EVEN 2909: Introduction to Sustainability Engineering — Week 6
University of Colorado Boulder
Defining the framework
“Environmental justice is 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 policies.” — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
No group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental, or commercial operations or policies.
People have an opportunity to participate in decisions about activities that may affect their environment and health. Their contribution can influence the regulatory agency’s decision.
Example: Black Americans are 75% more likely to live near industrial facilities than white Americans.
Example: Public comment periods held during business hours in English only.
Example: Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock bringing centuries of ecological knowledge.
Pollution, poverty, and place in the United States
Study after study finds the same result: race and income predict proximity to environmental hazards. Communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately located near:
These patterns result from deliberate policy choices: zoning decisions, transportation routing, permitting processes, and lack of political power in affected communities.
Key insight: The communities that bear the greatest pollution burden are often the same communities that benefit least from the industrial activity creating it.
Source: EPA, GAO, Bullard (1990) Dumping in Dixie
An 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans
The corridor hosts more than 200 petrochemical plants and refineries. Residents — many of whom are descendants of enslaved people who worked the same land as plantations — experience elevated rates of cancer, respiratory disease, and reproductive health problems.
St. James Parish: In 2019, Formosa Plastics proposed a $9.4 billion plastics complex. Community organizer Sharon Lavigne and RISE St. James fought it, winning an Army Corps of Engineers review and multiple legal challenges.
The tension: Companies promise jobs and tax revenue. But who gets the jobs, and who gets the cancer?
Source: ProPublica, EPA National Air Toxics Assessment
“When the people you are supposed to serve are majority Black, majority poor, you don’t prioritize them.” — Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, pediatrician who exposed the Flint lead crisis
In April 2014, the city switched its water source from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. Officials failed to add corrosion control, causing lead to leach from aging pipes into drinking water.
EJ lesson: Flint is a textbook case of all three pillars failing simultaneously. Distributive injustice (who got poisoned), procedural injustice (who was ignored), and recognition injustice (whose expertise was dismissed).
We’ll return to the engineering details of water infrastructure in Week 8.
Low-income households spend up to 8–10% of their income on energy, compared to ~3% for median households. Many face impossible choices: heat or eat, medicine or electricity.
In the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) graded neighborhoods A through D. “D” neighborhoods — almost always communities of color — were denied loans and investment.
5–12°F hotter: Formerly redlined neighborhoods have significantly less tree canopy and more impervious surfaces (concrete, asphalt), making them urban heat islands.
More pollution: Industry and highways were routed through redlined areas. Today these neighborhoods have higher PM2.5, NO₂, and ozone exposure.
Source: Hoffman et al. (2020), Climate; Wilson (2020), Energy Research & Social Science
Denver, Colorado — 30 minutes from this classroom
Discussion: Suncor has violated air quality standards repeatedly. The facility provides 200+ jobs. How do you weigh employment against health?
Who pays the costs of the global economy?
The countries that have emitted the most greenhouse gases historically are overwhelmingly wealthy nations. The countries most vulnerable to climate impacts — sea-level rise, drought, extreme heat — are overwhelmingly poor nations that contributed the least.
Per capita: The average American has a carbon footprint of ~15 tonnes CO₂/year. The average person in Mozambique: ~0.1 tonnes.
Jason Hickel argues the global economy is structured to extract wealth from the Global South. His proposed remedies include:
Source: Global Carbon Project; Hickel, The Divide (2017)
“Are carbon offset projects in the Global South a new form of colonialism — or a vital source of climate finance?”
The key question: Who designs the project? Who owns the credits? Who decides how the revenue is spent? The answers determine whether a project is extractive or empowering.
Millions of tonnes of discarded electronics from wealthy nations end up in places like Agbogbloshie (Ghana) and Guiyu (China), where informal workers — including children — dismantle them by hand, burning plastics and inhaling toxic fumes to recover copper, gold, and rare earth metals.
Source: Global E-Waste Monitor, 2024
In the Ica Valley, Peru, large-scale asparagus and grape farms for European supermarkets have depleted aquifers, leaving small farmers and communities without water. Global demand drives local scarcity.
Large-scale land acquisitions for biofuel production, carbon offsets, and commercial agriculture have displaced communities across Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, often with minimal consultation or compensation.
How sustainability engineers can center equity
“Nothing about us without us.” — Disability rights movement; adopted widely in environmental justice
Traditional engineering: experts design solutions and deliver them. Community-centered engineering: affected communities are partners in every stage.
Ask yourself these questions about any engineering project:
Red flag: If the community was not involved in defining the problem, the solution is probably wrong.
Established by Executive Order 14008 (2021), Justice40 directs that 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal climate, clean energy, and environmental investments flow to disadvantaged communities.
Uses the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST) to identify eligible communities.
A free, publicly available mapping and screening tool that combines environmental and demographic indicators.
Try it yourself: ejscreen.epa.gov/mapper — look up your hometown or CU Boulder’s campus. What do you find?
Environmental justice is not an add-on. It is a lens for every decision a sustainability engineer makes.
What you can do
Start small: Use EJScreen to map your hometown. Read one EJ case study deeply. Attend one community meeting. Environmental justice work starts with showing up and listening.
Reflecting on the Week 5 simulation
In the Star Power game, you experienced how structural inequality operates:
Environmental justice is Star Power applied to the physical world. The communities that bear the greatest environmental burdens are the same communities with the least power to change the rules.
The question for engineers: Are you reinforcing the existing power structure, or helping to change it?
“Think of a piece of infrastructure in your hometown — a road, a power plant, a water treatment facility, a park. Who benefits from it? Who bears the costs? How were those decisions made, and who was at the table?”
1. Should environmental permits require cumulative impact assessments, even if a single facility meets all individual standards?
2. Is it enough for wealthy nations to reduce their own emissions, or do they owe compensation for historic emissions? How would you calculate that debt?
3. A carbon offset project restricts a community’s access to their forest. The project generates revenue for climate mitigation. Is this just?
4. You are designing a new water treatment plant. It will serve the whole city, but the site will be in a low-income neighborhood. How do you approach this equitably?