Embedding a gender lens into climate innovation
In a world of diverse needs and perspectives, women bring distinctive leadership qualities, social change capabilities and entrepreneurial skills that are essential to innovation. EIT Climate-KIC sees investing in women entrepreneurship as an opportunity to accelerate an inclusive, green transition.
We have a range of programmes to help our partners identify gaps in their understanding of gender inequity and to support them in implementing concrete actions to mainstream gender into their everyday work. By gender mainstreaming, we mean the integration of gender considerations into all aspects of an organisation’s operations, policies, programmes, and practices.
Gender-smart handbook for climate entrepreneurs
In collaboration with Bopinc, the WeClim Equally – gender-smart handbook for climate entrepreneurs is designed to drive gender equality in the climate sector and to support climate start-ups in making their businesses more inclusive.
It is an easy-to-use guide and features practical exercises and possible interventions across four critical areas. We believe that by addressing these areas, start-ups can not only promote gender equality but also drive innovation and business success across the climate innovation sector.
How gender-smart are you? Take the quiz!
Inequality in climate innovation continues, with men dominating the sector, both in the number of climate start-ups founded by men and the amount of funding given to men-founded companies versus those founded by women.
We have designed a quiz to test your knowledge and understanding of gender inequity.
Take the quiz here.
How to address gender inequity in your organisation
Imagine a group of entrepreneurs who not only generate more revenue, are more financially sustainable and also care more about the planet? Would it surprise you to learn that this same group of entrepreneurs receives no more than 5 per cent of venture capital (VC) funding globally every year? Investing in women doesn’t only make sense financially, it is also beneficial for our planet. So why not take action today to make it happen? We’ve compiled a list of five steps to address gender inequity in climate entrepreneurship.
Download the action list below.
- Reflect internally
- Show them the money
- Updating communications and marketing materials
- Robust data collection
- Bringing in men as allies
5 actions you can take
Handbook for Entrepreneurship Support Organisations
The climate crisis impacts women more severely and yet innovation on climate change solutions remains dominated by men. To see meaningful and sustainable solutions emerge that work for everyone, we need to be supporting more women and other gender minority climate entrepreneurs to bring their innovative ideas on climate mitigation and adaptation to life.
Organisations that support entrepreneurs can use our WeClim Equally handbook to conduct a review of their internal policies and take steps to ensure women and gender minorities are equally represented in their programmes, communications, hiring and policies.