Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice is a multiracial grassroots organization that fights for health and environmental justice with low-income and working-class, urban, rural, and indigenous communities. Founded in 1997 by grassroots community leaders, Greenaction has been at the forefront of the environmental justice movement for more than two decades. We believe that communities have the right to live, work and play in a clean and healthy environment. We work to create a just and healthy world for our communities and future generations. We believe it is our duty to protect Mother Earth for all living beings and future generations and we take action to protect the health of our communities today and tomorrow.
Our Guiding Principles
We follow the Principles of Environmental Justice adopted at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, in Washington D.C., October 1991. We believe that everyone has the right to;
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- Clean air, water, and a healthy environment to live, work, go to school and play.
- Meaningful participation in government and industry decision-making processes
- Be informed by government and corporations about decisions affecting their community to decide whether or not they want to be exposed to pollution and injustices.
- Clean air, water, and a healthy environment to live, work, go to school and play.
Our Approach
- We mobilize and organize with communities to demand meaningful community participation and push for real community driven solutions that move us closer to having a healthy, just and sustainable world and future we deserve.
- We build capacity within communities by working with youth and communities at large to ensure they have the support and skills necessary to organize themselves.
- We hold corporate polluters and our government accountable on the frontlines of community struggles as well as at the policy level on environmental justice issues that affect the health and well-being of our communities and our planet.
- We help build a strong grassroots movement for environmental, social, economic and climate justice based on solidarity and unity.
- We take nonviolent direct action against destroyers of Mother Earth.
What We Do
Together with communities we:
Organize and Mobilize
- Bring communities together that are impacted by industry and government environmental racism and injustice to leverage collective power to advocate for a cleaner and healthier environment with justice.
- Organizing actions including protests, petitions, press conferences, media events and meetings with officials.
- Conduct leadership and capacity building trainings for youth and communities at large on varied topics, including how to reduce health risks, understand environmental review processes, increase effectiveness in advocacy, best practices in community organizing, public speaking and media skills.
Advocate
- Engage in government permitting and regulatory processes for projects presenting a threat to the health and environment of frontline communities and our planet.
- File civil rights complaints and lawsuits to challenge government decisions that harm the environment and/or are racially discriminatory in their processes or impacts – and to bring about systemic changes in government policies and practices.
- Engage in regulatory processes to improve protection of public health and the environment, and to bring about meaningful opportunities for public participation in government decision making processes.
- Protect sacred and culturally significant sites from desecration and destruction by working with Native Nations and allies.
Research
- We document the health and environmental impacts that polluting projects, toxic sites and other harmful projects have on frontline communities through community health surveys, reports, fact sheets.
- We produce technical analysis, comments, reports, critiques and proposals on specific technologies, projects and on industry and government policies and practices including legislation and regulations.
- We document the living stories of communities by gathering testimonies, pictures and videos to ensure that community voices are at the forefront of their struggle and to ensure communities remain in control of their narratives.
OUR MISSION
OUR STORY
OUR IMPACT
OUR TEAM
OPPORTUNITIES
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