Campaigns
For over twenty years, the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance has been at the forefront of City and State campaigns to advance Environmental Justice. The following initiatives are examples of the campaigns that structure NYC-EJA’s research and advocacy.
NYC-EJA has collaborated with several partners to ensure that energy planning and economic development in NYC are conducted equitably, and that low-income and communities of color do not continue to be disproportionately burdened.
NYC-EJA is working with our members and allies in transportation, environment and labor advocacy on several key transportation equity campaigns; from the push for an electric bus transition, to the passage of congestion pricing and finding equitable solutions to closing New York City’s transit gaps.
For years, NYC-EJA has worked to minimize the disproportionately negative effects of extreme heat on communities of color and reduce the urban heat island effect. Our work focuses on improving air quality and reducing co-pollutant emissions to address the compounding health impacts from heat coupled with bad air quality while working to maximize “cooling” strategies, including expanding the urban forest, increasing access to cooling centers, and advocating for increased home energy assistance.
NYC-EJA s a founding member of the Sandy Regional Assembly (representing environmental justice, labor and civic groups from climate-vulnerable communities in NY, New Jersey and Long Island) and of the Climate Works for All campaign (to increase the resiliency of NYC’s most vulnerable communities to climate change, while creating sustainable jobs).
Long championed by NYC-EJA and sister coalition OWN, the Solid Waste Management Plan (or SWMP) adopted by Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council in 2006 was a sweeping overhaul of the City’s waste export system that substitutes a polluting truck-based system confined to a handful of overburdened communities to a decentralized marine and rail-based export system.
In 2010, NYC-EJA launched our Waterfront Justice Project, New York City’s first citywide community-based resiliency campaign. When the City of New York initiated its overhaul of the Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (Vision 2020) in 2010, NYC-EJA began our advocacy campaign to convince the Bloomberg Administration to reform waterfront designations called Significant Maritime Industrial Areas, or SMIA’s.