Centering on Environmental Justice

With the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, the Air District commits to proactively advancing environmental justice in and through our work. According to the Community Advisory Council’s Environmental Justice Priorities, “to advance environmental justice effectively over the long-term, we must practice restorative justice by creating policies, practices, procedures, and norms that both recognize the trauma and adverse health impacts caused by environmental racism and honor the emotional work and investment of time that is required for staff and community leaders to work together effectively in advancing environmental justice.”

To advance environmental justice, we will do what is required to understand the history and meaning of environmental justice, as envisioned by advocates. We commit to understanding and acknowledging the legacy of harmful government policies and environmental racism as the root cause of environmental injustice. The Air District commits to training employees, executive leadership, and the Air District Board on these issues to ensure we fully understand what it means to advance environmental justice in our work. We will build relationships with communities with environmental justice concerns and honor environmental justice principles to ensure our work is done “with community and not to community”.

What is Environmental Justice?

The origins of the Environmental Justice Movement can be traced back to the Civil Rights and Farm Labor movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Local activists, community and faith leaders, and academics started the movement in reaction to the vastly disproportionate siting of polluting facilities and widespread inequity in environmental enforcement and public health protections for low-income neighborhoods, Indigenous Peoples, and communities of color.

The movement asserts that to effectively address these inequities and restore justice, it is necessary to acknowledge that communities of color have historically been subjected to the greatest environmental burdens due to racism, “othering,” and white supremacist attitudes. The effects of environmental injustice—such as poor air quality, disproportionate health impacts, and reduced quality of life—are direct outcomes of this historic racism.

The publication of the landmark report “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,” published by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice in 1987, elevated this concept of environmental injustice and environmental racism into the national discourse. Environmental justice has two primary types of definitions – one type generated from within the advocacy community and one generated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1992. Both are valuable in understanding environmental justice.

Environmental Justice: A Strategic Focus

Over the last two and a half years, the Air District Community Advisory Council has been advising the Air District on what environmental justice means and about what we should consider as we shift toward centering our work in environmental justice.

To help us understand the strategies and actions that would move toward more equitable outcomes in communities, the council formed an Ad Hoc committee on Environmental Justice Policy in late 2022 to work directly with Air District leadership and employees. The 2024-2029 Strategic Plan reflects this partnership. It also reflects the knowledge gained from our many conversations with the council and other community members on what we need to do to advance environmental justice.

The strategies in this plan were developed not only in consultation with the Community Advisory Council, but also in consideration of their Environmental Justice Priorities. More than three quarters of the strategies in this plan link directly to one or more of the Community Advisory Council priorities.

As we move toward actions to implement the 2024-2029 Strategic Plan, we will better understand and reduce disparities in exposure to air pollution. We will value community voice and knowledge by incorporating both into our decision making. We commit to supporting, partnering with, and uplifting communities overburdened by air pollution. We will vigorously enforce our permits and regulations. We will return a portion of any funds assessed through penalties to the communities in which the violations occurred to support projects that benefit communities and are selected through a community-driven process. We will provide information with greater transparency so that communities can engage meaningfully, and we will be accountable to communities for meeting our commitments. We will enhance and implement rules, policies, and enforcement actions that consider environmental justice and cumulative impacts.

We will honor our commitments to communities we have been working with to reduce local air pollution in the AB 617 program, including building new partnerships in the areas of community health information and planning for an equitable, just and community focused transition as the demand for fossil fuel diminishes.

Although these strategies and actions may seem ambitious, we are committed to making environmental justice a central component of our work. In doing so, we will transform the Air District into a truly strategic organization. We will use our limited resources to address the air quality problems that need the most attention and to achieve our new Vision: “Over the next 5 years, we will transform our workforce, operations, community engagement, and programs to improve air quality, increase public trust, and demonstrate leadership in equity centered environmental stewardship.”

We will need communities and their allies to continue to walk with us, push us, encourage us, and hold us to account. We need community knowledge, perspectives, and experiences to succeed. Therefore, we invite and appreciate their partnership as we move forward in our environmental justice journey.