Center for Community Energy and Environmental Justice

SDSU’s Community Climate Action Network (CCAN) serves as the host for CCEEJ. CCAN and SDSU have decades of experience in environmental and energy justice in communities, specifically in the areas of environmental and health disparities, brownfield development, land use, air and water quality, water access, and food security. CCAN works in collaboration and partnership with a range of community-based organizations to support and catalyze actions that expand capacity and serve communities.

The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) is a national network of over 550 EPA alumni volunteers who provide pro bono technical assistance to disadvantaged communities, community-serving NGOs, and under-resourced state/local/Tribal agencies. EPN helps their community clients navigate and understand government programs, data, and processes; gain access to partners, allies, and decision makers; and successfully apply for funding. Areas of expertise and support include petrochemicals, air quality, safe drinking water, brownfields redevelopment, Superfund cleanups, climate resilience, and more.

USD’s Energy Policy Initiatives Center (EPIC) has nearly two decades of experience on energy justice and energy sustainability, climate equity, including greenhouse gas inventories, emission reduction measures and policies, cost-benefit analysis and ordinance development. EPIC also provides support on climate-related energy and climate justice. EPIC recently developed the first “Climate Equity Index,” which evaluates environmental, socioeconomic, mobility, and health factors to help understand how climate impacts, benefits of related policies, and access to services are distributed.

ASU’s Center for Energy & Society helps communities and organizations understand and manage the human complexity of energy transitions through research into the social, political, and economic drivers, dynamics, and outcomes of energy innovation. The center’s work includes envisioning and exploring just and sustainable energy futures, supporting regional energy systems transformation, expanding the benefits of energy innovation for communities, and working toward the elimination of energy insecurity and injustice.

The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) works with community partners on equitable and just brownfields redevelopment and land reuse. CCLR is the Technical Assistance to Brownfields provider for the EPA and the CA Department of Toxic Substances Control’s Equitable Communities Revitalization Grant program. In the last five years alone, CCLR has assisted over 1,000 communities nationally under grants and contracts from the EPA, state agencies, local governments, and private firms.

 The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) strengthens tribal capacity and sovereignty in environmental and natural resource management through culturally relevant education, research, partnerships, and policy-based services. ITEP also acts as a catalyst among tribal governments, research and technical agencies, various federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector, in support of environmental protection and environmental and energy justice of Native American natural resources.

The Pacific Research on Island Solutions for Adaptation (RISA) program supports climate adaptation, equity and environmental justice in Hawai’i and the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands, including Guam and American Sāmoa. One of NOAA’s 12 Climate Adaptation Partnership teams, Pacific RISA works with stakeholder networks of local, state, and territorial government decision makers, resource managers, researchers, non-governmental organizations, and non-profits, focusing on climate impacts and adaptation solutions, including water resources and policy, health, human migration, biosecurity, and environmental planning.

The University of Guam’s Center for Island Sustainability (CIS) leads and supports sustainability-related research and community outreach, in cooperation and coordination with other appropriate government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community groups to help meet sustainability-related needs. Areas of expertise include watershed restoration; educational outreach; energy audits,  energy independence, and food security.

The Climate Science Alliance (Alliance) advances community-led climate solutions to safeguard natural and cultural resources in the face of climate change. The Alliance’s cross-sectoral network builds trust and opportunities between communities, scientists, and resource managers with the goal of advancing transformational adaptation and promoting climate justice. The cornerstone of the Alliance’s efforts to support Indigenous climate adaptation is their Tribal Working Group. The Alliance will serve as a conduit to its network of 400+ partners across southern California, which includes federal, state, local, and Tribal governments, NGOs, businesses, and local communities.

The Public Health Alliance (PHA) provides technical assistance to diverse partners providing public health and equity expertise on a variety of issues including climate change, transportation, and environmental policy and programs. PHA works with communities on safe affordable housing and reliable transit, fresh air and open green space, high quality education and healthcare, livable wage jobs, and climate resilient neighborhoods for ourselves and future generations PHA has been a national leader in developing the Healthy Places Index, a powerful tool to explore community conditions that impact life expectancy.

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) network based in Nevada engages with partner communities to gather input on community needs to respond to the threats of increased heat, wildfires, droughts, and other climate impacts. DRI’s work is focused on understanding and answering critical questions about global climate change, water quality and availability, air quality, the sustainability of desert lands, life in extreme environments, education. DRI works with community partners to ensure dissemination and delivery of information that can support equitable and just community transformations.