From David LaFrance, CEO, AWWA: In this closing edition of Last Drop Takeovers, Aidan Cecchetti, a field engineer with California's State Water Resources Control Board, and Jihyon Im, a principal environmental engineer specializing in drinking water treatment at CDM Smith, join forces. These young professionals champion collaboration and diversity, equity, and inclusion as they discuss the vital role these values play in realizing the goals of Water 2050.

AWWA's five Water 2050 think tanks, held in 2022 and 2023, resulted in a set of recommended actions that were organized into guiding themes. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) surfaced in multiple places: one theme was focused on actions related to “Equity, Affordability & Access,” while a theme on “Community Engagement & Empowerment” included DEI-related recommendations such as “Build a water sector workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities it serves . . .” The appearance of DEI-related recommendations in Water 2050 themes underlines the recommendations’ importance to achieving the desired future of our water. And this is something that certainly resonates with young professionals (YPs).

As described in a Feb. 18, 2021, Washington Post article on DEI in the workplace, YPs prioritize DEI more than past generations, often putting it front and center when looking for jobs. This is partly due to their demographics: YPs are more racially and ethnically diverse than prior generations, say Parker and Igielnik in their 2020 Pew Research report, On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future. This has led some to suggest that the diversity of YPs and their commitment to DEI foreshadow an inevitable shift toward a more diverse and inclusive industry.

Yet the demographics of the water sector too often still do not reflect the communities we serve, threatening our goals for Water 2050. According to Zippia.com, approximately 90% of water and wastewater operators were men, and more than 70% were white in 2021, with 70% of environmental engineers being male and 70% being white. These demographics have barely changed since 2010, even though, according to a report by Kane and Tomer for The Brookings Institution in June 2018, millennials and Gen Z now constitute a majority of the water sector workforce.

Various factors may explain why we haven’t seen more movement in water sector workforce demographics. Low diversity can create feedback loops that reduce the effectiveness of workforce DEI initiatives. Biases in hiring, like homophily (i.e., preferences for those who are like us), can reinforce workforce homogeneity (see Razack et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.12547). Slow workforce turnover can limit opportunities to increase diversity through hiring (see O’Brien et al., https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133208). Additionally, perceived or real lack of inclusion can prevent progress: employees simply do not want to work in places where they feel like an outsider.

The belief that YPs joining the industry will invariably make it more diverse and inclusive may breed complacency—why work to make changes if just hiring YPs will solve the problem? Research has shown that progress is not assured unless we confront our own biases and make systemic changes. With inaction, we risk losing YPs to industries that have implemented and sustained more inclusive environments for a diverse workforce.

Accomplishing the Water 2050 recommendations requires the water industry to take a proactive and all-encompassing approach to DEI. Relying only on YPs to achieve DEI in the workplace is not an effective long-term strategy because YPs traditionally have little power to enact organizational changes. We need to pair bottom-up support from YPs with top-down buy-in and action from the established industry leaders that wield power to change structures and policies. Leaders should partner with YPs to ensure that our ideas and concerns for Water 2050 get heard. This could be achieved by including more YPs in decision-making processes and by giving YPs a greater voice in organizational and industry leadership. By working together, we can harness the power and experience of industry leaders and the enthusiasm and perspectives of YPs to achieve a diverse, inclusive, and equitable Water 2050.

来自 AWWA 首席执行官 David LaFrance：在《Last Drop Takeovers》的最后一期中，加利福尼亚州水资源控制委员会的现场工程师 Aidan Cecchetti 和 CDM Smith 专门从事饮用水处理的首席环境工程师 Jihyon Im 联手。这些年轻的专业人​​士在讨论这些价值观在实现 Water 2050 目标中所发挥的重要作用时，拥护协作、多样性、公平和包容性。

AWWA 于 2022 年和 2023 年举行的五次“水 2050”智囊团会议提出了一系列建议行动，这些行动被组织成指导主题。多样性、公平性和包容性 (DEI) 在多个地方出现：一个主题侧重于与“公平、可负担性和可及性”相关的行动，而“社区参与和赋权”主题则包括与 DEI 相关的建议，例如“建立一个反映其所服务社区多样性的水务部门劳动力。。”。《水 2050》主题中出现的 DEI 相关建议强调了这些建议对于实现水的理想未来的重要性。这肯定会引起年轻专业人士 (YP) 的共鸣。

正如 2021 年 2 月 18 日《华盛顿邮报》关于工作场所 DEI 的文章所述，YP 比前几代人更重视 DEI，在寻找工作时经常将其放在首位和中心位置。这在一定程度上是由于他们的人口统计数据：帕克和伊吉尔尼克在 2020 年皮尤研究报告《即将成年并面临不确定的未来》中表示，YP 比前几代人在种族和民族上更加多样化。这导致一些人认为 YP 的多样性及其对 DEI 的承诺预示着行业将不可避免地转向更加多元化和包容性。

然而，水务部门的人口统计数据往往仍然无法反映我们所服务的社区，这威胁到了我们的“水 2050”目标。根据 Zippia.com 的数据，大约 90% 的水和废水处理操作员是男性，超过 70% 是白人到 2021 年，70% 的环境工程师是男性，70% 是白人。自 2010 年以来，这些人口统计数据几乎没有变化，尽管根据布鲁金斯学会凯恩和托默 2018 年 6 月的一份报告，千禧一代和 Z 世代现在构成了水务行业劳动力的大多数。

多种因素可以解释为什么我们没有看到水务部门劳动力人口统计发生更多变化。低多样性会产生反馈循环，从而降低劳动力 DEI 计划的有效性。招聘中的偏见，如同质性（即偏好与我们相似的人），可以强化劳动力的同质性（参见 Razack 等人，https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.12547）。劳动力流动缓慢可能会限制通过招聘增加多样性的机会（参见 O'Brien 等人，https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133208）。此外，感知或实际缺乏包容性可能会阻碍进步：员工根本不想在他们感觉自己像局外人的地方工作。

相信 YP 加入该行业必然会使其更加多元化和包容，这可能会滋生自满情绪——如果仅仅雇用 YP 就能解决问题，为什么还要努力做出改变呢？研究表明，除非我们正视自己的偏见并做出系统性改变，否则进步是无法保证的。如果不采取行动，我们可能会失去 YP，而这些行业已经为多元化的劳动力实施并维持了更具包容性的环境。

要实现 Water 2050 建议，水务行业需要采取积极主动、全面的 DEI 方法。仅依靠 YP 在工作场所实现 DEI 并不是一个有效的长期战略，因为 YP 传统上几乎没有权力实施组织变革。我们需要将 YP 自下而上的支持与自上而下的支持以及拥有权力改变结构和政策的成熟行业领导者的行动结合起来。领导者应与 YP 合作，确保我们对 Water 2050 的想法和担忧得到倾听。这可以通过让更多的 YP 参与决策过程并在组织和行业领导力方面给予 YP 更大的发言权来实现。通过共同努力，我们可以利用行业领导者的力量和经验以及 YP 的热情和观点，实现多元化、包容性和公平的水 2050。