate Forever published our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement. This statement laid out the steps our board, leadership, and staff would take in the years to come to ensure that Upstate Forever’s work to protect our region’s critical lands, waters, and unique character represented and served the full breadth of the Upstate community.  

Below is a report on the work accomplished during 2025 in pursuit of the goals outlined in our DEI statement.  

If you'd like to see progress from past years, take a look at our 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 progress reports.

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion

Upstate Forever’s mission is to protect critical lands, waters, and the unique character of the Upstate region. We envision a future that is healthy, vibrant, and prosperous. To realize that vision, we know it is vitally important and essential to our core values that we engage the diverse community we serve. 

1. To develop and advance long-lasting, equitable solutions for balanced growth and natural resource protection, our leadership is committed to working intentionally to engage a broader base of Upstate residents in the coming years. 

Efforts toward this goal include, but are not limited to: 

• The Land Conservation team began work on an amendment to the Soapstone Baptist Church conservation easement, which will add additional land to the approximately six-acre property, originally protected in 2022. The Soapstone Baptist Church is a small but culturally and historically important church in Pickens County and the center of Liberia, a small African American community still living on land obtained after the Civil War with over five generations of families still present. The church is situated at the crest of a hill with spectacular views of Table Rock and the Blue Ridge Escarpment. The team also continued supporting efforts led by Chief Lamar Nelson of the Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois & United Tribes of South Carolina to secure tribal land in the areas of Oconee or Pickens Counties, as well as efforts led by Chief Sharpe and Dogwood Alliance to add acreage to the Piedmont American Indian Association Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation's land holdings in Laurens County.  
   
• The Land Management team continued seeking opportunities to engage with a more diverse group of restoration professionals, including work with a Certified Minority Owned Business on a restoration project in Oconee County. 
   
• The Energy and State Policy Team intervened in dockets at the Public Service Commission (PSC) to advocate for expanded access to clean energy programs for low-income customers by reducing participation barriers. The team also worked closely with conservation partners to host a series of community listening sessions related to Duke Energy’s proposed natural gas plant in Anderson County before formally intervening in the related PSC docket to advocate for meaningful safeguards, such as strengthened air emissions controls, to protect community residents living near the proposed plant.  Finally, staff participated in the SC Energy Justice Coalition’s “The People’s Docket,” an event which brought together community members and conservation leaders to discuss pressing issues in the state’s energy landscape and ways people can help ensure accountability at the state and local level. 
   
• The Land Planning & Policy team continued to work to address disparities in program engagement and to track demographics of event participants where possible. In addition to UF’s annual Citizens Planning Academy, the team hosted several successful advocacy events in 2025, including: Persuading Through Storytelling (1/9/2025); Asset Mapping in District 25 (4/10/25); A Look into Advocacy (4/22/25); and Stewardship of the Land: A Faith-Based Advocacy Event (8/23/25). The team also partnered to advocate for the adoption of minimum 50' riparian buffers in Anderson County, which will reduce the likelihood of catastrophic flooding, which so often disproportionately impacts low-income and underserved communities with degraded stormwater infrastructure.  
   
• Finally, the Clean Water team supported community-led efforts to advocate for a full cleanup of the long-contaminated Bramlett site adjacent to the Newtown Community in downtown Greenville, submitted a grant proposal to identify and address sources of emerging contaminants in small & disadvantaged communities, and continued to provide cost-share assistance to low-income homeowners for septic repairs in 319 grant areas.  

2. We will build staff knowledge and capacity related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will frequently ask ourselves — who is impacted by this work, and how is their voice represented in the conservation and advocacy solutions we seek? We will amplify the stories of underrepresented stakeholders in the conservation movement — especially people of color. 

Efforts toward this goal include, but are not limited to: 

• We continued efforts to strengthen a sense of inclusion and belonging among staff. At our annual staff retreat in March, we delved deeper into how staff think about this topic through a live survey and group discussions. Throughout 2025, we incorporated team-building activities into staff meetings, which has been helpful as we’ve grown our team, welcomed many new staff, and continue to work in a hybrid environment.
   
• We launched a DEI Book Club that provides the opportunity for staff to learn about and discuss a variety of issues related to diversity and inclusion. The book club occurs quarterly and has been well received by staff.
   
• Our Communications team continued to amplify the voices of non-White conservation leaders throughout the year by promoting Soapstone Preservation Endowment and a Lunch & Learn event with Mable Owens Clarke for Black History Month in our digital newsletter and featuring a Q&A with Greenville’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, Glenis Redmond, in UF’s Spring/Summer Upstate Advocate. Across all UF channels, we highlighted the work of staff who are integrating an intentional DEI focus into their work.  

3. Finally, we will take deliberate steps to build authentic community partnerships and cultivate new leaders at all levels of our organization — from our membership to our staff to our board — to ensure that we better represent the community we serve. 

Efforts toward this goal include, but are not limited to: 

• In an effort to build a board that better represents the community we serve, the Board Nominating and Governance Committee continues actively seeking recommendations for community members well-suited for board service who would also expand board diversity. At the close of 2025, the UF Board was composed of 72% men, 28% women, and 17% non-White. In 2026, we will continue exploring ways to expand the diversity of our candidate pool for open positions. 

This work is ongoing and we want to listen and learn from members of the Upstate community. Please contact lhallo@upstateforever.org with questions and comments.