Environmental Justice

What Is Environmental Justice?

Environmental Racism: Racial discrimination in the development and implementation of environmental policy, especially as manifested in the concentration of hazardous waste disposal sites in or near areas with a relatively large minority population.
Environmental Justice/Overburdened Communities: Minority, low-income, tribal, or indigenous populations or geographic locations in the United States that experience disproportionate environmental harms and risks. This disproportionality can be a result of greater vulnerability to environmental hazards, lack of opportunity for public participation, or other factors. The term describes situations where multiple factors, including both environmental and socioeconomic stressors, may act cumulatively to affect health and the environment and contribute to persistent environmental health disparities.

Student Organizations

The Lunchbox Garden Project: This campus organization strives to engage children in conversations about nutrition, agriculture, and sustainability. Twice a week, volunteers go to Barnett Shoals Elementary School and help children build and tend to a garden as well as teach a lesson related to food and/or the environment.

UGArden Club: The mission of UGArden is to build a community of students centered on a sustainable food system. The goals of UGArden are: 1) to teach students to grow food using organic practices through experiential learning; 2) to share healthy, sustainably grown food with members of the local community who are facing food insecurity; and 3) to provide an opportunity for engagement, service and experimentation.
- ugarden.club@gmail.com / ugarden@uga.edu

UGA Chew Crew: Student-led effort to restore green spaces around campus using goats. There are two enclosures at Tanyard Creek and Driftmier Woods. Goats serve to chew and eat the invasive species, allowing native species to thrive again.
- Volunteer here!

Community Organizations

Athens Land Trust: In collaboration with the Athens community, ALT approaches sustainable development with a look toward addressing environmental, economic, and community needs. They aim to combine the tools of conservation land trusts with those of community land trusts to create healthy neighborhoods across Athens and the state of Georgia.

Keep Athens-Clarke County Beautiful: For more than 20 years, KACCB has worked to educate and empower citizens and businesses with the resources to take action as environmental stewards of litter prevention, waste reduction, and beautification.

Georgia Climate Change Coalition: Through education, advocacy and action, GCCC aims to increase awareness about climate change and its projected impacts; work in partnership with all Georgians and stakeholders to promote solutions and adaptations to the climate crisis; actively support local, state, national and international energy/climate change initiatives and legislation; serve as a clearing house for climate information.