OLIN COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING

As creative stewards and members of the public realm, OLIN is committed to helping communities create places where everyone has agency. Through inclusion we can build a world of ideas and experiences, which will drive a future of innovation and creativity.

Our commitment means recognizing and honoring our differences and tackling systemic inequities as we work to build common bonds of collaboration with one another. We recognize that in the communities we serve, unjust disparities persist that continue to divide us and cause harm. Being passive in the face of these realities is not acceptable. We acknowledge that damaging biases exist within our culture, our profession, and our practice. At OLIN, individually and among all levels of leadership, we seek to overcome the biases we personally and collectively harbor. We are humble about our approach and the steps we are taking as we move forward. This work is a constant practice, and it is our responsibility to strive for inclusivity and equity in all of our actions.

Our efforts, outlined below, include ongoing critical examination of core business and management practices for potential bias and inequity. We are constantly seeking to increase representation, foster participation, ensure fairness in opportunity and resources, and to truly accept and value people as their authentic self. This includes enhancing our focus on performance-rating equity, pay equity, growth, and upward mobility.

TRANSPARENCY

  • Provided Anti-bias, Anti-Racism, and Marginalized Groups Training to all members of OLIN. (2022)
  • Conducted an anonymous Inclusive Climate Justice Survey to understand equity in the OLIN studio. (2022)
  • Continue to actively review and make transparent our compensation criteria for a fair and living wage.
  • Foster collaborative dialogue and engagement with all members of OLIN
  • Promote Equality of Success through Performance Management (improving the process and implementing a system to track & rate goals; anti-bias)
  • Use and describe metrics to ensure we meet goals
  • Stand in solidarity for dignity, protection, and respect for Black lives.

INITIATIVES

Diversity

  • Celebrate the coalition of diversity leaders in our practice through initiatives like Black Lives Matter, PrideScapes, and Design for Sensory Disorders and Neurodivergence.
  • Through OLIN Labs, the research component of our practice, we encourage research initiatives to expand the capacity of our practice to combat disparities caused by racial and ethnic disenfranchisement.

Hiring and Retention

  • OLIN’s engagement with organizations with Black autonomy and leadership in Landscape Architecture informs our hiring and retention of Black identifying practitioners in order to influence our culture and serve diverse communities.
  • Develop inclusive hiring goals to increase diverse leadership in our own studio and in the field of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design.
  • Attract and retain leaders from diverse backgrounds (Schools, Race, Sex, Gender Identity, Disabilities, Veterans, etc.)
  • Formalize and strengthen the OLIN mentorship program.

Investment and Practice

  • Provide sustaining financial support to the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Ignite Program for BIPOC students in the field of Landscape Architecture
  • Volunteer in Design Career Building with High School Students in our office locales.
  • OLIN invests in local career discovery programs to introduce the design profession to high school students.
  • Ensure we stay true to our commitment statement when reviewing and responding to Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

To hold ourselves accountable to these outcomes, our leadership actively listens and seeks to create an atmosphere where people can say what they honestly think and be their true selves. The foundation for these efforts begins internally but will continue to be assessed with third party diversity training. We are supporting our team members’ diversity initiatives ranging from race and gender identity and expression to physical and neurodivergent conditions. These initiatives raise our consciousness and foster personal agency among all of us regardless of position in our practice.

We believe an inclusive culture makes OLIN better by making our work more responsive to the communities and institutions we serve. By fostering diversity and inclusion we move beyond traditional models and perspectives and open up new realms of creativity. The practice of OLIN is, at its core, focused on the art of assembling and making sense of complex ecological, architectural, and social systems. The landscape holds space for the beautiful chaos of human existence, functioning as a connector, mediator, and facilitator for connection and interaction. We aspire to be trusted allies to disenfranchised communities and to support a network of practice that helps empower communities to protect their culture and places from the ongoing threats of environmental and economic injustice, as well as cultural oppression. We know our best future is one that builds up all of us—together.