Advance Environmental Justice in Celebration of Earth Day 2023!

The UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability empowers students to solve the planet’s most pressing environmental issues. In celebration of Earth Day 2023, we are launching a campaign to support the environmental justice work of the IoES.

Your contribution, no matter the size, supports environmental justice projects so frontline communities and UCLA have the critical resources to partner and advocate for a more just future.

What is Environmental Justice?

Environmental justice means ensuring all people have equal protection from environmental and health hazards while also ensuring equal access to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental policy and laws, per the CDC. 

Vulnerable communities - including people of color and low-income populations - bear the brunt of environmental degradation and the effects of climate change.

Through our research and engagement with communities around the world, we are increasingly aware of not just the challenges and harms many communities face, but of how essential these communities are to finding and implementing solutions to local and global environmental problems — solutions that also address the daily struggles people in these communities face. 

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Environmental Justice Dashboard as of April 2023

Help UCLA Partner with Communities to Advance Environmental Justice

At the IoES, we are eager to work hand-in-hand with communities to uncover and advance these solutions— from the Congo Basin to community groups in LA’s backyard. 

As the earth continues to warm, environmental threats brought by climate change put communities at risk. Your help is more vital then ever. With your support this Earth Day, the IoES will continue to help vulnerable communities champion environmental justice. 

 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Environmental Justice Dashboard as of April 2023. PM2.5 refers to air pollution particles that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller.

 

Past IoES Projects furthering Environmental Justice

Below we provide examples of past environmental justice projects we have completed. With your support, we can host projects like these more frequently and set our goals even higher.

Developing a sustainable agricultural curriculum to reduce recidivism and improve employment for incarcerated youth in Cameroon 

Our team worked with Agriculture for Africa (A4A), an American non-governmental organization that has developed a model program of sustainable and profitable agricultural practices for prisons in Cameroon and beyond.

Evaluating Equity Under Measure W - Los Angeles County’s Safe Clean Water Program 

Our team addressed the allocation of Measure W funds and the equitable distribution of its projects across the county.

Assessment of cumulative lead exposure in Los Angeles children 

Our practicum team partnered with UCLA’s Early Head Start program to conduct research that characterizes the extent and severity of lead contamination in Los Angeles and created a framework for the equitable remediation of lead hazards across the city.

Advancing the Circular Economy in Lagos 

The objective of this project is to determine the best product to produce with viable recyclable materials and then determine the best options for manufacturing, marketing the product, and distributing the product to market.

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