Our commitment
We're working hard to shape an equitable, antiracist future for ourselves, for our partners, and for our communities.
Casacadia works with clients and communities across the globe to increase resilience.
Each community shares a unique history and culture, but we’ve seen a commonality among those experiencing health, environmental, and quality-of-life disparities. Our experience, and the data, show that communities that are home to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color have a lower life expectancy, experience higher rates of asthma, greater noise and air pollution, and a host of other health, economic, and environmental disparities. Cascadia’s work encompasses research to fully understand the barriers and challenges facing each community we work with, crafting policies alongside those most and worst impacted, and designing and implementing programs - with community partners - that improve quality of life and resilience. We believe in a just transition – a future where BIPOC communities are the first to experience and benefit as transportation moves toward electrification, buildings are decarbonized, and communities invest in a circular economy centered on local manufacturing and resource reuse. Achieving this vision requires applying a racial equity lens to everything we do – within our organization, in collaboration with our communities and partners, and alongside our clients.
We’re committed to amplifying and elevating racial equity issues
-
In our communities: Cascadia Consulting Group implements approaches that elevate community experiences, priorities, and needs. Whether supporting the King County Communities of Opportunity Learning Community to provide opportunities to learn from one another, develop tools and test models together, build skills and strengthen networks, or by assisting BIPOC owned and operated neighborhood businesses navigate city policies and programs, we’re applying data and considering community experiences in everything we do.
-
With our partners: Cascadia works to build relationships with community-based organizations and disadvantaged businesses, including BIPOC-, veteran-, and LGBTQ-operated and -owned businesses, to strengthen our understanding and expand the solutions we bring forward in our work with communities everywhere.
-
In our investments: We set aside time for our staff to study, discuss, and foster racial equity learning and growth. We use community agreements to create safe-spaces and demonstrate power-sharing practices within Cascadia and when we facilitate and work alongside task forces and advisory groups. We recruit and host interns new to the environmental field, and we invest in non-profit organizations, especially BIPOC-led, through matching funds and annual donations to employee-selected organizations.
We’re committed to improving our culture
-
By increasing representation: Cascadia currently shares our job postings broadly with CBOs, targeted job boards and Facebook groups, and universities. Our years-long partnership with Rainier Scholars led to the addition of a permanent, full-time member of our staff, and our guest lecture presentations, for example, to the University of Washington’s “Program on the Environment” has resulted in several new hires. Every interview panel consists of a diverse mix of staff members who undergo implicit bias training and discussions to ensure equitable recruitment processes and outcomes. We’ve revised performance reviews to be more inclusive of diverse skill sets and lived experiences, and we now facilitate inclusive cohorts and training for Associate-level staff poised for promotion to Senior positions.
-
With education and training: Our work has spanned a wide range of efforts including working with third-party racial equity experts to inform and guide our learning, organizing leadership cohorts focused on race and equity issues, conducting company-wide trainings on a variety of topics including respectful workplace and de-escalation, and hiring guest speakers who shared perspectives and reflections from their lived experiences. We’ve hosted all-staff retreats and frequent learning sessions focused on racial equity, including presentations, readings, and discussions about real-life experiences and how we can more effectively center racial equity in everything we do. All Cascadia staff are required to complete our foundational racial equity training.
-
Through continuous feedback loops: In 2020 we appointed a Racial Equity leadership role on our Management Team, and established both a BIPOC Affinity Group and a Racial Equity Task Force. These groups focus on elevating BIPOC voices, identifying and addressing harmful cultural characteristics, and formulating new and more inclusive ways of conducting business that recognize and celebrate the varied strengths and experiences represented among our diverse staff.
We’re committed to keep working toward our four priority goals
-
To ensure advancement and retention parity between BIPOC staff and white staff at all levels at Cascadia.
-
To provide training tailored for BIPOC staff and racial equity training for all staff.
-
To apply racial equity to project work and project teams.
-
To strengthen partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations.