week one: sustainability x equity
Hi! My name is Sri and I’m on a mission to learn as much as I can about the intersection between equity and sustainability in institutions of higher education. What does this mean? It means that I want to know how inclusive and thoughtful sustainability and environmental policy at universities is currently and in what ways policy can be revamped in the future. I also want to know how policy gets created in these institutions and how important a student voice is to that policy idea. This space is just meant to be a way for me to untangle and organize my thoughts each week as I dig through some of the research and literature that already exists.
Environmental Justice 101
Environmental justice is “the principle that all people are entitled to equal environmental protection regardless of race, color or national origin. It’s the right to live and work and play in a clean environment” according to Robert Bullard, the father of environmental justice. The burden and the benefits of the environment should be fairly distributed across countries, governments and groups of people. However for all of history people of color and people in lower socio-economic brackets have shouldered the disproportionate effects of climate change and other unsustainable practices.
Environmental racism looks like low income neighborhoods existing in areas with high rates of pollution, contaminated water, and hazardous waste sites. It looks like Flint, Michigan, Pahokee, Florida, and Uniontown, Alabama.
The intersection of equity and sustainability is obvious when it comes to forming city policy, federal regulations, and even business models. It means approaching policy with the idea of profit, planet, AND the people.
But now I want to know, what does environmental justice in the context of universities look like? Does it look like a diverse student population, access to financial aid and transportation and campuses thinking about the impact they have on the surrounding community? Or does it look like all of this and more?
Current Climate Policy
To try to begin answering my question I looked at a dozen or so different universities and how they approach sustainability. This is an ongoing process and I’m hoping to look through dozens of more policies each week and understand climate rhetoric in colleges. I started by looking for specific cases in which the idea of diversity, equity, social or environmental justice were explicitly stated in the university climate and sustainability policy. I would categorize my initial findings into three buckets: strong/strongish environmental justice, token environmental justice, and non existent environmental justice.
Some universities such as Colorado State, Iowa State, Purdue University, Ohio State, and UC Boulder did not mention the idea of equity in their climate plans at all. Their plans focused on biodiversity, reduction of emissions programs, and energy consumption. Other universities simply had one to two sentences on equitable transportation which seems like a non effort on their part in terms of earnest attempts at viewing sustainability through a holistic lens. However, a handful of universities stood out as ‘leaders’ in inclusive policy.
Next Week I want to break down some of the campus policies I think stood out, think about what I want to see on my own college campus when it comes to intersectional climate policy, and also look at some city climate plans to see how they have taken initiatives in this area.