Environmental Justice and Climate Resiliency Resources
I was working with a client several weeks ago who told me she was impressed with my ability to find information online. We live in an information age with an abundance of helpful tools, so I thought it would be helpful to put a few of those out into the world. This data is specific to environmental justice/overburdened communities. Please see below for some of my most used websites for grant writing and their descriptions.
Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool – This mapping tool uses census tract data and overlays risk factors that may identify an area as disadvantaged. The factors identified in the tool include: climate change (with respect to expected agriculture loss rate, building loss rate, and population loss rate), clean energy, legacy pollution, health burdens (e.g., asthma, diabetes, heart disease, life expectancy), sustainable housing, workforce development, sustainable housing, and clean transit.
EJ Screen – According to the US EPA, this tool is used for implementing permitting, enforcement, and compliance; developing retrospectives reporting on EPA work; and informing outreach and engagement processes. It is a GIS-based mapping tool that overlays percentiles for environmental and socioeconomic information in following twelve specific EJ indexes: particulate matter (PM) 2.5, ozone, diesel PM, air toxics cancer risk, air toxics respiratory hazard index, traffic proximity, lead paint, risk-management plan (RMP) facility proximity, hazardous waste proximity, Superfund proximity, underground storage tanks, and wastewater discharge.
Department of Energy Justice Mapping Tool – A GIS-based mapping tool that tracks key indicators including: the percentage of uninsured, education levels, linguistics isolation, low-income populations, renters, job accessibility, commute times, and climate hazards.
Justice40 Initiative – President Biden has established the Justice40 Initiative under Executive Order 14008 to direct 40% of federal investments to flow to disadvantaged communities (DAC). This website describes the key goals of his policy. There are a total of 36 burden indicators, so I won’t list them all. To be considered a DAC, a census tract must rank in the 80th percentile of the cumulative sum of the 36 burden indicators and have at least 30% of households classified as low-income.
US EPA 2022-2026 Strategic Plan – A blueprint for the short-term focus (four years) of the US EPA. It includes a myriad of strategic initiatives such as boosting recycling initiates to reduce the amount of waste landfilled, performance goals for mitigating climate adaption implementation plans, promoting and improving public health in the most overburdened, vulnerable, and underserved communities, among others.
