海角视频

Photograph of people enjoying Elephant Park on a summer's day

Environmental justice and equity for cities

A holistic approach to ensure socially vulnerable communities benefit from environmental initiatives

Cities today must address significant social inequities that are the product of centuries of systemic racism and other forms of discrimination levied through public policy and business practices.

Communities of color and low-income communities often bear the brunt of climate change impacts, face disproportionate exposure to pollution and other environmental hazards and have limited access to essential goods, services and economic resources. Climate change exacerbates these burdens: it is predominantly caused by the privileged but is most acutely felt by the most underserved communities.

Environmental justice

Environmental justice seeks to address the disparities of climate and environmental hazards across different communities. The world (and the built environment) increasingly tackles sustainability challenges head on – but it is critical that all people are treated fairly and are allowed meaningful engagement as solutions are developed and implemented.

We must devise solutions that promote equity and address stark disparities. A central part of this work is understanding and acting on the delicate balance of environmental and social needs. It is an extremely complex picture and one that is hard to untangle.

When we approach sustainability and climate action through a lens of environmental justice, this means taking these considerations into the policy-making process 鈥� and to make sure, in our efforts to advance sustainability, that we are not also impeding social equity. These two things need to work in harmony. In an effort to move quickly on sustainability, we must not leave people behind.

Our services include

Assess the context

  • Baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory and scenario projections
  • Climate vulnerability and hazards assessment
  • Environmental hazards assessment
  • Data analytics and visualisations

Envision transformation

  • Strategic planning and visioning
  • Stakeholder outreach and storytelling
  • Goal setting, metric development and programme road mapping

Plan for implementation

  • Governance structures and organisational change
  • Climate action and adaptation metrics reporting
  • Cost assessment and technical advisory

Realise the vision

  • Program and project management
  • Interdisciplinary and cross-departmental team collaboration
  • Funding and resourcing strategies

OUR APPROACH

We strive to deepen our efforts and adopt equity-forward approaches in our projects, eliminating barriers in the process and guaranteeing fair and reparative impacts resulting from our work.

Our approach to environmental justice is technically rigorous and tailored to individual project context.

We embed cultural sensitivity in across our work, tailoring our approach to meet local needs. We strongly believe that equitable practices will help to preserve the diverse and vibrant nature of cities around the country. We partner with community-based organizations with deep knowledge of and experience with localised social equity issues to deliver authentic and effective engagement that ground our planning projects.

We integrate equity-focused thinking into data analysis, asking key questions to evaluate problems critically. We help clients such as cities and their stakeholders to define and map at-risk and vulnerable populations toward the end of acknowledging who these groups are, where they live and how they have been disproportionately affected by cumulative impacts.

Our goal is for every client to have actionable strategies and implementation details that ensure the fair spread of benefits and burdens. This is especially important, as the most vulnerable communities need prioritised support and resources to be prepared and to thrive as the climate changes. Thus, we make sure that equity is more than a co-benefit, but instead the foremost result of climate action and resilience efforts.

Each city is on their own journey with sustainability and environmental justice. We work closely with our clients to understand where they are, where they want to go and how their efforts can best align best practices and broader regional, state, or federal efforts.

Sarah Smyth, Senior Consultant, Strategy & Policy, US Cities, 海角视频

OUR clients

Development partners and investors

We advise on social impact and the 鈥楽鈥� in ESG across corporate policy, portfolio-wide frameworks and individual developments.

We help clients create inclusive, healthy, vital places that leave a positive legacy for environments and communities.

Estates and campuses

Sector-specific campuses (universities, science parks, sports clubs, retailers etc) want to understand how emerging policy may affect and optimise their estate.

We can help create safe, healthy places that have a positive impact on existing users and surrounding communities. This helps to ensure resilience in operation and create competitive advantages.

Public sector

We advise regional and city authorities embed just transition principles into policies, strategies and partnership agreements.

Our work helps clients build climate resilience, improve equity, improve public health and create economic opportunities.

Third sector

We collaborate across a broad range of advocacy groups to define emerging areas and articulate industry best practice responses.

We help to create impactful and applicable policies and design guides with input from the communities that will be impacted by them.

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