Environmental justice

What is environmental justice?

Environmental Justice (EJ) is a powerful and evolving concept, movement, and framework that seeks to remedy the disproportionate environmental burdens borne by marginalized communities, particularly communities of color, Indigenous peoples, and low-income populations. It is both a critique of environmental racism and a vision for a more just and sustainable future.

Environmental justice is not defined by a single, universally accepted definition. Instead, it is shaped by a constellation of lived experiences, legal frameworks, grassroots activism, and scholarly inquiry.

These definitions vary, not only across stakeholders, but also by scale. Globally, environmental justice may focus on climate justice and colonial legacies. Nationally, it may address systemic racism in environmental regulation. At the state and local levels, environmental justice often centers specific communities and their exposures to environmental hazards.

At its core, environmental justice demands that all people—regardless of race, class, gender, and geography—have the right to live, work, play, and pray in places that are safe, healthy, and free from harm. It contends that when that right has been violated, repair is required.

Environmental justice as a movement

Environmental justice is a grassroots movement led by those most affected by environmental harms. It challenges the dominant paradigms of environmentalism that have historically prioritized wilderness preservation over human health and equity. Environmental justice activists work to expose and dismantle the systemic inequalities that allow polluting industries to be concentrated in communities with the least political power.

The movement is diverse and decentralized, encompassing struggles against toxic waste, air and water pollution, climate change, extractive industries, and more. It is also a movement for self-determination, emphasizing the right of communities to define their own environmental priorities and solutions.

Environmental justice as a framework

As a framework, environmental justice provides a lens through which to analyze the intersections of environment, race, class, and power. It informs policy, planning, and research by centering the voices and experiences of frontline communities. Key concepts within the environmental justice framework include:

• Cumulative impacts: Recognizing that communities often face multiple, overlapping environmental and social stressors.
• Precautionary principle: Advocating for proactive measures to prevent harm, rather than reacting after damage is done.
• Meaningful participation: Ensuring that affected communities have a real voice in decision-making processes.

Environmental justice as remedy

Environmental justice is also a remedy—a response to the legacy and ongoing reality of environmental racism, which refers to the deliberate and/or negligent siting of polluting industries and infrastructure in communities of color. Environmental justice seeks to redress injustice through legal action, policy reform, community organizing, and public education.

Historical and intellectual roots

The environmental justice movement emerged in the U.S. in the late 20^th century, rooted in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. A pivotal moment came in 1982, when residents of Warren County, North Carolina, who were predominantly Black and working class, protested the siting of landfill in their community contaminated with hazardous polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Protestors were joined by national Black civil rights organizations including the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Congressional Black Caucus. Though the protest did not stop the landfill, it catalyzed a national conversation about environmental racism.

In 1987, the United Church of Christ Commission Racial Justice released their report, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, demonstrating that hazardous waste facilities were disproportionately located in communities of color across the U.S.

In 1991, the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit convened in Washington, D.C., bringing together activists, scholars, and community leaders from across the country. From this summit emerged The Principles of Environmental Justice, a foundational document that continues to guide the movement today. These seventeen principles articulate a vision of justice that is intersectional, international, and deeply democratic. They affirm the rights of all peoples to: participate as equal partners in environmental decision-making, be free from ecological destruction, receive full compensation and reparations for environmental harms, protect sacred lands and cultural heritage, and live in harmony with the natural world.

The Principles of Environmental Justice are not merely aspirational—they are a call to action.

Environmental justice in Virginia

In Virginia, environmental justice has become an increasingly visible issue in state policy and public discourse. The Virginia Environmental Justice Act, passed in 2020, defines EJ as “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.”

Despite this legal recognition, implementation remains uneven. Communities across the state continue to face challenges related to industrial pollution, energy infrastructure, and land use decisions that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations.

Environmental justice in Hampton Roads

Hampton Roads, a coastal region in southeastern Virginia, is home to several coal export terminals, including those in Norfolk and Newport News. These facilities handle millions of tons of coal annually, much of it stored in open-air piles and transported by uncovered railcars. Residents in nearby neighborhoods—many of whom are Black, low-income, or both—report frequent coal dust exposure.

Coal dust is a fine particulate matter that can contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Community members have documented black dust on homes, cars, and playgrounds, raising concerns about long-term health impacts.

Local EJ advocates argue that these communities were not meaningfully involved in decisions about coal terminal siting and operations. They also point to a lack of real-time air monitoring and limited enforcement of environmental regulations.

Environmental justice and coal dust: differing approaches

Different stakeholders approach the issue of coal dust and EJ in Hampton Roads in distinct ways:

• Community groups focus on lived experience, health impacts, and the need for accountability and reparations.
• Regulatory agencies may emphasize compliance with existing air quality standards, which often do not account for cumulative or long-term exposure.
• Academic researchers may study the spatial distribution of pollution and its correlation with race and income.
• Industry representatives may highlight economic benefits and voluntary mitigation measures.

These differing approaches can lead to conflict, but they also reflect the complexity of environmental justice as a field that spans science, policy, law, and activism.

Documents

• United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States: A National Report on the Racial and Socio-Economic Characteristics of Communities with Hazardous Waste Sites, 1987
• The Principles of Environmental Justice, People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, 1991
• Proceedings: The First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, The Washington Court on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., October 24–27, 1991