​The Environmental Justice Working Group (EJWG) at Stanford is an intergenerational collective working to embed environmental justice into our research, teaching, and community-engagement at Stanford. Building on Stanford EJ initiatives from 2012 onwards, our current EJWG Coordinating Council meets every two weeks. We comprise a dedicated leadership team with faculty, staff, and student co-leads and representatives from 20 different organizational affiliations on campus. We serve a broader community of 600+ members and connect broadly with Bay Area EJ leaders supporting academic-community partnerships.

During 2020-21, the EJWG has continued to build a cross-campus EJ hub to create a template for integrating EJ into the foundation of the new school focusing on sustainability and climate. 
Here are key documents, sharing the current vision and recommendations on including EJ in the new school from both the EJ Working Group and collaborators from the Student Committee in the the New School focused on Climate and Sustainability.
          1.    Cross-Campus EJ Initiative Proposal (EJWG), June 2021 -- "A Vision for Sustainable and Just Societies: The Stanford Cross-Campus Initiative for Environmental Justice" -- submitted to new school leadership.
          ​2.     Student Committee Proposal, June 2021 -- Annual Report and Final Recommendations, AY 2020-2021; Student Committee on the New School focused on Climate and Sustainability -- presented to new school leadership and blueprint committee on education

​Discussion on the Initiative for Environmental Equity and Sustainability at Stanford - Part of the Sustainability Seed Funding speaker series

Event was held 9/8/2021 @10am - RECORDING HERE.              
Presenters: Rob Jackson, professor of Earth system science; Gabrielle Hecht, professor of history; Rodolfo Dirzo, professor of biology; Sibyl Diver, lecturer in the Earth Systems Program; Emily Polk, advanced lecturer in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric
 
How can Stanford create a foundation for addressing the most important, interconnected social justice and sustainability problems of our times? Achieving sustainability requires attending to the deep divisions and disparities that persist within and across societies, and engaging with the interconnected histories of structural inequities, racialized violence, and uneven impacts of environmental harms. Here, we share our vision and progress in fostering community-engaged research on environmental equity and sustainability, developing a 21st century environmental equity and sustainability curriculum, and building long-term partnerships with diverse environmental justice (EJ) communities at Stanford and beyond. With seed funding support, our EJ Initiative has contributed to groundbreaking Stanford research, education, and community engagement efforts across the humanities, social science, and biophysical sciences. Highlights include partnering with Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates to build a robust and fully open-access research infrastructure (oral history, documents, archives, etc.) covering toxic and radiological dumping in SF’s historically African-American Bayview neighborhood; creating a new EJ Minor and a wide range of EJ courses centering frontline communities; and leading a growing cross-campus hub for intergenerational EJ collaboration through our listserv, social media, blog series, and national and international workshops.

Also see these additional sources supporting current recommendations to Stanford leadership:
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  • Sustainable Seed Funding Proposal (EJWG) - June 2020 -- "Initiative for Environmental Equity and Sustainability at Stanford" -- fully funded for 2020-2021 academic year.​
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  • ​Long Range Planning Proposal for EJ (EJWG), September 2018 -- "Advancing Environmental Justice and Environmental Human Rights at Stanford:  A plan for achieving Stanford’s Long-Range Plan and presidential initiatives" --  advocating for an EJ cluster hire with over 800 signatures in support.​
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A Proof of Concept: To ensure that Stanford’s sustainability efforts attend to problems of structural inequity and systemic racism, the EJWG is leading a cross-campus initiative to support EJ synergies across multiple learning communities --- an initiative we would like to broaden in partnership with the new school.

​For example, the EJWG has already led the development of EJ curriculum, including a gateway Introduction to Environmental Justice course and the creation of an Environmental Justice minor that will launch in Fall 2021 through the Earth Systems Program. Additionally, the group has supported faculty-led community engaged research, research grants to graduate students, and a workshop series highlighting best practices in authentic EJ research. Finally, the EJWG has developed critical infrastructure for EJ research, outreach, and academic and community collaboration, including the EJ and Human Rights Lab.

​Please see links below further illustrating a proof of concept of what a broader cross-campus EJ initiative with EJWG leadership could achieve:
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