News Brief

NAACP Offers an Equity Toolkit for Building Projects

Extensive guidelines published by NAACP help put community residents in the driver’s seat.

by P.J. Melton

Practitioners and residents alike can use this graphic as a gauge of power sharing.

Image: Rosa Gonzalez
With racial equity coming into greater mainstream focus as a sustainability imperative, one question keeps coming up for building professionals, policymakers, and residents of communities affected by development: how do we move forward?

NAACP is offering answers. The group’s first publication in a series called Guidelines for Equitable Community Involvement in Building & Development Projects and Policies is designed to help community members advocate for themselves. This 100-page toolkit is also enlightening reading for building professionals and policymakers who are waking up to the why of racial equity in development but are unclear on the how.

The in-depth report includes “explainers, principles, tips, and tactics for everyone seeking to bring justice and equity to buildings and development,” according to an overview published by NAACP. Some key takeaways:

  • Community residents need to be invited to the process during pre-design, before decisions have been made.
  • A dedicated budget is needed, for example to provide childcare at meetings and to compensate community members for their time.
  • People with decision-making power must engage in meaningful dialogue, not just invite public comment on projects and policies that have already been designed.
  • Project teams should use racial equity impact assessments to help identify how different groups will be affected by a building project or policy.
  • To avoid “green gentrification,” it’s vital to put frontline communities at the center of collaboration.

In addition to answering questions like “Who makes decisions about development?” and “How does development usually happen?” the guidelines provide advice for building alliances, organizing neighbors, and evaluating the community involvement process. Five case studies provide examples of successes and lessons learned from a variety of project types.

This is the first in a series of reports, with later guidelines in the works that are specifically designed for building professionals and policymakers.

More on equity in green building

Equity in Design and Construction: Seven Case Studies

Infographic: Social Equity Frameworks for the Building Industry

Implicit Bias Training: Is It Right for Building Professionals?

Centering Equity: The Quest for Justice in Green Building

 

Published July 6, 2021

Melton, P. (2021, June 24). NAACP Offers an Equity Toolkit for Building Projects. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/newsbrief/naacp-offers-equity-toolkit-building-projects

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Comments

Ajaye Jogoo
BuildingGreen Basic Member

July 20, 2021 - 2:01 am

Our company has taken pledge with Carbon Neutral of the UNFCCC to reduce CO2 and NOx and 1,5 Carbon Reduction Emission of the UN. 

We are approved by Business Mauritius, representative of AFD to be awarded grant under sunref and climate change grant. The University of Mauritius has concluded that we save energy on ceiling by 3-4 degree centigrade which is massive. 

We reduce cement by 35-40% by using coal fly ash , which is decarbinised by an emulsifier ph7 and reduce water by 60%. We used limestone in Zanzibar and rockdust in Mauritius. Paint Sludge was used as well. 

It's 22 years that we have been operating without bank facilities and the grant which are managed by AFD preferred Bank refuses us our grant and one Bank the Mauritius Commercial Bank LTD (MCB)has even closed our account even for our futur generation. All the government which came after Sir Sewoosagur Ramgoolam are highly corrupted. All projects are awarded to friends , relative and electoral agents. Construction price has gone up 10-12 times. 

We do not use cooling in summer and heating in winter. Our construction method is anti seismic , resist to fire by 1200 degree for the first 4 hours. It has a lifespan of 100 years. 

We plan to employ women in the construction sector. 

We complaint to the Financial Ombusdman and were informed that MCB LTD is a private bank and they operate as the deem fit. 

The MCB has been promoting green finance , gender equality and fairness but our account is closed. 

Volume 30, Issue 7

Also on BuildingGreen

Racial Equity Impact Assessments and How They Work

Implicit Bias Training: Is It Right for Building Professionals?

Equity in Design and Construction: Seven Case Studies