Building for Equity and Sustainability

Goals

This VIP has three goals:  

Incorporate equity as an important sustainability objective in engineering, technology, and architecture design practices at Georgia Tech; 

Work closely with campus partners to deeply engage underrepresented students in The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design and to use the building to advance social equity and environmental resilience; 

Collaborate with partners from communities surrounding campus to advance equity, resilience, and sustainability in the built environment and in the city and region broadly 

ub-teams and projects continue, start, and stop depending on students’ interests and the state of the project. Sub-teams will be determined at the start of the new term; we will collaborate with various community partners, and each community partner project will have a sub-team dedicated to advancing its goals.

One team will continue the work of the WAWA Outdoor Classroom Project. West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) is an internationally recognized, community-based organization advancing environmental justice, environmental education, and environmental stewardship in Atlanta’s historically Black neighborhoods. WAWA has partnered with Georgia Tech for nearly two decades to advance community-led, equity-centered environmental and community development work and support their vision for their Outdoor Activity Center to serve as an Environmental Education and Resiliency Hub.
Another team will partner with HSAAT. This collaboration supports the long-term vision of a Jackson, Georgia community-based organization- the Henderson School Alumni Association and Trust (HSAAT) – to redevelop the buildings and property of the former Henderson School into a hub for K12 STEM education, workforce development, community health and wellness, entrepreneurship, and multigenerational education.
The third team will have a variety of partners; it is dedicated to strengthening relationships between the campus and the community through engagement and partnership activities with surrounding sustainability-focused community-based organizations.

To better understand the kind of partnerships that SCoRE stewards, take a look at SCoRE’s Principles for Engaging in Equitable Research Partnerships which feature partners such as WAWA and HSAAT.

Issues Involved or Addressed

Georgia Tech and its surrounding communities have been making major strides to advance equity as a key piece of creating a sustainable built environment – and sustainable and resilient communities overall. The Kendeda Building is at the forefront of this innovation. This VIP aims to push Georgia Tech to deepen and broaden its focus on equity as core to sustainability. Our research will explore equity in theory and practice. Our action will involve trying out new ideas about equity to see how they work in practice