EcoAction Arlington Justice And Inclusion Policy

ECOACTION ARLINGTON JUSTICE AND INCLUSION POLICY

Purpose: Purpose: The purpose of this Justice and Inclusion Policy is to guide EcoAction Arlington into becoming an actively anti-racist, proactively inclusive organization. The goal of the Justice and Inclusion Policy is to give breadth and depth to the EcoAction Arlington mission statement connecting each one of us to a more sustainable world by creating a larger and more diverse community of people who treasure the natural world and work hard to preserve it. 

Internal Operations

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee

The EcoAction Arlington Board shall maintain and support a Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, such as was chartered by the Board on February 13, 2021. 

Personnel

• Recruitment.  EcoAction Arlington’s personnel should reflect the diversity of Arlington County.  We will make concerted efforts to recruit staff and Board Members who are Black Indigenous Persons of Color (BIPOC) or Hispanic/Latinx, as well as differently abled persons and other special classes of persons. EcoAction Arlington shall develop partnerships with diverse organizations that will lead to diversity in recruiting staff, board members and volunteers.
• Compensation and Benefits.  To the extent possible, we will strive to offer a compensation and benefits package that does not hinder our ability to attract candidates of all socioeconomic circumstances.
• Training. All EcoAction Arlington Board members and Staff shall participate in diversity training, such as the Dialogues on Race and Equity developed by Arlington County in 2020. Ideally, such training shall be provided at every adopted by the EcoAction Arlington board of directors on August 10, 2021on-boarding event, and refreshed annually. Resources permitting, such training shall be offered to volunteers.

Inclusive Language and Images

.  EcoAction Arlington shall increase the awareness of its board members, staff and volunteers of bias and exclusion in language, images, written documents, events, and volunteer activities. EcoAction Arlington will take care to ensure that written and oral presentations embody inclusiveness.

Stewardship Statement

EcoAction board meetings and other events shall open with a statement that will include but not be limited to a recognition of past injustices and a commitment to diversity and environmental equity.

Procurement

It is the policy of EcoAction Arlington to work for equity through its procurement activities. Prison labor is inherently racist. The policy of EcoAction Arlington is to prioritize purchases from companies that can affirm their goods or services are not derived from prison labor, or from companies that have a prison labor policy. 

Annual Metrics Review

 EcoAction Arlington shall develop and annually review a set of achievable metrics toward inclusivity goals, such as those listed in the attached preliminary goals/metrics document.

External Operations

Outreach

 EcoAction Arlington will prioritize addressing environmental racism because environmental degradation disproportionately impacts people of color, reducing the resiliency of those affected communities to endure other crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it will also focus on differently abled persons and other special classes of persons. EcoAction Arlington shall take concrete actions suggested by the DEI Committee and others such as:

• Engage the Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC community to increase caring for the environment and creating a sustainable community.
• Increase Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC presence during all EcoAction Arlington events and activities.
• Reach out to Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC individuals, groups, and other potential partners such as civic associations, local and national government agencies, non-profit organizations (NAACP), faith communities, Arlington Public School clubs, and the business and professional community to realize and maintain a clean and sustainable community.
• Provide Hispanic-Latinx and BIPOC Arlington County residents environmental education and volunteer opportunities. 
• Evaluate each EcoAction Arlington program, event, and activity for accessibility to persons with disabilities, and strive to include as many people with disabilities as possible. 

Advocacy

EcoAction Arlington will advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion as an integral part of its environmental advocacy for clean air, clean water and clean land.  The Advocacy and DEI Committees will coordinate to consider the diversity impact of any position taken by the organization

Attachment to EcoAction Arlington Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Charter and Justice and Inclusion Policy

Preliminary Goals/Metrics for Ensuring Progress toward Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

The intent of these goals is to strive that EcoAction Arlington’s programs and actions represent the diversity of Arlington. One benchmark for assessing representativeness is Arlington County’s annual demographic Profile report.¹

• Recruit Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC candidates for the Energy Masters training program with the goal that the volunteers are representative of the communities they serve.
• Increase the number of EcoAction Arlington’s Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC presenters available to go to businesses, organizations, places of worship, schools, or youth groups. Increase the number of Hispanic/Latinx and BIPOC groups served.
• Review all EcoAction Arlington printed and digital material that the public reads to ensure it uses inclusive language and images.

EcoAction Arlington will also work with our partners to develop goals and metrics for ensuring progress towards Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on the following programs:

• The Arlington Solar + EV Charging Co-op.
• The Northern Virginia Rain Barrel Program.
• The Arlington County Tree Canopy Fund.

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¹ Source of the Arlington County 2020 profile is here (see page 3 for demographics): https://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Arlington-County-Profile2020.pdf adopted by the EcoAction Arlington board of directors on August 10, 2021