In this session, we’ll address the impact of structural racism on our thinking about the work in front of us. Addressing climate change requires an “all hands on deck” approach from our industry, which means we can no longer ignore the impacts of structural racism on our work places and our own approaches to the work. White supremacy thinking is the water in which we swim - 400+ years of colonialization and systematic oppression are the legacy we have inherited. This affects even the way we do work when we’re doing our best to avoid overt discrimination and exclusionary behavior. Together in this session, we’ll dig into the framework provided by the Candadian group COCo with their workbook “White Supremacy Culture in Organizations” (based on original work developed by Tema Okun at Dismantling Racism Works). They identify “perfectionist culture”, “only one right way” and “either/or thinking” as active tools of structural racism. But our industry, it seems, requires perfection of us in action and presentation. How is that racist? Isn’t that just “trying to our best”? With this text as a basis, we’ll dig in together to tease out the impacts of three tools on our own practices, with an eye to creating better, more effective, more just approaches to sustainable design and construction. Based on the model of the Anti-Racist Action Group - an open sub-group of the Building Energy Bottom Lines community - we’ll work in small groups to think through the impacts of these mindsets, and to try to discover the work we can each do - ourselves and in our companies - to uproot them and create fertile ground for change.