Founded in 1991, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA) is a non-profit, 501(c)3 citywide membership network linking grassroots organizations from low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in their struggle for environmental justice. NYC-EJA empowers its member organizations to advocate for improved environmental conditions and against inequitable environmental burdens by the coordination of campaigns designed to inform City and State policies. Through their efforts, member organizations coalesce around specific common issues that threaten the ability for low-income communities of color to thrive.

“Communities of color don’t need to be granted agency – we have been fighting for our planet and for our own communities for decades. We are in a climate crisis that demands we work together to find solutions that work. Yet too often, innovative and impactful solutions developed by leaders of color see those solutions marginalized or ignored. Top philanthropies who overlook the outsized impact that people of color-led groups across this country have on climate every day are forfeiting opportunities to be truly transformational,” said Eddie Bautista, Executive Director of NYC-EJA.

“The Climate Funders Justice Pledge encourages funders to harness the power of an already expansive movement that is winning. I hope that funders step up to the plate and make good on their public commitments to racial justice by directing climate dollars where it’s most effective – Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led groups on the frontlines.”

Recent Wins:

Helped pass two of NY’s landmark environmental justice laws including:

NYS CLCPA, the most ambitious emissions-reduction state legislation in the country

The Climate Mobilization Act, the most aggressive energy efficiency mandate put forth by any city in the nation, with a series of climate laws designed to dramatically cut carbon in NYC

Successfully advocated for the nation’s first Congestion Pricing plan in 2019 with the Fix the Subway Campaign, projected to generate nearly $2 billion in annual revenue to be invested into NYC’s public transit system (transportation accounts for 30% of New York’s GHG emissions)

Championed a sweeping overhaul of the City’s waste export system that substitutes a polluting truck-based system confined to a handful of overburdened communities to a decentralized marine and rail-based export system.

Founded in 1991, the Asian Pacfic Environmental Network (APEN) works to build the power of Asian immigrant and refugee communities. People have a right to a clean and healthy environment in which their communities can thrive, and APEN brings organizers together to develop an agenda to bring fundamental changes for environmental, social, and economic justice.

Executive Director Miya Yoshitani says, “Our vision is clear: To be accountable to the working-class communities of color leading the fight for our families, our neighborhoods and our environment where we live, work, and play. To embrace solutions that come directly from the frontlines.”

The core of APEN’s work is bringing together Asian immigrants and refugees in Oakland and Richmond, CA to advance solutions to the issues that matter most to them. At the state level, APEN organizes in communities that politicians and political parties often ignore, and are helping to establish groundbreaking policies that put working-class communities of color first. In the 2000s, Chinese workers organized at the A.X.T. electronics factory in Fremont, where owners knowingly exposed workers to arsenic dust at 21 times the legal limit. APEN helped those workers to win compensation and lifetime health screenings and a court ruled that the company must comply with workplace health and safety requirements.

Recent Wins:

APEN and other grassroot organizations took to Oakland streets to defend democracy amid Trump declaring false victory.

Released Resilience Before Disaster: The Need to Build Equitable, Community-Driven Social Infrastructure report jointly with SEIU California and BlueGreen Alliance, making the case for California to make long-term and deep investments in the resilience of its most vulnerable communities.

APEN helped craft and approve AB693 in the California state legislature that created $1B in incentives for solar on multi-family affordable housing. Part of the incentive ensures that renters benefit from lower energy costs. The program, now called Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing, or “SOMAH,” was the largest solar investment in low-income communities of color.

Front and Centered is the largest coalition of communities of color-led groups in the Pacific Northwest, whose diverse missions and work come together at the intersection of equity, environmental and climate justice. Front and Centered actively works towards the vision for a Just Transition – a future where communities of color and the earth are healed and thriving, people have dignified work, and the government values, resprects, and represents communities of color.

“As the largest coalition of POC-led organizations in the Pacific Northwest region, and the only one focused on fighting climate change, Front and Centered is intimately familiar with two things: first, the immense value and potential of unearthing the wisdom from the lived experience of our communities, and second, the barriers to marshalling resources across our over 70 organizations. We believe the reforms called for via the Donors of Color Network’s Climate Funders Justice Pledge are a necessary first step for the philanthropic community to become effective climate funders, and we are excited to help,” said Community Council Co-Chairs Rosalinda Guillen and Yolanda Matthews.

Recent Wins:

Pushed for the successful passing of the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act in Washington state which aims to define environmental justice in state law and direct funding towards environmental benefits

Established the Just Transition in Transportation initiative to advocate for better public transit, cleaner air, and safer streets for communities of color

Launched the Frontline Response Fund, which raised and distributed over $500,000 to nearly 60 community groups investing in community resiliency

Continuing to drive forward critical legislative priorities designed to facilitate a just transition toward climate and environmental justice, including the Growth Management Act – which would require local areas in Washington state to build comprehensive plans for greenhouse gas reductions and climate impacts for the first time – and the Energy for All Bill – that requires electric utilities to ditch fossil fuels and make an equitable transition to clean energy without burdening low-income households.

The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) is a statewide alliance of grassroots organizations that works to achieve environmental justice by advancing policy solutions. CEJA unites the powerful local organizing of frontline residents – Black, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander, low-income and immigrant communities – to create comprehensive opportunities for change at a statewide level. CEJA builds the power of working class communities of color to create policies that will alleviate poverty and pollution. Together, CEJA is growing the statewide movement for environmental health and a Just Transition off of fossil fuels.

“At CEJA, we know the power and wisdom of frontline residents to build equitable solutions for our housing, public health, and climate crises. Funders have a responsibility to resource these solutions – not as an afterthought, but as a critical piece of building a winning climate movement. The Climate Funders Justice Pledge is a catalyst for that much-needed shift in philanthropy as we fight to phase out fossil fuels and dirty energy and prioritize people and communities over corporate profit,” said Interim Co-Director Denise Forrest.

Recent Wins:

Successfully campaigned to push the California Environmental Protection Agency to adopt one of the first official cumulative impact screening tools in the country, CalEnviroScren, which analyzes census tracts facing the deadly combination of socioeconomic stressors, public health burdens and high pollution levels.

Contributed to the latest Greenlining report to highlight how states can reduce climate crisis inequities with the Transformative Climate Communities model. The TCC Program places community leadership at the forefront to develop and implement projects that meet resident-identified needs.

Continued to lead the Regenerate California campaign to ensure communities have access to renewable energy and local jobs, while committing California to achieve a 100% clean renewable energy future

Co-developed an Environmental and Housing Justice Platform (EHJP) with other social justice movement allies that uplifts a comprehensive vision of affordable, accessible, and healthy housing for all Californians. Provided leadership within the statewide VISION coalition to phase oil and gas wells away from homes, schools, hospitals, and prisons with a 3,200 ft setback.

Advocated alongside a community-based coalition that defeated Proposition 23, an attempt by Big Oil to overturn California’s climate change laws.

Led on the issues of health and equity to California’s clean energy debates: In 2010, CEJA worked to ensure that California’s renewable energy goals (the statewide Renewable Portfolio Standard) included provisions that encourage local renewable generation as an alternative to building new transmission power lines.

The Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (GCCLP) is a non-profit, public interest law firm and justice center with a mission to advance structural shifts toward climate justice and ecological equity in communities of color on the frontline of climate change, and provide a Southern perspective on issues that have national impact and global influence.

GCCLP began as a program of Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Inc. in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita more than a decade ago. Since then, GCCLP has become a national leader in climate disaster recovery by serving thousands of residents throughout Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida through its disaster legal services, community programming, and human rights-based training.

To advance the work needed in impacted regions towards climate and racial justice, in 2019 GCCLP launched Gulf South for a Green New Deal (GS4GND) in partnership with over 200 organizations across the Gulf South. Colette Pichon Battle, Executive Director of GCCLP, says, “With the Gulf South for a Green New Deal initiative, Gulf South communities identify and develop the solutions needed for recovery and the transition to a healthier, more just economy and a collective vision for a sustainable future.” GS4GND is a formation of both policy development and organizing towards creating a Green New Deal inclusive of the Gulf South.

Recent Wins:

GS4GND initiative co-hosted a Human Rights Tribunal with the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas to submit an Official Observers Opinion and early warning to the United Nations on the behalf of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas who face immediate and ongoing threats to their sacred sites, their environment, and public health from multiple proposed Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) projects as well as the United States’ southern Border Wall construction.

GS4GND initiative completed a 7 month Sacred Waters Pilgrimage 2020 down the MS River to heal and reconcile relationships between Black and Native communities impacted by climate change and the legacy of colonialism.

Sub­mit­ted the Gulf South for a Green New Deal to the House Select Com­mit­tee on the Cli­mate Cri­sis and oth­er pol­i­cy-mak­ing bod­ies in response to Hurricane Laura.

Colette Pichon Battle, Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, was announced as a member of the Climate Initiatives Task Force.

MISSION: Indigenous Environmental Network is an alliance of Indigenous Peoples whose shared mission is to protect the sacredness of Mother Earth from contamination and exploitation by respecting and adhering to traditional Indigenous knowledge and natural law. Established in 1990 within the United States and in recent years working globally, IEN was formed by grassroots Indigenous Peoples to address environmental and economic justice issues. IEN’s activities include building the capacity of Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, the health of both people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.

APPROACH: IEN accomplishes this by maintaining an informational clearinghouse, organizing campaigns, direct actions and public awareness, building the capacity of community and tribes to address EJ issues, development of initiatives to impact policy, and building alliances among Indigenous communities, tribes, inter-tribal and Indigenous organizations, BIPOC organizations, faith-based and women’s groups, youth, labor, environmental organizations, and others.

Keep It In The Ground Campaign Organizer Dallas Goldtooth says, “Our work is a balancing act between fighting against extractive systems and fighting for regenerative ones to take its place. Furthermore, a transition to 100 percent renewables doesn’t necessarily guarantee that poor and working-class communities will have access to basic needs. When we talk about a just transition, we are talking about a future in line with the principles of Indigenous and human rights, social justice and environmental justice.”

RECENT WINS

Standing Rock water protectors delay Dakota Access Pipeline construction, costing the company billions

Communities and Tribes cancel and delay the Keystone XL Pipeline for over 10 years.

Shut down Atlantic Coast Pipeline

With allies, released the Banking on Climate Change Fossil Fuel Finance Report, showing how banks are funding Indigenous land grabs, the violation of Indigenous rights and eco-colonialism.