E2I2’s Guiding Framework
E2I2 is part of the environmental justice movement, founded by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community leaders in the 1980s in response to discriminatory environmental practices predominantly in low-income communities of color. Environmental justice is a cornerstone principle of the United States Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency who provide the following definition:
“Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.“
“The Department of Energy further states: Fair treatment means that no population bears a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or from the execution of federal, state, and local laws; regulations; and policies. Meaningful involvement requires effective access to decision makers for all, and the ability in all communities to make informed decisions and take positive actions to produce environmental justice for themselves.“
Environmental inequity is a term that refers to the disproportionate exposure of certain communities to environmental and climate threats. People most affected by environmental and climate threats in the United States are Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Asian American Pacific Islanders, rural and low-income communities, and women. In contrast, environmental equity refers to achieving a fair distribution of the resources that promote good environmental health, such as green spaces, clean air, safe neighborhoods, and the ability to evacuate disasters.
To achieve environmental equity, we must tackle the systems and processes that increase environmental and climate threats for some groups more than others, such as disproportionately approving planning permission for polluting factories in Black, Indigenous, and low-income communities.
E2I2’s work is also guided by a social determinants of health framework, which recognizes that where you live, work, and play determines your access to good health. Under this framework environmental health is a social determinant that includes water and air (indoor and outdoor) quality, waste disposal, weather, green space, and climate change. Other social determinants of health include:
- Economic stability.
- Education access and quality.
- Healthcare access and quality.
- Other neighborhood and built environment factors such as transportation and housing.
- Social and community context such as community engagement, exposure to violence and trauma.
- Food access and quality, such as cost of food, access to healthy food.
E2I2 recognizes that powerful oppressive systems drive the distribution of social determinants of health. In the United States, historic and systemic racism and White supremacy are prominent drivers of environmental health disparities, placing Indigenous communities and communities of color directly in the path of harmful chemical plants, industrial agricultural, deforestation, urbanization, and brownfields.
We recognize that racism is not the only oppressive system increasing exposure to environmental risks for some groups of people. Other systems include sexism (discrimination towards women), ableism (discrimination towards people with disabilities), transphobia (discrimination towards the trans community), homophobia (discrimination towards the gay community), and ageism (discrimination towards older people). Therefore, E2I2 works at the intersection of these systems to understand how environmental and climate threats negatively impact different groups of people to generate effective, sustainable, context-specific solutions. In doing so, we aim to always center the most marginalized groups impacted by environmental and climate injustice.
