I'd love to hear thoughts from the design, consulting, and contracting firms in this group about ways to make our specs more inclusive, or at least less exclusive to minority and women owned contractors and subcontractors and others that have not had the benefit of what a recent "Equity in Specs" presenter termed the "Fathers / Brothers / In-laws (FBI) network."
The presentation, which did more to raise awareness of this issue than to solve it, focused on subcontractor and installer certifications (ie: UL, ACI, manufacturer), experience requirements, and software requirements (ie: submittals in Revit or AutoCad) that can be extraordinarily challenging for some of these organizations. We use subcontractor and installer requirements as a proxy for quality assurance, but are we unwittingly perpetuating an unfair playing field? How do we balance the need to ensure quality of the Work while maintaining equal opportunity for those who would be the workers?
All perspectives on this issue will be much appreciated. Thanks!
Mike