Community

• Hosts an annual “In the Mix” networking event, exclusive to COBID-certified firms.

• Purposely partner with COBID-certified firms for capacity building and/or mentorship opportunities.

• Direct a minimum of 50% of SEA’s annual efforts of giving back (charitable donations, pro bono hours, and volunteering) to underrecognized communities.

Culture

• Diverse advertising channels and internal review committees have led to more equitable hiring practices and resulted in hiring more women and people of color.

• Staff-formed affinity groups provide annual feedback to JEDI Strategic Committee for continuous improvement.

• Identifies areas of improvement and establishes policy creation for bi-annual JUST renewal.

• Supports leadership in equitable practices for staff promotions, reviews, and wage transparency.

Education

• Annual DEI training for all staff and leadership.

• Annually awards Kelly J. Edwards Architecture Scholarship to minority student pursuing an architectural degree.

• Outreach to and mentorship of school-aged children to increase architectural awareness.

Design

• Ongoing learning and sharing of inclusive design best practices and lessons learned with our colleagues and clients.

Just Label

Scott Edwards Architecture chose to pursue the International Living Future Institute’s Just label not only to be transparent with our practices, but to improve upon them. The very process to apply allowed us to have an immediate positive impact by restructuring some policies as they were evaluated. And now post-evaluation, we know where we need to focus our efforts in the next two years and will establish strategic goals to get there. By identifying our strengths and weaknesses using these metrics, we have a clear direction for creating a more socially responsible firm in a thoughtful, measurable way.