Principles of Environmental Justice 2007

A 21st Century environmental justice model is needed to achieve equality in environmental protection. These Ten Principles of Environmental Justice were developed to facilitate a discussion about the need to accelerate activities and programs to protect vulnerable communities. The principles are also a guidance tool for evaluating and implementing practical solutions to environmental justice problems.

1) Environmental Justice seeks to provide environmental protection to our most vulnerable communities.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy will protect society’s most vulnerable communities.

3) Environmental Justice should provide equal economic opportunities to all sectors of our society while providing equal environmental protection.

4) Environmental Justice calls for sustainable development, efficient use of resources and the availability of abundant energy supplies at reasonable prices.

5) Environmental Justice requests respect in policy decision-making in order to distribute production facilities that emit contaminates equitably among geographical locations.

6) Environmental Justice demands that toxic wastes should not be targeted for and concentrated in minority communities.

7) Environmental Justice should expand the definition of ‘environment’ and seek to redress unique inner city environmental problems.

8) Environmental Justice affirms a commitment to equal environmental protection for all people.

9) Environmental Justice should provide compensation to individuals and communities that have suffered disproportionate exposure to pollution.

10) Environmental Justice and The Declaration of Independence, hold “that all Men are created equal, that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Environmental protection is an unalienable right.

Developed by the African American Environmentalist Association