Sustainable EDI: Beyond Burnout and Towards Real Change

Equity, Divserity and Inclsuion (EDI) work is essential—but let’s be honest, it’s also exhausting. Too often, it’s treated as a passion project rather than a structural priority, leaving those doing the work overburdened, under-supported, and burnt out.

Aaron Saint-James is a UNSW Business School Project Manager and UNSW Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences Project Officer (Neurodiversity Consultant).

Aaron is a champion of Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Neurodiversity, and Neuro-Inclusive Practices, and believes in the mantra, “There’s no such thing as failure, only feedback,” which has been a guiding principle throughout his journey.

Aaron is passionate about raising awareness, fostering acceptance, and advocating for neurodiversity. Currently, he is pursuing an Bachelor of Advanced Science, majoring in Molecular Biology at UNSW. Aaron's work with the UNSW cross faculty Diversified Project team is focused on ensuring that UNSW’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity (EDI) 2025 goals are met.

"We strive to guarantee that all students, irrespective of their backgrounds or beliefs, have their accessibility requirements addressed."

In February 2025, Aaron publsihed his LinkedIn article "DEI Burnout is Real—Here’s How We Fix It!". This article has been republished below with permission. 
 

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) work is often seen as a passion project — a moral imperative driven by committed individuals. But here’s the hard truth: passion alone isn’t enough to sustain long-term change.

Bree Gorman’s insights on EDI burnout and sustainability resonate deeply, but as someone working within higher education and organisational change, I see additional structural gaps that keep EDI work fragile and unsustainable. Whether in universities, corporations, or nonprofits, the reality is the same: when EDI is treated as an initiative rather than an integrated strategy, it’s doomed to fail.

So, what’s missing from the conversation? And what else needs to happen to ensure EDI isn’t just a fleeting trend, but a lasting transformation?

1️⃣ EDI Can’t Be a Side Hustle—It Needs Infrastructure

One of the biggest contributors to burnout in EDI work is that it’s often treated as an “add-on” responsibility—not a core part of an organisation’s structure.

🚩 In universities, EDI is often delegated to a handful of academics or professional staff without funding, formal roles, or decision-making power.

🚩 In corporate spaces, EDI is assigned to committees of volunteers who already have full-time jobs, leaving them to fight for scraps of time and resources.

📌 The Fix?

✅ EDI should have dedicated, funded roles with leadership accountability.

UNSW is one such university who has not only faculty embeded EDI project officers but also has an entire division devoted to Societal Impact, Equity, and Engagement.

✅ KPIs should include equity goals, not just profit or student satisfaction metrics.

✅ EDI teams need access to decision-making power—not just advisory roles with no enforcement capability.

If an organisation claims to care about equity but hasn’t embedded EDI into its governance structures, it’s just performative lip service.

2️⃣ The “One Champion” Problem: EDI Needs Collective Ownership

Too often, EDI work falls on one or two key individuals—usually people who are already marginalised themselves. The organisation then relies on them to advocate, educate, and push initiatives forward. But what happens when they leave?

🚩 Universities have a churn problem—staff leading EDI efforts burn out or leave because the work is unsupported.

🚩 Corporations recycle the same cycle—a passionate leader joins, makes progress, then burns out or moves on, leaving EDI to fall apart.

📌 The Fix?

✅ Institutional memory matters. Organisations need processes, documentation, and transition plans so EDI progress doesn’t disappear when staff turnover happens.

✅ Make EDI everyone’s responsibility. This means embedding equity into leadership training, HR policies, and performance reviews—not just running one-off workshops.

✅ Create EDI champions across departments. Instead of centralising the work on one person, build distributed leadership across teams.

EDI shouldn’t be dependent on individual heroes. It needs to be a systemic effort woven into the DNA of an organisation.

3️⃣ Metrics Matter—But Not the Vanity Ones

There’s a dangerous trend in EDI where progress is measured by optics, not outcomes.

🚩 In higher education, this looks like universities celebrating the diversity of their student body, while failing to address retention rates, accessibility barriers, and staff inequities.

🚩 In corporate settings, it looks like diversity hiring goals being met, but toxic cultures driving diverse employees out within a year.

📌 The Fix?

✅ Move beyond representation metrics. Representation is a starting point, not the goal. Measure pay gaps, promotion rates, retention, and lived experiences.

✅ Ask harder questions. Not just “Do we have diverse staff?” but “Are they staying? Are they thriving? Do they feel valued?”

✅ Tie EDI to leadership accountability. If an organisation is failing to retain women, disabled employees, or racial minorities, executives should be responsible for addressing that—not just the EDI team.

If we only track who is in the room but not who has power, who is heard, and who succeeds, we’re missing the point.

4️⃣ EDI as a Living Practice, Not a Static Policy

A big mistake organisations make is treating EDI as a checklist item rather than an evolving practice.

🚩 The common cycle? A policy is drafted, a few workshops are held, and then… nothing changes.

🚩 Why? Because policies don’t change culture—daily behaviours and accountability do.

📌 The Fix?

✅ EDI policies should be regularly reviewed and updated, just like financial or operational strategies.

✅ Create feedback loops. Employees and students should have a safe way to report barriers—and leadership should be obligated to act on them.

✅ Shift from performative EDI to embedded EDI . Instead of reacting to external pressure, organisations should be proactively building equity into every decision they make.

EDI isn’t a one-and-done initiative—it’s an ongoing commitment to cultural and structural change.

Final Thoughts: EDI Needs to Be Built for the Long Haul

Burnout in EDI work isn’t just an individual issue—it’s a structural failure of how organisations approach equity.

💡 If EDI isn’t integrated into governance, accountability, and everyday decision-making, it will always feel like an uphill battle.

So, let’s move beyond passion projects and towards real transformation. That means:

✅ Funded EDI roles and infrastructure.

✅ Collective responsibility, not lone champions.

✅ Meaningful metrics beyond surface-level diversity.

✅ A long-term, evolving approach to equity.

📣 What do you think? What barriers have you seen to sustainable EDI, and what solutions have worked in your experience?

Let’s keep this conversation going. Because if we want EDI to last, we need to build it right.