Organizational Culture:

Social Justice & Equity

START Metric #20:

Equity Coordination

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Ideas & Resources

Equity refers to the principle of fairness and justice in providing individuals or groups with the resources, opportunities, and support they need to achieve equal outcomes or participation. It recognizes that different people have different circumstances and barriers, so solutions and resources must be tailored to meet their unique needs to create a level playing field.

Key Aspects of Equity:

  1. Fairness Over Uniformity: Unlike equality, which treats everyone the same regardless of their starting point, equity adjusts the approach to address disparities and disadvantages.

  2. Addressing Systemic Inequalities: Equity aims to remove structural barriers and discrimination that prevent some groups from thriving.

  3. Customizing Support: It provides targeted assistance to those who need it most to achieve comparable outcomes.

(Image source: Mobilize Green)

Examples of Equity in Action:

  • In education, equity might involve offering additional tutoring to students who face language barriers or financial challenges to help them succeed academically.

  • In healthcare, equity could mean providing free or low-cost services to under-served communities to ensure everyone has access to necessary care.

  • In workplaces, equity might involve implementing policies to address pay gaps or barriers to career advancement for marginalized groups.

Why It Matters:

Equity fosters inclusion and ensures that everyone has a fair chance to participate fully in society, contributing to more just, harmonious, and thriving communities.

How can we Coordinate for Equity?

Develop, with support of administration, a committee for your campus focused to equity and inclusion to promote equal opportunity, fairness and freedom from bias for all parties of your school system's population. Communicate efforts and initiatives of this committee's work with community representatives.

Additional Resources

  • Resources for an Equity & Inclusion Committee

    From tools, tips, strategies and webinars, a list of resources with links from the Anti-Defamation League.

  • Employee Training: Equity and Inclusion

    Resources including tips and links to professional training and toolkits from the Anti-Defamation League.

  • Student Learning: Equity and Inclusion Resources

    From the Anti-Defamation League, tips and links to curriculum resources, which you can filter by age group and topic.

Schools hold the key to a healthy, sustainable and regenerative future.

They are role-models and incubators that that nurture, educate and prepare each generation for adult life.

Schools have a unique opportunity and profound responsibility to become part the transition to a sustainable, regenerative future in which people and planet can thrive.

But how do we get there?

START: Sustainability Tracking, Analytics & Roadmap Tool was created by schools, for schools, to help them develop comprehensive programs for step-by-step progress towards sustainability, regenerative practice, and student empowerment.

START provides a Roadmap for School Sustainability:

It breaks down school sustainability into clear actions (‘metrics’), such as Minimizing Waste, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and supporting Sustainable Transportation options.

However, research shows it’s not enough for a school to simply reduce its environmental impact.

Students and staff also need to learn about sustainability, and practice it in day-to-day activities, because this impacts their attitudes and behaviors when they leave school. That’s why START includes metrics like Sustainability Events for Students, Sustainability Course Content, and Sustainable Purchasing Practices.

How sustainable is our school now?

Schools use START to measure how sustainable they are now. A school’s START team investigates how their school currently operates to find their ‘sustainability baseline’ for each metric. For example, is our school a beginner, intermediate or advanced in sustainable water use? START enables schools to benchmark, track and visualize their current sustainability levels, as well as hard data around their waste, water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

Where should we go next, and do we collaborate for success? 

What do we need to do to ‘level up’ in each metric?  Once schools have their baselines, START helps them to set goals and plan for progress. START provides a central hub for school members to collaborate, document, and plan their school’s sustainability journey.

START is a subscription-based Whole School Sustainability dashboard.

It requires at least one adult school member to create a school’s START account, but it will need a team (students, teachers and staff) to grow a Whole School Sustainability program.

Interested schools can sign up for a demo or apply to set up an account.

Learn more about START here, and consider sharing the brochure with your school.

Let’s create a better future, one school at a time.

Contact us at guides@greenschoolsalliance.org if you have a free resource to contribute or recommend that can help schools take action around this specific sustainability metric.