UK Environmental Justice websites

Aahus Convention pages

US Environmental Justice Websites

Friends of the Earth:

Safer Chemicals Factory Watch

Although the main website page on factory pollution has now closed down the site has made pollution data publicly available. Much of this data can be accessed on the Environment Agency's Pollution Inventory. This page includes resources and useful links.

UK Factories - Poisoning Poor People

January 200. Public information briefing on the links between pollution and poverty by FOE.

The Geographic Relation Between Household Income and Polluting Factories

April 1999 A report for Friends of the Earth by Duncan McLaren, Olivier Cottray, Mary Taylor, Susan Pipes and Simon Bullock.

Scottish FOE Environmental Justice page

Scottish FOE: National Campaigns-Environmental Justice

Including list of FOE reports

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Other:

Capacity Global

Capacity works as a catalyst for social justice and sustainable development. Its key aim is to empower marginalised people around the globe who suffer the indignities of social, environmental and economic deprivation. Capacity's mission is to build alliances and networks to empower people across the globe to effectively participate in decisions that affect their quality of life.

Capacity's objectives are:

• to facilitate participation of marginalised and under represented communities and individuals, in particular the poor, woman, 'ethnic' minorities and indigenous people, in public decision making
• to assist, build or resource grass root and non-governmental networks working to improve health, create sustainable communities, and ensure access to social and environmental justice

Capacity Global are currently collaborating on projects with the Environment Agency, EPSRC, the Environmental Democracy Unit of DEFRA and the University of Westminster. Capacity have been commissioned by Jean Lambert MEP and the EU Green Group to provide a report on the integration of social exclusion and environmental issues within mainstream EU policy: Integrating Social Inclusion and the Environment.

id21 insights: Access to environmental justice-tackling human vulnerability and environmental management

Environmental Justice Foundation

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is dedicated to creating, implementing and building solutions by training local people and communities who are directly affected to investigate, expose and combat environmental degradation and abuse. EJF is based in London.

Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation is one of the largest independent social policy research and development charities in the UK. It supports a wide programme of research and development projects in housing, social care and social policy. The Foundation places great emphasis on disseminating the findings of its work and engaging with policy-makers and practitioners to develop better policies and practices.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has supported the Sustainable Development Research Network SRDN project report Sustainable development and social inclusion as part of its programme of research and innovative development projects.

Green Alliance

The mission of the Green Alliance is to promote sustainable development by ensuring that the environment is at the heart of decision making. The main aims of the Green Alliance are

• To make the environment a central political issue,
• to integrate the environment effectively in public policy and decision making,
• to stimulate new thinking and advance the environmental agenda into new ideas

The Green Alliance is made up of a group of senior figures including Lords, judges, lawyers and MPs from all parties.

Just Sustainabilities-Development in an unequal world. (Book) Editor: Julian Agyeman, Robert D Bullard and Bob Evans.

New Economics Foundation (NEF)

NEF has a programme of work on 'Participative Democracy'. In addition its Centre for Participation undertakes research and consultancy for a wide range of clients, from the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, to the Architecture Foundation.

Policy Studies Institute

PSI's work in this area includes Joseph Rowntree Foundation funded projects on reducing the socially regressive impacts of environmental taxes and charges, and integrating the sustainable development and social inclusion research agendas.

Food Poverty Network

The Food Poverty Project is run by Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming. Sustain has been working to reduce food poverty in the UK for many years, but most intensively since January 1996. The Food Poverty Network promotes and supports community food projects such as food co-operatives, community cafés, food growing projects and cooking clubs. It also works to develop and promote appropriate policies for tackling food poverty and had produced a number of publications.

The Food Poverty Network has around 500 members, including: project workers, researchers, campaign groups, health professionals, policy makers, academics and community food groups.

Food Poverty Projects database

The Food Poverty Projects database (formerly called the Food and Low Income Database) was set up in 1996 by Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and the Health Development Agency. It comes under the remit of the Food Poverty Network.
The database provides data on over 270 projects all around the UK. The database provides detailed, accurate information about a whole range of projects and organisations that tackle issues of food and low income across the country. The database is not comprehensive but is indicative of the range of community food projects around the UK. The Food Poverty Network has strong links with the Scottish Community Diet Project which carries out similar work in Scotland.

Projects include food co-ops, community cafés, cooking clubs and community allotments – all working to improve food awareness, access and availability for people on a low income.

CABE Space

CABE Space works with local authorities and other bodies responsible for public space to help them provide better public space. They encourage local councils to think holistically about their green space, and what it means for residents' health and well being, routes to school and work, and recreation through play and sport. Their goal is to ensure that every person in England has easy access to well designed and well looked after public space.

CABE Space, established in 2003, is part of CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, which champions the quality of our buildings and spaces. CABE Space is publicly funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).

GreenSpace

GreenSpace (incorporating the Urban Parks Forum) is a not-for-profit organisation set up to help those committed to the planning, design, management and use of public parks and open spaces.

The aim of GreenSpace is to be the UK’s leading advocate for the economic, social and environmental benefits of better planned, designed and managed parks, gardens and green spaces and for their positive contribution to our economic, physical and spiritual health, to social cohesion and to biodiversity.

The Women and Equality Unit

The Ministers for Women, supported by the Women and Equality Unit (WEU), are responsible for promoting and realising the benefits of diversity in the economy and more widely.This includes taking forward proposals on civil partnerships and the future of equality bodies. They develop policies relating to gender equality and ensure that work on equality across Government as a whole is co-ordinated.

Academic sites:

The Open University, Faculty of Social Sciences

Research includes work on environmental political theory, with particular reference to the relationship between 'ecologism' and other modern political ideologies, and to the tensions between environmental sustainability and other objectives such as deepening democracy and increasing social justice. Current work also includes developing the concept of 'ecological citizenship'.

University of East Anglia, Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)

CESRG hosts the ESRC's Programme on Environmental Decision Making, as part of which it is undertaking research to investigate the role of equity and justice in environmental governance, and the relationship between social resilience and environmental justice

University of Lancaster, Department of Geography

Professor Gordon Walker, formerly of IESR, Staffordshire University, is now based at Lancaster University and continues his work on environmental justice. Click here to see the Lancaster University environmental justice pages.

University of London, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Centre on Global Change and Health

The Centre on Global Change and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is a cross-departmental initiative that brings together staff from a wide range of disciplines to contribute to the School's rapidly growing body of research on globalisation, environmental change and health. The Centre has developed a strong track record of research in environmental epidemiology, health inequalities and impact assessment, participation and environmental justice, in both a UK a developing country context.

University of Newcastle, Department of Geography, Health Research Group

A decade of involvement in epidemiological research on poverty, pollution and health (much of it undertaken collaboratively with the University's Faculty of Medicine Epidemiology) resulted in pioneering work on environmental justice and health inequalities, and led to new projects with a broader cultural agenda around environmental risk and the politics of pollution.

University of Surrey, Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES)

CES's work in this area takes place in collaboration with the Department of Sociology at Surrey. It has included research funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, employing focus groups to develop a detailed understanding of the environmental concerns of socially disadvantaged people.

University of Westminster, Centre for Sustainable Development (CfSD)

The Centre for Sustainable Development (CfSD) is an interdisciplinary research network at the University of Westminster. It was established in 1998, in recognition that a growing number of the University's research activities were convening under the broader context of the sustainable development agenda. CfSD has undertaken a number of projects in this area, including research on transport poverty and social exclusion, the integration of SD and social inclusion policies, and the links between regeneration and environmental justice.

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The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (pdf) adopted in 1998.

The UNECE Aarhus Convention lays down the basic rules to promote citizens' involvement in environmental matters and enforcement of environmental law. The Aarhus Convention consists of three pillars, each of which grants different rights:

• the first pillar gives the public the right of access to environmental information;
• the second pillar gives the public the right to participate in decision-making processes and;
• the third pillar ensures access to justice for the public.

European Commission - EUROPA - The Aarhus Convention

UNECE Convention website

UNECE Aarhus Clearing House for Environmental Democracy

The Aarhus Clearinghouse for Environmental Democracy serves to collect, disseminate, and exchange information on laws and practices relevant to the rights of:

• public access to environmental information
• public participation in environmental decision-making
• public access to justice on environmental matters

The clearing house showcases good practices in citizens’ environmental rights and is expected to make implementation of the Convention more effective. The clearing house provides a forum for the collection, dissemination and exchange of information on laws, policies and good practices relevant to the rights of public access to information, public participation in environmental decision-making and public access to justice on environmental issues. In addition to information related to the Aarhus Convention, the clearing house also contains other information relevant to the implementation of principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pages:

EPA Compliance and Enforcement

U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Compliance. These pages replace the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) which has been reorganized, and is now a part of the new EPA Compliance and Enforcement portal. This site is a resource for Environmental Justice activities at EPA and other federal agencies. The site includes Environmental Justice legislation and publications. It also links to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, a federal advisory committee to the EPA.

EPA Environmental Justice Page
EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response - Environmental Justice section
EPA Press Release: Release of Environmental Equity Report

Executive Order 12898 (EPA)
On February 11, 1994 President Clinton issued Executive Order 12898 to focus Federal attention and money towards the needs of low-income and minority groups unfairly affected by adverse environmental conditions. This site provides the Order in its entirety or review EPA's Summary of 12898 for a synopsis along with the Agency's draft strategy on the Order.

The EPA's Environmental Justice Strategy

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Environmental Justice Organisations/resources:

Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University

The Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) at Clark Atlanta University was formed in 1994 to serve as a research, policy, and information clearinghouse on issues related to environmental justice, race and the environment, civil rights, facility siting, land use planning, brownfields, transportation equity, suburban sprawl, and Smart Growth.

Michigan State University Environmental Justice Database

People of Color Environmental Groups Directory

Directory of Environmental Legal Groups compiled by Clark Atlanta University's Environmental Justice Resource Center.

The Ecojustice Network

The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ)

A 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization with its main office located in Riverside, California. The Center serves as a resource center for community groups working on environmental justice issues. It provides information/publications; direct assistance to groups; outreach, referral and network development, and training/leadership development.

Indigenous Environmental Network

Sustainable Communities Network Justice and equity resources

Health Studies and Applied Research (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry)

This informative site provides concise summaries of various environmental justice research projects from around the country. It supplies concrete examples of environmental injustices.

Environmental Health Information Service's EnviroNews
This site includes a series of papers published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) on minority health and environmental justice issues

Community Coalition for Environmental Justice

A nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization working on social, economic and environmental health issues that disproportionately impact people of color, refugee, indigenous, immigrant, and low income communities.

Environmental Health Coalition

One of the oldest and most effective grassroots organisations in the United States, using social change strategies to achieve environmental justice.

Greenaction

A new organisation created by community groups in the southwest United States and former Greenpeace staff.

Arctic Circle: Social Equity and Environmental Justice

Site about the impact of colonialism and social inequity in the Arctic.

Arctic Circle - Additional Resources

Native Americans and the Environment Environmental justice links

The Right-to-Know Network

A service provided by OMB Watch provides free access to numerous databases, text files, and conferences on the environment. With the information available on RTK NET, you can identify specific factories and their environmental effects and assess people and communities affected.

The Minority Environmental Lawyers Association Inc. (MELA)

Anot-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting equity in the practice and application of environmental law. MELA's membership includes African, Asian, Latino, and Native American.

Environmental Defense Fund

(Provider of the chemical information service, Chemical ScoreCard) Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 300,000 members. Since 1967, they have linked science, economics and law to create innovative, equitable and cost-effective solutions to society's most urgent environmental problems. Environmental Defense is dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people, including future generations. Among these rights are access to clean air and water, healthy and nourishing food, and a flourishing ecosystem.

US Environmental Defense's Scorecard EJ section

Environmental Justice Fund

The EJ Fund is a national membership organisation dedicated to strengthening the environmental justice movement. It helps build the capacity of the environmental justice networks to strengthen their funding and programmes.

The law of environmental justice: update service

American Bar Association's Environmental Justice Law Page.

Environmental Justice and Climate Change

A moderated forum for the discussion of environmental justice and climate change issues.

Environmental Racism and Biased Methods of Risk Assessment

A study commissioned by The United Church of Christ, and written by Daniel C. Wigley & Kristin S. Shrader-Frechette.

Rachel's Environment and health Weekly

Providing news and resources for environmental justice.

Innercity Press

Corpwatch.org

Environmental justice articles

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Local Organisations:

West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT)

Anon-profit, grassroots, 501(c)(3) organisation working to improve environmental quality and to secure environmental justice in predominately African-American and Latino communities.

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC)

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), which has monitored the environmental and social impacts of the high tech industry in Santa Clara county and globally.

Nindakin

Originated at the University of California at Berkeley in 1991 and is comprised of people active in social and environmental justice struggles.

The Sierra Club's Environmental Justice program

Supports local communities to fight for a clean and healthy environment for people whose neighbourhoods have been targeted by polluting industries.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Environmental Justice

The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance

NYCEJA is a city-wide network that links grass roots organisations, low-income neighborhoods and coloured communities (EJ communities) in their struggle against environmental racism.

The South African Exchange Program on Environmental Justice (SAEPEJ)

A Boston-based non-profit organisation which focuses on the effects of toxics and the deteriorating environment on the health and daily lives of communities in South Africa, and aims to bridge communities in the US with their counterparts in South Africa.

Center for Health, Environment and Justice

Was founded in 1981, as the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste (CCHW), by Lois Gibbs, the community leader at Love Canal. CHEJ seeks to help local citizens and organisations come together and take an organised, unified stand in order to hold industry and government accountable and work toward a healthy, sustainable future.

South Central Oklahoma Environmental Justice Resource Center

The South Central Oklahoma Environmental Justice Resource Center, in addition to its original material (including an interesting newsletter), also hosts links to related sites, including documents, regional coverage and governmental resources.

Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission

The TNRCC's Environmental Equity Program was established in 1993 to aid communication between government, local communities, and neighbouring industries.

Office of Equal Opportunity, Contract Assistance and Environmental Equity

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency

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Academic sites:

The Environmental Justice Information Page

This site has been developed as a project for the School of Natural Resources and Environment class "Ecological Issues" at the University of Michigan. The purpose is to supply information to students and the general public about Environmental Justice and about some of the current topics.

Environmental Justice Database

Bibliographic entries on issues related to environmental justice. Michigan State University database.

Environmental Justice Group at the University of Michigan

Environmental Justice Links-University of Michigan

Harvard University, Working Group on Environmental Justice Working Group on Environmental Justice

Created as an interdisciplinary and university-wide effort to examine issues of environmental justice both within this country and around the world.

Center for Environmental Equity and Justice (CEEJ)

At Florida A&MM University within the Environmental Sciences Institute. The purpose of the Center is to conduct and facilitate research, develop policies, engage in education, training, and community outreach activities with respect to environmental equity and justice issues.

Thurgood Marshall School of Law Environmental Justice Clinic Texas Southern University

The Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Environmental Justice Clinic is a public interest, environmental project founded in 1994 to lend the expertise and commitment of the Civil Rights and Environmental Movement to disenfranchised minority and low-income communities in Texas and neighboring states throughout the South, burdened by various environmental abuses.

Xavier University of Louisiana Deep South Center for Environmental Justice

Brookings Institution on Environmental Justice

New York University Website with Environmental Justice Cases and Materials NYU Center for Environmental & Land Use Law

U.S. Environmental Justice by Professor Vicki Been, NYU Law School-reference material on environmental justice.

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University created this site to provide a helpful summary of environmental justice and key definitions.

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U.S. Government Environmental Justice Pages:

President Clinton's Executive Order on Environmental Justice

Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations (11 February 1994) (pdf)

Council on Environmental Quality's Environmental Justice Guidance (pdf)

US Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management

US Department of Transportation EJ Website

A 1994 Presidential Executive Order directed every Federal agency to make environmental justice part of its mission by identifying and addressing the effects of all programs, policies, and activities on "minority populations and low-income populations." The DOT's environmental justice initiatives accomplish this goal by involving the potentially affected public in developing transportation projects that fit harmoniously within their communities without sacrificing safety or mobility.

Department of the Navy's Environmental Justice Program

Site focusing on minority issues.

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