Sustainability Champions: Supporting learning and development

October is Global DEI Awareness Month, a time to reflect on our values, celebrate our differences and commit to building a more inclusive workplace. This month also marks Learning Week 2026, a dedicated time for professional growth, cross-cultural understanding and community building.

Global DEI Awareness Month: Actions that matter

Challenge bias
Explore tools and trainings that help uncover unconscious bias and promote inclusive behaviors:

• Take the Harvard Implicit Association Test to check for unconscious bias and learn how to address it.
• Read ASAE’s “Is Bias Affecting How You Lead?” to learn ways to check your own unconscious biases when they arise.
• Watch the “Are you biased?” TEDxPCL video by Sam Andrews to explore different types of bias such as conformity and confirmation biases.

Support equitable access
Advocate for accessibility in meetings, documents and digital platforms:

• Accessible Events Guide for Organizers by the Disability Policy Consortium
• How to make online events accessible from UserWay

Monthly challenge!
As Sam Andrews shared in his TEDx Talk, it is everyone’s personal responsibility to address their own unconscious biases. Engage in moments of reflection when your brain wants to make a snap judgement:

• Practice with a word association (dog vs. shark).
• Watch a movie or TV show that is from a different country (and maybe in a different language!), take note of your reactions to cultural differences, then research the realities of your assumptions and see if they match up.
• Keep a list of snap judgements that you make over a day or week, then research to see if there is any validity to the biases.