A New DEI: Bringing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to Our Design Practice
Remember that little black square everyone posted on social media a few months ago? Well, we’ve been doing a lot of soul searching since then, both individually and as a company. We wanted to know: How are we really doing? Are we creating an inclusive space in our own firm? Are we contributing to the problems of inequity in our built environment? How can we be better?
These were overwhelming questions and, admittedly, it took us a while to get started. We felt so sad about what we were seeing on the news, and the realizations about the issues our country faces took some time to process. But a few passionate folks, encouraged by the energy and support of the whole team, stepped up and formed a committee to tackle things head-on within our firm.
The committee administered an anonymous survey about diversity and inclusion, and the results showed that, for the most part, our employees feel safe and supported (which is incredibly important to us). But several responses made us realize we still had some room for improvement and definitely needed to have some serious conversations. Systemic racism had been creeping into places we didn’t even realize until we started talking about it.
After the survey results came in, we were able to articulate some specific goals for our firm to reach toward in the immediate future:
We want to ensure our profession—and our firm—attracts and supports people from all backgrounds, specifically by reaching younger generations.
We want to ensure each of our staff feels supported and safe.
We want our designs to help bring communities together and provide a high quality of life for everyone, not just for those who are privileged enough to afford it.
As more and more questions came up after the survey, we realized talking as a large group wasn’t particularly helpful in this context. Even though we had vowed to “get comfortable being uncomfortable,” it was still very difficult for most of us to talk about race and inequality or to share our personal stories and observations on the topic. We broke up into small groups to see if conversations got any easier or if it helped people open up. And although our first meetings were a little awkward, everyone quickly became more comfortable and we started making great progress.
Through these small group meetings, we developed a list of action items to help us reach our goals. One of those items was to start a Book Club “Lite” where we read articles, listen to podcasts and consume other short-form media to discuss as a group. During our first session, we reviewed a recent article by landscape architect Walter Hood and had an inspiring conversation around inclusive and equitable design. Moving forward, we’ll continue fleshing out and integrating these items into our strategic plan as we enter 2021.
Now, more than ever before, it’s time to become actively anti-racist both as individuals and as an industry. If you’re a fellow landscape architecture firm, we encourage you to take action and jump in the conversation. The conversations may be tough, but the outcomes far outweigh the discomfort. And the only way to get going is to get started. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but if we’re honest, it feels so good to be moving in the same direction: toward a more diverse and inclusive future.
