Amaris Renee Norwood
Sustainability Management Student, Kogod School of Business
The environmental justice movement in the United States spans decades. In the early 60s, Cesar Chavez led Latino farm workers to advocate for protection against the effects of pesticides. In the late 60s, African Americans in West Harlem fought against the development of a sewage treatment plant in their neighborhood. In 1982, African Americans in Warren County protested the dumping of toxic soil in the county; this was the first environmental protest of its kind that gained national attention¹. Robert Bullard, known as the father of environmental justice, defines environmental justice as “the principle that all people and communities have a right to equal protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations².” This movement works to address how most of the population living in America’s most polluted areas are people of color³.
Over the last few years, environmental justice has increasingly become a point of focus for institutions. In July 2021, President Biden launched the Justice40 initiative to address environmental justice at the federal level4. Following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, a shareholder advocacy non-profit named As You Sow developed a Racial Justice Scorecard to assess companies on racial issues5. Environmental justice is one of the points of criteria in this survey6. The organization examined each of the Russell 1000 companies and found that only 49 publicly made statements on environmental justice.
In May 2022, a PR agency named Golin conducted a survey to see how the American public and C-suite executives view the importance of environmental justice7. Some of the key results from this study showed that 94% of the surveyed executives believe environmental justice is viewed as a “priority for their companies” and 83% of consumers believe companies need to address environmental justice. Though addressing environmental injustices at a cross-sector, the institutional level is important, there’s a need to acknowledge, understand, and collaborate with the environmental justice movement and not undermine it by way of misunderstanding or intentional co-optation.
DEFINING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
The EPA defines environmental justice 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 policies8.” As You Sow defines environmental justice as a racial issue and sees a need to combat the unequal environmental impacts on people of color9. Golin defines it as “a type of discrimination where people of low-income or minority communities are forced to live close to environmentally hazardous conditions10.” Though these definitions have their similarities, they vary in terms of what communities and impacts on these communities fit under environmental justice, which generates confusion.
Within the Golin survey, despite the strong positioning of both executives and the public on supporting environmental justice, there seems to still be a lack of understanding of the topic.
Only 54% of the surveyed Americans report knowing what environmental justice is."
Amaris Renee Norwood
Sustainability Management Student, Kogod School of Business
Additionally, 48% of C-Suite leaders see environmental justice as simply justice for the environment or a mechanism to sue businesses harming the environment. Furthermore, the agency found that 27% of Americans see race as connected to environmental inequalities and only 19% of C-suite leaders see race as a key factor of environmental racism11.
CO-OPTATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
In addition to having a clear definition of environmental justice, we should also have a cohesive idea of what counts as co-optation. Co-optation can be defined as the process where those in power appropriate ideas or people from a social movement as a tactic to dismantle the movement12. A common example of co-optation is adopting language from a movement to dilute its efficacy13. Companies haphazardly using “sustainability” and “green” in their marketing merely to appease consumer demand for more environmentally conscious products are criticized for doing this. By overusing these terms without coherent or regulated definitions, these companies reduce the effectiveness of these words in the environmental movement14.
Another example includes using language from the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Lives Matter movement (e.g., expressing interest in the well-being of Black people) in a way that threatens the movements’ work with addressing racism15.A common example of this includes people expressing they see all races as equal by stating that they don’t see “color.” However, this approach fails to thoroughly acknowledge the racist realities that people of color face."
Amaris Renee Norwood
Sustainability Management Student, Kogod School of Business
Another example is people using language from Black Lives Matter, like expressing the need to save Black lives, by advocating for more policing in areas with high crime rates; however, this is the opposite of what many in the movement are asking for16. It’s important to note that these examples of co-optation can come from places of misunderstanding, but in other instances, co-optation of language intentionally works to dismantle movements to push an opposing agenda.
PREVENTING CO-OPTATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT
There is a lack of coherent defining and understanding of environmental justice across institutions and the public. Whether institutions intend to uplift or undermine the environmental justice movement, the absence of cross-sector consistency will perpetuate confusion amongst the public. This could lead to increased fragmentation in how people address environmental injustices, which then can ultimately weaken the movement. Additionally, seeing that in other environmental and racial justice movements there have been examples of co-optation, it’s fair to believe actors can use similar tactics to dismantle the environmental justice movement.
Government, corporations, and NGOs stepping in to address environmental justice can help institutionalize the mission of the movement and can collectively be actors of impactful change. Additionally, this can help improve the public’s perception of these institutions, which would improve their reputations and help minimize risks. With that said, collaboration should be done mindfully on both the activist side and the institutional side to avoid co-optation while implementing environmental justice policies and practices at a scale that the movement cannot accomplish alone.
Citations
1. Vernice Miller and Renee Skelton, “The Environmental Justice Movement,” NRDC, March 17 2016, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/environmental-justice-movement.
2. Dr. Robert Bullard, “About Environmental Justice,” Dr. Robert Bullard, May 21, 2023, https://drrobertbullard.com/.
3. Miller; WE ACT for Environmental Justice, “Our Story,” WE ACT for Environmental Justice, May 23, 2023, https://www.weact.org/whoweare/ourstory/#:~:text=WE%20ACT%20was%20started%20in,community%2Ddriven%2C%20political%20change.
4. The White House, “Justice 40: A Whole Government Initiative,” The White House, May 23, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/#:~:text=In%20July%202021%2C%20the%20White,of%20reforms%20to%20those%20programs.
5. Founded in 1992 and based in Berkley, CA, As You Sow works to build equitable and sustainable practices within businesses (https://www.asyousow.org/about-us).
6. Racial Justice,” As You Sow, May 22, 2023, https://www.asyousow.org/our-work/social-justice/racial-justice,
7. “Justice for All Survey,” Golin, September 7, 2022, https://golin.com/2022/09/07/justice-for-all-survey/.
8. “Environmental Justice,” Environmental Protection Agency, May 22, 2023, https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice.
9. Racial Justice,” As You Sow, May 22, 2023, https://www.asyousow.org/our-work/social-justice/racial-justice,
10. Justice for All Survey,” Golin, September 7, 2022, https://golin.com/2022/09/07/justice-for-all-survey/.
11. Justice for All Survey,” Golin, September 7, 2022, https://golin.com/2022/09/07/justice-for-all-survey/.
12. Fairai Maguwu and Gabriel Dayley, “How Can Movements Effectively Counter Co-Optation?” ICNC, 28 May 2019, https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/blog_post/can-movements-effectively-counter-co-optation/.
13. Fairai Maguwu and Gabriel Dayley, “How Can Movements Effectively Counter Co-Optation?” ICNC, 28 May 2019, https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/blog_post/can-movements-effectively-counter-co-optation/; Esposito and Victor Romano, “Benevolent Racism and the Co-Optation of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 40, no.3, 2016.
14. Fairai Maguwu and Gabriel Dayley, “How Can Movements Effectively Counter Co-Optation?” ICNC, 28 May 2019, https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/blog_post/can-movements-effectively-counter-co-optation/.
15. Esposito and Victor Romano, “Benevolent Racism and the Co-Optation of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 40, no.3, 2016.
16. Esposito and Victor Romano, “Benevolent Racism and the Co-Optation of the Black Lives Matter Movement,” Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 40, no.3, 2016.