Social and environmental equity had always been core principles of SDC’s progressive leadership – in Year 15, with an ever-increasing level of solidity in its internal operations, the firm began to formalize this approach. A few years prior, the International Living Future Institute had launched Just as a social justice transparency platform to recognize socially equitable organizations. Just uses “nutrition labels” to graphically score firms’ commitments to diversity, equity, stewardship, and other values. In mid-2017, SDC attained its first Just label to both disclose and optimize its relationship to social equity and employee engagement. This reinforced SDC’s investment in the LEED Rating System, which recognizes Just labeling as a means of helping earn a pilot credit for Social Equity Within the Project Team. It also complemented SDC’s status as one of the original business signatories to the We Are Still In pledge, affirming its commitment to climate action, along with its leadership role in Richmond Women in Design’s task force charged with showcasing work by women architects for the 2017 AIA Women’s Leadership Summit. These concerted efforts from five years ago have since propelled SDC into the advocacy work in which it currently invests!