Climate Justice & JEDI

Our climate justice mission and our efforts for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion within our company are two sides of one coin:

  • When we talk about climate justice, we are taking about the impact we wish to have on the world through the work we do as a company.

  • When we talk about JEDI, we’re talking about how we do our work day to day as an organization to create safety for employees of all backgrounds so that we can deliver on our mission

Climate Justice

Our public benefit mission specifically includes climate justice, which we define as:

the principle that actions to mitigate or adapt to climate change should equitably distribute their benefits, remedy existing inequities, and dismantle institutional racism and other forms of systemic injustice

This definition was conceived by and for US-based professionals in the built environment space (by Bomee, Rory Christian, Satpal Kaur, and Tamara Jones) for a workshop during the 2021 PhiusCon, a national conference for architects, engineers, and builders.

Let’s unpack it a bit – there’s a lot of implied context in a few words. This definition acknowledges:

  1. That climate action is not neutral, but will have distributive consequences, as with any economic activity. Costs and benefits affect people up and down the socioeconomic ladder differently.

  2. Pre-existing inequities. Resources (material as well as intangible) are already inequitably distributed. We’re not starting with a level playing field, so to arrive at equitable solutions, the effects of historic inequities have to be overcome.

  3. That injustices are created and maintained systemically through laws, customs, and institutions. Today’s social and economic systems were designed to yield inequitable results (e.g. redlining), so actions that seek equity must also be intentional in design.

  4. That in the US, Institutional racism is a foundational driver of injustice, though far from the only one.

JEDI

Making space to discuss Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion gives us the language and the opportunity to thoughtfully craft how we express and respond to social power dynamics within our work relationships.

Justice

Justice refers to a vision for social change to redress histories of violence, trauma, and the marginalization of people through weaponization of difference, and to reform the socioeconomic systems that perpetuate such marginalization.

When we talk about justice in JEDI, we are talking about systems change. We recognize that institutions, social norms, and public policies embody and perpetuate the discriminatory intent of those who created them. In speaking about justice, we engage in a discussion about society rather than personal bias.

Diversity

Diversity refers to all aspects of human difference and social identity—including but not limited to race, ethnicity, nationality, national origin, gender identity, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, political beliefs, language, religion, age, (dis)ability, veteran status, and neurological difference.

In speaking about diversity, we acknowledge that individual differences have historically been used to create and justify disparities in social and economic outcomes and opportunities. Because of this, in the United States, these differences are encapsulated in the protected classes: race, gender and gender identity, ethnicity, nationality, national origin, physical and mental abilities, and sexual orientation.

Diversity is inherently relational: it refers to the relative differences in any given group. Individuals cannot be not diverse on their own; but collectively organizations are. Referring to a person as a “diverse” (as an alternative to “minority”) continues the tradition of framing a dominant group (historically male, cis-gender, heterosexual, of Western European descent, and Christian) as the the default and accepted norm and those of all other identities as deviating from the norm.

Equity

Equity refers to fair and just practices that ensure that employees and customers can thrive as individuals.

Equity is distinct from equality. Equality means treating everyone as if their experiences are the same. Equity means designing systems, processes, and norms that focus on individual needs—(asking people what t-shirt size they need first, and accommodating people who can’t wear one). In particular, people from marginalized groups often have more barriers to overcome when accessing the same resources and doing the same activities.

Because diverse workplaces have people who need support in different ways, we define equity as acknowledging and supporting individual experiences and needs to create a level playing field of access and opportunities.

Inclusion

Inclusion refers to an organizational commitment to create a sense of psychological safety so members of our community (employees, customers, and partners) feel free to bring their ideas to the table, participate equally, and express dissent.

It is possible to have diversity without inclusion—it’s the difference between being invited to the party and being asked to dance. Inclusion means creating an environment where everyone is valued, as their full selves.

We define inclusion as creating a space where everyone feels like their perspective, words, and lived experience matters, so that they can fully integrate into our company’s mission.