The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, culture, education, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair Treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local, and tribal environmental programs. and policies. Meaningful Involvement means that: (1) potentially affected community residents have an appropriate opportunity to participate in decisions about a proposed activity that will affect their environment and/or health; (2) the public’s contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decision; (3) the concerns of all participants involved will be considered in the decision-making process; and (4) the decision-makers seek out and facilitate the involvement of those potentially affected.”
A potential goal of this subtopic collaboratory is to develop our own professional position paper on this issue.
January 17, 2008 by
John Morelli | Filed under: The EM Role in Environmental Justice | No Comments »
Workshop: Using the ISO 26000 Standard on Social Responsibility as Guidance for Environmental Justice
How do we pursue environmental justice? What is our role as environmental manager? The soon-to-be published ISO 26000 standard on Social Responsibility may provide a useful guide for environmental managers and others to strategies and activities that will serve this purpose.
This workshop session will explore whether or not the new ISO 26000 guidance document on social responsibility would be a useful tool for capturing environmental justice principles. The following are a few questions to hopefully help with the discussion:
- What is the environmental manager’s definition of environmental justice?
- As environmental managers do we feel there is a connection between environmental justice and social responsibility and to what extent?
- Would a document like ISO 26000 on social responsibility be a useful tool for environmental justice?
Eh Who us responsible for environmental justice and is linking it with social responsibility the most effective way to approach it?
Moderator: Mason Baziw. Mason is a graduate student in RIT’s MS degree program in EHS Management
Posted below you will find abstracts and reference citations of articles that have been collected in support of this topic. Some may have links to the full text documents.
January 13, 2008 by
Brian Butler ,
John Morelli | Filed under: Literature Review,The EM Role in Environmental Justice | No Comments »
Much of what is considered environmental injustice can be measured as a crime. Criminology and is not frequently represented in environmental justice literature. The authors begin with a brief definition of environmental justice and summarize the history of environmental justice legislation. In this reading over 400 environmental justice articles are examined to evaluate the contributions from different academic departments and advocate memberships. Common themes of these articles are then identified and analyzed. The repetition of eight particular themes is established and discussed in further detail. Spatial distribution (1) involves the assessment geographical hazards that are recognized as threats on human health. Environmental discrimination (2) is defined as a realization; minorities are in fact subjected to environmental hazards. Methodology and theory (3) represents the argument of who controls environmental research and policy. Social movement (4) essentially pertains to the importance of activism and organizational involvement. Public Health and risk (5) is often disregarded in the face of commitment to capital accumulation. Environmental Law and policy (6) discerns the superior protection of rights of a corporation over the rights of the individual. Globalization (7) is a concept of expansion and the relationship to a growing concern. Philosophies of justice (8) are simply the claims and grievances of injustice. The authors conclude by justifying corporate responsibility in environmental crimes. This analytical review ultimately establishes the need for a relationship between criminologists and their role in advocating the equality of environmental policy. The article justly presents an idea of incorporating the support of scholars from the criminology field; this is necessary when considering justice for every individual regardless of race and social status. Criminologists should continue to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of corporate environmental crimes and begin to recognize the need for change.
December 19, 2007 by
Brian Butler ,
John Morelli | Filed under: Literature Review,The EM Role in Environmental Justice | No Comments »
President Clinton established Executive Order 12898 in response to the environmental injustices being recognized across the nation. The author examines the effects of this order and attempts to evaluate this order and its relationship to specific programs such as the Superfund. The article begins by examining key questions related to environmental justice. Are there similar demographics associated to areas sited on the Superfund list? Has the executive order impacted the probability of poor/minority communities being listed on the Superfund? To answer these questions, the author investigates an inverse relationship between low-income and minority communities and the sites that are being listed for cleanup; there appears to be a trend. As these burdened neighborhoods increase in population, the number of sites listed in the National Priority List decreases. The method used to determine this negative association considers two variables. The first variable is demographics; which is collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, The second variable is site-specific which is taken from the EPA’s CERCLIS database. After considering the groupings and scenarios of these variables, the author created a table based on the general population and the percent of chance a superfund will be listed. The table is then compared to another table prepared which determines the chance of listing prior to the signing of Executive Order 12898. The results suggest that after the Executive Order was established, minority populations were less likely to benefit from cleanup programs such as Superfund and even less of a chance in low-income communities. The article mathematically represents the disadvantage of low income and minority communities and accurately depicts a direct relationship between Superfund listing and Executive Order 12898. The author concludes that agencies need to take a closer look at the figures, concentrate on implementation, and increase efforts for financial support. She expresses concern that although the Executive Order has been successful on a regional scale, it still lacks promise on a national level.
December 19, 2007 by
Brian Butler ,
John Morelli ,
Brian Butler | Filed under: Literature Review,The EM Role in Environmental Justice | No Comments »
Most people want to live long and healthy and with today’s healthcare and technology people can easily achieve this goal, however there are some populations who are at a disadvantage. These populations, such has ethnic and minority groups, statistically suffer from higher mortality rates earlier in life. There is evidence that this may have a significant relationship to their exposure to pollution in the home and workplace. The article begins with a history of environmental justice and its key players. It explains the success of the environmental justice movement and the research initiative that has been prompted based on the discrepancies of whether or not injustice occurs. Along with determining the health impacts from external environmental exposures, the authors describe the relationship of these health problems to genetic predisposition and susceptibility. The article continues to assess regulatory plans and the development of current health policies. Advocacy and community perspectives are then examined to determine how communities are coping with the occurrence of disease and cancer within the community. Finally, based on the information and research brought forth, the authors conclude the presence of higher cancer rates in areas where chronic exposure to pollutants is present. The authors present a good representation of the health defects caused by environmental burdens and its subsequent domination in disadvantaged populations. They suggest positive interactions and partnerships among key players in environmental justice; this includes protection groups, health care professionals, researchers, and federal agencies.
