Asking the Hard Questions to Achieve Environmental Justice

• Pages: 52-59

52 | THE ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, January/February 2022.

Copyright © 2022, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

THE DEBATE

Asking the Hard Questions to

Achieve Environmental Justice

Environmental justice has received

heightened political attention in re-

cent years. This renewed focus owes

in part to a pandemic that laid bare the

-

ety, and in part to decades of community

organizing. On a federal level, President

Biden has highlighted EJ as a key part of

his agenda, and institutions nationwide

have pushed forward to consider justice

and equity in their cultures and practices.

Governments at all levels are reex-

amining how to level the distribution

    

Meanwhile, companies are increasingly

focused on ways to improve their rela-

tionships with the communities in which

they operate, including environmental

justice neighborhoods. Changing corpo-

rate strategies may help shift the power

dynamics that have contributed to the

legacy of environmental injustices.

Despite a growing number of commit-

ments from organizations to prioritize

environmental and racial justice, many

questions remain on how their words will

be put in action. How can corporations,

governments, activists, and communities

work together to achieve EJ goals? And in

doing so, how can outsiders center — and

not drown out — community voices?

Every October, ELI holds its principal

policy event of the year. In 2021, the Cor-

porate and Policy Forum brought togeth-

er a handful of experts from a variety

of sectors, including ELI Environmental

Justice Staff Attorney Arielle King, who

moderated the discussion.