Berkeley Workshop on Environmental Politics: Institute of International Studies; University of California Berkeley

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Introduction

Increasingly over the past decade, the call to protect the natural environment has been matched by a call for protecting those deprived of a clean and healthy human environment. This voice came not from within the established, large environmental organizations, but largely from local grassroots efforts centered in communities of color impacted by toxic air, contaminated land, and water pollution.

By raising a voice to the environmental problems that they lived with, Environmental Justice activists drew attention to the power of a collective fight for a healthy human and natural environment. The environmental justice movement was born, culminating formally in 1991, at the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, and in the creation of the Principles of Environmental Justice. These principles outlined a vision whereby "the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction" could mix with a vision of "mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias." From this shared vision, came a strong commitment to rid the world of the harms of nuclear weapons and waste, toxics pesticides and pollution, and destructive corporate and military exploitation, as well as a commitment to fight for the rights of all people to self-determination, democratic public process, and a sustainable natural resource base. For many, fighting for environment and life became one and the same.

Since then, the call for social equity in the environment has met with a broad audience, and has come to be a part of many progressive efforts to better the environment. Today regional and international networks of organizations focusing on equity and environment have sprung up, connecting organizations of vastly different sizes and experiences with one another. The Bay Area is an example of a vibrant center for such work, and we hope that with this directory you will find a slice of the diversity in scale and scope of environmental justice work being undertaken locally.

In attempting to bring together such diverse material, we found that a key to assessing environmental equity, and a criterion in selecting organizations for this directory, is a groups' conscious focus not only on environmental problems, but on disproportionate environmental burdens and/or unequal distribution of environmental benefits. Not all people receive equal access to environmental health, and, both here and abroad, access to natural resources often rotates around the axes of race and wealth. The Environmental Justice movement has worked to identify historically impacted communities, organize citizens and fight the power structures that remain as barriers to clean-up, compensation and change. Fronting these concerns has been a hallmark of environmental justice.

The "EJ" community in the Bay Area is thus comprised of many different kinds of organizations. Not all of the groups use the words "environment" or "justice" to describe their work, but they all work against threats to the well being of lands and communities both locally and across the world. In each of the profiles, we have highlighted the aspects of the organization's work that would be of most interest to others working for environmental justice. The purpose of the directory is to facilitate networking among organizations and to help incoming residential fellows and visiting scholars of the Berkeley Workshop on Environmental Politics orient themselves and connect their work with local organizations.

In searching for organizations working on environmental issues out of a larger concern for social justice, we found a range of approaches. The directory contains both large and small nonprofits, from grassroots groups struggling against immediate community, home and workplace assaults to professional organizations waging information campaigns to broad coalitions of activists mobilizing against big industrial interests. The organizations included are working at vastly different scales, from single neighborhoods to transnational migration trails to international arenas. Some organizations are community-based; some are focused on a specific issue. There are researchers, activists, educators and service providers, and a number of organizations doing all of the above. Although we surely did not find them all this time around, our aim was to include all those groups that work with a deep understanding of the links between destructive social relationships and damaging environmental practices.

While we recognize that almost all nonprofit environmental work benefits society and the earth in some way, we sought to include in this directory those organizations that approach specific environmental issues with a social critique. We looked for organizations that frame environmental problems as the systematic result of unequal power relationships. We found that some do this by actively demonstrating connections across problems facing communities, such as organizing chemically-poisoned workers, unemployed youth and urban gardeners into a movement for industrial plant closure. Other address systematic inequities through education and leadership programs focused on community empowerment.

While we did not undertake to define environmental justice in a systematic way, [1] through compiling the directory, we found some common concerns at work. Many organizations focus on the racist impact of government and industrial policies and practices that sacrifice communities of color. Others work from an explicitly anti-corporate stance, acting as watchdogs or citizen advocates. A number of organizations highlight conflicts between workers and business owners in addressing harmful labor conditions. Still others emphasize the unity of communities, histories and territories by supporting the struggles of indigenous peoples and by opposing nuclear energy development.

We drew from a number of helpful resources in order to identify and contact EJ organizations based in the Bay Area. We found three directories available on the World Wide Web particularly useful: the Environmental Justice Resource Directory published by the Environmental Justice Resource Center (www.ejrc.cau.edu), the Harbinger File's Environmental Network Directory (www.environmentaldirectory.net) and the Bay Area Progressive directory (www.bapd.org).

The profiles in the directory are listed alphabetically by organization name. Each one contains current contact information, program descriptions and vital statistics as of summer 2002, drawn from existing directories, organizational website, and personal interviews. The directory is as comprehensive as possible, although we expect that some organizations eluded our awareness. The directory will be updated periodically, and we welcome your suggestions about organizations that we may have missed.

We hope that you find the directory useful, and that it fosters the growth of the Bay Area's environmental justice movement.

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