This tool introduces students to the different ways in which equity can be deeply embedded in the design of the built environment, in different phases from beginning to end. It encourages students to consider equity more comprehensively as a foundational component of sustainability. This tool is grounded in the following three key documents: Inclusion by Design (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment [CABE]), Getting Beyond Green Report (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP]), and the SLS Teaching Tool: Introduction to Equitable and Sustainable Development. Each key document was analyzed for its main concepts, which were then used to develop a higher-level framework for defining the fundamentals of what equity means in the sustainable built environment. Each fundamental is followed by a few examples that embody these concepts.

This tool was contributed to by Jazmin Lucio (she/her), Hudson McGaughey (he/him), and Katie Popp (she/her).