Anti-Racism & JEDI

In 2020, we recognized as a firm that we were not doing enough to combat systemic racism in our society, and committed to becoming an anti-racist organization. We committed to change. We started with internal, office-wide discussions and reflection. We began to review our internal policies to explicitly make them anti-racist. We began to review our charitable giving to support worthy organizations doing work in this realm. And, we began to review the work we take on through this lens, and ensure our projects contribute in positive ways to a sustainable, equitable, and anti-racist society. We are working to listen, learn and act. It is an ongoing process that takes time, but we will get there with our commitment and the help of our clients and stakeholders.

‍

‍

Since 2020, we have taken a number of steps to act on our commitment. First, we adopted Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) principles as part of our mission. Then, we expanded the role of the Benefit Director seat on our board to help fulfill our JEDI principles, and we established an internal JEDI committee to plan our anti-racism & JEDI initiatives and practices. We then modified our annual charitable giving selection process to include social equity & social justice impact as key donation criteria in addition to environmental impact criteria. We are working to modify our internal policies & practices, and are working to expand educational & professional opportunities to marginalized communities. As we move forward, we will continue to take actionable steps to combat systemic racism.