Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) at ZERO
The ZERO Coalition is committed to an equity-centered approach to decarbonizing buildings and diversifying the green building workforce in Oregon. We work to ensure that the market conditions and regulatory frameworks are in place to advance sustainability in the built environment in a way that prioritizes people of color and historically marginalized people in a just transition to a carbon-free building sector and all the job opportunities that it provides.
Showing Up for Justice in the Built Environment.
At ZERO we acknowledge the long history of racial discrimination, displacement, and violence against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) in Oregon. This history lives on through a legacy of oppression—our normalized culture of white privilege.
We are working to grow our understanding of an experience many of us have not lived ourselves. We seek to build authentic relationships with BIPOC leaders representing communities of color, culturally-specific communities, and organizations working toward a more just future. We are learning how to be allies that show up in support of diverse voices, how to live as anti-racists, and how to focus our work to center racial equity. We challenge our peers and colleagues to prioritize racial justice, environmental justice, and climate justice education for their employees as well.
Through this work, we strive to amplify the voices of frontline communities who are disproportionately affected by the climate catastrophe as a whole and individually by lesser access to healthy air quality and exposure to toxins by being displaced to more industrial areas through gentrification.
Here are some organizations in Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and nationally to research and support. Do you know of some other organizations we should add to this list? Contact us!
A Call to Community, ATNI Statement Video on Climate Change & Climate Impact
“Tribal Nations are at the front lines of the climate crisis responding to sea-level rise, coastal erosion, ocean acidification, increased frequency and intensity of wildfires, extended drought, and altered seasonal duration. These weather events have dramatic impacts on traditional cultural and subsistence practices and sacred places, tribal fisheries, timber harvesting, and agricultural operations, eco-tourism, and infrastructure. ”
Too often BIPOC, low-income, and rural communities are struggling with a high energy burden, the impacts of the housing crisis and climate crisis already at their doorsteps. ZERO works to take on the challenges that the different sectors of the sustainable building industry face when trying to make an impactful change by building equitably and sustainably.
We must continually prioritize listening to BIPOC leaders and supporting policy goals developed by communities that are based on lived experience. We must allow space for others to lead, as has been done by the Building Community / Shifting Power, (Build/Shift) Collective in the Portland area. Thanks to their leadership, the City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (a ZERO member) is considering climate and health performance standards for buildings. If it were not for Build/Shift, the city would only be considering commercial buildings 20,000 square feet and larger based on quantitative data - only 1.8% of buildings in Portland use approximately 50% of total building energy use in the city. But thanks to the hard work of the Build/Shift Collaborative and the incorporation of the qualitative lived experience to inform policy, the city is also considering multifamily tenant standards that address health, affordability, indoor air quality, and temperature while ensuring anti-displacement.
Where to start?
The ZERO Coalition formed a JEDI Team that advises all of our committees about how to prioritize equity in our work. Together we strive to address systemic racism and cultural oppression in our industries.
ZERO is working to:
Develop and advocate for new policies that prioritize the needs of Oregon’s most vulnerable communities
Educate our industry on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to prevent further harm to frontline communities
Encourage our members and network to set an example by taking action to change their workplaces to center equity and be more inclusive
Provide our expertise to organizations that are working on climate and environmental justice issues
Remove barriers to participation in our industry by promoting workforce development initiatives
We hope that you will join us at the ZERO Coalition on this un/learning journey to learn how to live anti-racist lives and show up as allies for BIPOC-led initiatives, organizations, and communities. Change begins at the individual level before it can progress to an organizational and then structural level. Start by researching how climate disruption and disasters impact the health of BIPOC and low-income communities first and worst. Learn about the organizations that are BIPOC-led, community-led, and culturally-specific organization-led that have been doing environmental justice and climate justice work for decades. Find out what they are doing and if there are ways you can support their work. Understand your biases and learn how to be an ally. Advocate for JEDI and anti-bias training at your workplace.
Education, Training, and Resources
ZERO offers quality training opportunities to the sustainable building industry which has historically overlooked or actively prevented underrepresented communities from decision-making processes, so we seek to elevate voices in our community that encourage decision-making with an equitable lens. For the past few years, we’ve offered Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in the Sustainable Building Industry training during Sustainable Building Week, which is held in October each year. Hosting this training gives us an opportunity to empower participants with resources to advance this work and an understanding of how to own personal responsibility and impact.
Here’s an infographic created by Mari Shibuya that depicts our first JEDI Training.
Our most recent JEDI training featured Naomi Davis (Blacks in Green (BIG)), as our keynote speaker, along with Amy Donohue (BORA Architecture & Interiors), Joel Andersen (Andersen Construction), and Randal Wyatt (Taking Ownership PDX, LLC). The training was also graphically recorded by Mari Shibuya.
Another example of our educational work is a webinar ZERO held with Electrify Now, “Energy Efficiency, Electrification, and Equity,” that featured panelists from Verde, Community Energy Project, and African American Alliance for Homeownership. It’s a great resource, check it out!
Some of Our Favorite Videos and Webinars to Learn More
