The Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective (PCJC), facilitated by The Environmental Collaboratory (TEC) at Drexel University, has published a report intended to guide the city’s climate change resilience with a focus on environmental justice. The Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective Report presents community-driven recommendations to develop a local environmentally just climate transition plan. The report is based on insights and feedback from community members and leaders who have direct, first-hand experience with the challenges affecting their communities and the steps needed to address them.
"This report presents community-driven, equity-focused recommendations to advance environmental justice in Philadelphia,” said Mathy Stanislaus, vice provost and executive director of The Environmental Collaboratory. “It is intended to guide a just climate transition by addressing systemic barriers, promoting resilience and elevating community leadership.”
The PCJC is comprised of four community-based organizations across the city, Nueva Esperanza, Inc. (Esperanza), Mantua Civic Association, Overbrook Environmental Education Center, and Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC). Together, and in collaboration with TEC, the PCJC developed a comprehensive set of recommendations to address the socio-economic, environmental justice, health/well-being, and systemic circumstances of these distinct communities.
Key recommendations address issues of high heat, air quality and respiratory health, deteriorating infrastructure, climate solutions centered on equity and impact, and the establishment of a climate and environmental accountability dashboard. Together, the group identified three main thematic categories and 12 common recommendations:
1) Address Systemic Conditions - Identifying and tackling the underlying, deeply rooted social, economic, and environmental factors that contribute to inequalities and challenges. Policy – associated with potential programmatic, practice, or legal interventions.
· Find high heat index solutions that fit and resonate with a given community
· Strengthen education of trash and dumping as an indicator of environmental and neighborhood health
· Recognize the impact of deteriorating infrastructure on environmental and health impacts on disadvantaged communities (e.g. lead water pipelines)
2) Integrated Climate Justice Approach - A framework that combines efforts to combat climate change with principles of social justice, ensuring that environmental policies and actions do not disproportionately neglect nor harm marginalized communities.
· Establish common climate and environmental measures for neighborhood activation
· Emphasize the link between air quality and respiratory health
· Focus climate solutions on equity, impact, and justice
3) Community Leadership Building - Developing the skills, knowledge, and capacity of future leaders within a community to take on leadership roles and drive systemic change.
· Launch awareness raising and education campaigns on cumulative environmental impacts
· Build intentional, mutual trust to accomplish environmental justice work
· Invest in lasting solutions & capacity building
· Create research/data sharing, ownership, and action agreements
· Identify advocates or opportunities for self-advocacy
· Communicate with clear language and messaging
“Each of the community-based organizations determined their focus area and priorities through community engagement strategies of their own choosing, to ensure a genuinely community-led process,” said Sammy Shuster, a program manager for TEC . “These principles of engagement permit a true community-university partnership and ensures data sovereignty, so that information collected is owned by the community, and shared only with explicit consent.”
The report includes a list of priorities from each organization and the lessons and recommendations gleaned from engaging with members of their community to establish the foundational knowledge for this report.
“Environmental justice is at its best when we position it within an equity and social justice framework, allowing the most impacted communities to self-determine and to lead the fight for climate resilience,” said Thoai Nguyen, CEO of SEAMAAC.
Throughout this work, the team emphasized the importance of educating the city’s youth about the complexities of environmental justice, and the lasting impact of ongoing educational efforts.
“I've learned so much about engaging with the youth and the ability to empower young people; they intuitively seemed to get this,” said Gwendolyn Morris of the Mantua Civic Association.
The report expresses the need for multi-layered and coordinated strategies to concurrently address both short and long-term climate issues.
“[The vision of the report] is addressing the tree canopy while we address the lack of AC in homes and how people can afford their utility bills, said Jamile Tellez Lieberman, senior vice president of Community Engagement, Research & Health Equity at Esperanza. “It’s providing cooling centers, while also making and acting on plans to lower temperatures in our community.”
The report will be presented to community members through forums and communications materials to deepen their engagement with policy work. It also will be used as a resource for community-based organizations when they meet with local and state legislators to advocate for support.
"Our ultimate aim for this report is to inform a wide range of stakeholders of the systemic conditions, integrated climate justice approaches and community leadership building strategies that establishes the framework for community-driven plans on climate resilience and healthy environments where our neighbors live, work and play,” said Jerome Shabazz, executive director of Overbrook.
Recently recognized by the Environmental Justice Data Fund – of Google.org – these recommendations inspired a commitment to the creation and facilitation of a Climate and Environmental Accountability Dashboard. The dashboard will host neighborhood-level environmental data for ongoing monitoring of environmental and health conditions, and community advocacy efforts.
Students and faculty at Drexel will also use the report to advance environmental justice research and develop policy briefs. The group hopes this report will advance and inform projects that intend to produce environmentally just results to the Philadelphia community.
This research was supported by the Waverley Street Foundation through their Climate Hubs, a model for community-driven climate solutions.
Read the full Philadelphia Climate Justice Collective Report here: https://drexel.edu/environmental-collaboratory/~/media/Drexel/Provost-Group/Environmental-Collaboratory/Documents/Philadelphia-Climate-Justice-Collective-Final-Update.pdf