Portland Community College
IN-48: Innovation B

PCC integrated considerations for social justice, climate justice and equity throughout the Climate Action Planning Process for its 2021 Climate Action Plan titled: "PCC's 2021 Climate Action Plan: Resiliency, Equity and Education for a Just Transition.

As outlined in IN-47, PCC began this effort in the contracting process and then proceeded to work with the contracting firm to execute the plan.

Execution:

Some of the ways PCC operationalized our vision for equity and climate justice within in the plan included:
having an equity evaluator present for most meetings to identify and call out any unintended consequences, developing and utilized a CAP equity guide also referred to as the 5-Ps for evaluating goals and strategies
PCC hosted two required equity trainings for the members of the task force, using consensus-based decision making tools, such as fist to five, conducting check-ins with the Office of Equity and Inclusion and including Verde, a community partner focused on environmental justice, on the Task Force. We also recorded our trainings so that they could be viewed later.

Process:

As part of our process, PCC’s Take 5, Critical Race Theory toolkit has us take time to pause and reflect on intention, identities, and beneficiaries of proposed actions. We designed a climate guide to infuse equity throughout the climate action planning process, across 5 P’s: Purpose, Power, Place, Process, and People. Each P has an overarching question which highlights the intent with many sub-questions to help reflect and answer the overarching question while focusing on equity. We were inspired by the City of Portland’s Oregon Climate Action Plan Equity Considerations and adopted several questions from the City of Portland’s plan as well as Multnomah County’s 5 P’s Guide. The Multnomah County’s 5 P’s Guide also served as a framework.

Bringing in the 5 Ps as a framework served to help PCC understand both how its impacts the many locations we're in across the city, takes into consideration the varying racial and ethnic demographics and other socio economic factors impact those neighborhoods, and forces us to grapple with equity implications of how we distribute college resources

Outcomes:
Here are examples of how this new equity framework influenced our four main focus areas, Scope 1 & 2, Scope 3, Outreach and Education, and Resiliency.

Our Scope 1 and 2 goals contains a renewable energy goal which states, "Goal 2: By 2026, PCC has reduced its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 75% below 2006 levels, through decarbonization of its energy sources." Strategies linked to equity and inclusion include linking these arrays to their educational value and make it clear that students on every campus should have access to information about renewable energy and its value. Indeed, our actions include specific efforts to get an array at every campus. The construction of arrays has been driven by state policy surrounding new construction and therefore does not take into consideration equitable access to their educational value.

In Scope 3, PCC's goal 2 states, "By 2026, PCC purchaser and vendor contracts align with the college's diversity, equity and inclusion, sustainability, and climate action goals and values to ensure long-term viability of our enterprise." Strategy 2.1 under this goal is explicit about aligning vendor selection and purchasing habits with our diversity, equity and inclusion goals as a college in addition to sustainability and climate action. Actions under this strategy include: Requesting vendors to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion in their operational practices and policies when contracting with the college and working with our Procurement office to ensure strong equity language is used in our RFP templates and other procurement materials.


Here's an example of how this showed up in our resiliency focus area, new to our climate action plan.
The resiliency goal 4 states, "By 2026, PCC has incorporated design criteria that promote habitat stewardship and the wellbeing of students, staff, and the neighborhoods the college inhabits. These criteria contribute to a healthy learning and working environment, ecosystem health, and a sense of belonging to all. Goal 4 focuses on the relationships and connections between members of a thriving college district, health of our environment, and the social systems we are part of." Strategies in this goal really look at actions and programs related to design and maintenance of the built environment and the development and implementation of change contribute to well-being and belonging. These strategies speak to food security, clean air, clean water, active design, the importance of feeling invited and welcome in all spaces at PCC, and more.

Here's another example from outreach and education's goal 1. Goal 1 states "By 2026, all students are supported and encouraged to engage with sustainability and climate justice education through student-centered curricular and co-curricular offerings that are equity-conscious." As we were crafting the strategies for this section, we worked to specifically tie our efforts to college DEI values, our strategic plan and PCC’s commitment to equitable student success. Strategy 1.3 states Ensure all sustainability and climate justice curricular offerings are culturally responsive and support anti-racist pedagogies.
Actions under this strategy include partnering with our Office of Equity & Inclusion on faculty training, accumulating resources on decolonizing sustainability curriculum and broadening representation in course materials by centering BIPOC voices and efforts.