Clarifications

ADVOCACY AND ACTION

While advocacy efforts and actions may vary depending on an organization’s context, examples could include:

• Creating internship and mentorship programs focused specifically on providing job opportunities for underrepresented and underestimated racial and ethnic groups in the organization’s industry;
• Establishing partnerships with schools or community groups to introduce these careers and spark interest at an earlier age;
• Partnering with foundations and/or nonprofits to fund scholarship programs intentionally created for students from underrepresented and underestimated racial and ethnic communities;
• Providing mentorship to aspiring racial and ethnic minority entrepreneurs toward achieving qualified business certifications (e.g., DBE, MBE, etc.);
• Dismantling institutional policies or practices that are found to result in racial and ethnic discrimination and rebuilding with equitable policies and practices;
• Co-leading a town hall and lobby day with racial and ethnic minority communities to meet with legislators and push for the passage of key policies that uplift minority voices in the organization’s industry; and/or
• Publishing industry-specific research reports on barriers faced by people with underrepresented racial and ethnic identities and benefits to having a racially and ethnically diverse workforce.
  

Organizations may identify different actions that are equally applicable. Living Future encourages organizations to select and implement actions that are most meaningful and impactful based on their own context.

Documentation of Advocacy Efforts and Actions

Advocacy efforts and actions should be selected and implemented with intention and aligned with an organization’s commitment to work toward greater diversity in the industry. Living Future recommends that organizations consider a wide range of options and select the ones that seem most impactful and aligned with the organization’s mission. In documenting advocacy efforts and actions, organizations must address the following areas:

• What is the goal of your advocacy efforts?
• What advocacy efforts or actions did you consider? Why did you choose the efforts or actions you ultimately implemented?
• What is the impact of your efforts or actions? How are you measuring your impact?
• What are you looking forward to doing differently or building upon in the future?
  

APPLICABILITY

Indicator metrics apply to all of the following groups (see definitions in General Clarifications):

• Employees
• Contractors
• Interns
• Board members
  

DATA COLLECTION

For the purposes of Just, racial and ethnic identity is based on anonymous, aggregated, self-reported data from those in the organization who choose to voluntarily disclose (e.g., through a survey or as a part of onboarding). In the implementation of data collection, it is important for respondents to know how and why their data is being collected and that it will be used in a safe, non-identifiable manner.⁵

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Single Location

For a single office operation, baseline demographic data should be drawn from the city, county, or region where the office is located.

Multiple Locations

For multi-office operations, if the offices are situated:

• Within a single state, province, or territory, baseline demographic data should be drawn from that state, province, or territory.
• Across an area that spans fewer than four states, provinces, or territories, baseline demographic data may be drawn from either a weighted contribution from each of the states, provinces, or territories or the lowest level achieved across all the states, provinces, or territories.
• Across an area that spans four or more states, provinces, or territories, baseline demographic data should be drawn from the country’s demographic survey information or the most current census report.
• In more than one country, baseline demographic data will be drawn from a weighted contribution from each of the participating countries.
  

See Calculations for examples of the outcomes stemming from these different calculation paths.

All-Remote

For all-remote operations, the baseline demographic data should be drawn from the region, state, province, territory, or country from which the organization recruits its workforce. For example, an all-remote Canada-based organization that allows employees to live anywhere in the country should use national Canadian demographic data as the baseline.

Physical Offices and Remote Workers

For operations that have both physical offices and remote workers:

• If 50% or more of an organization’s employees primarily work out of physical office locations, follow the Multiple Locations guidance and include the region from which the organization recruits its remote workers as one of the locations.
• If 50% or more of an organization’s employees primarily work remotely, the baseline demographic data should be drawn from the region, state, province, territory, or country from which the organization recruits its workforce.
  

Baseline Data Sources

Baseline data should come from the latest available national or regional census and at the most local level available (e.g., if the workforce is drawn from a particular county but the most locally available data is at the provincial level, the organization should use provincial data). Many countries have their census data publicly accessible (see Resources for examples).

Living Future acknowledges that organizations are limited by the available baseline data for the respective region. This data often does not comprehensively reflect the diversity of identities within a population due to the range of possible responses being limited. Organizations should use the best available data and practice more inclusive data collection practices when gathering demographic and identity data from their own workforce.⁶

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENTS

While Living Future supports organizations having equal opportunity statements, these are distinct from the Indicator’s policy requirement and will not be accepted as an alternative to the policy.

MINORITY

Living Future recognizes that diversity metrics often categorize systemically divested, disadvantaged, underrepresented, and underrecognized populations into a single group of “minorities.” In practice, unique identities should not be treated as one and the same. Who is included under that label changes based on location and circumstances. The use of this generalized term within Just is a means to provide flexibility for each organization to intentionally investigate their community’s composition and define their approach accordingly. For the purposes of Just, organizations should define minority designations based on the official census classifications used in the respective region (e.g., race, ethnicity, language, religion, etc.). Additional classifications may be used for a particular region on a case-by-case basis if approved by Living Future in advance.

QUALIFIED BUSINESSES

Certified MBEs and businesses achieving DBE certification on the basis of being owned by a racial or ethnic minority are eligible to meet the Qualified Business alternative compliance path for achieving Level 3 or 4 for this Indicator.

Alternatively, organizations with a) a single owner who identifies as a racial or ethnic minority or b) multiple owners who identify as racial or ethnic minorities and who together hold 51% or greater ownership, are eligible to meet the Qualified Business alternative compliance path for achieving Level 3 or 4 for this Indicator.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY

For the purposes of Just, a racially and ethnically diverse organization is one that is as or more diverse than the region from which the organization recruits its workforce, using the region’s most current census classifications and data as a baseline. Additional classifications/designations (such as native language) may be used as a baseline for a particular region on a case-by-case basis if the methodology is approved by Living Future in advance.

SENIOR LEADERSHIP

The senior management/leadership category is meant to encompass the upper tier of personnel who have broad decision-making power over a significant segment of the organization, such as C suite–level employees or division heads involved in strategic decision-making as well as board members. Senior management is also included in “total workforce” calculations. If there is only one person in senior management, then the performance metrics for senior leadership do not apply, and the performance level is based solely on the “total workforce” figures.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

⁵ Green 2.0. (2021). Tracking Diversity: The Green 2.0 Guide to Best Practices in Demographic Data Collection. Retrieved December 19, 2022, from https://greentwopointzero.org/wp-content/uploads/green2.0-demographic-data-collection-guide.pdf.

⁶ Ibid Green 2.0