This collection of tools and resources aims to assist those working to advance environmental justice.
The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) Environmental Justice Scorecard serves as a leading model for evaluating EJ legislation. The first CEJA Scorecard was developed in 2013. The most recent 2023 edition celebrated key wins, including AB 421 (referendum reform) and AB 1167 (responsible oil well transitions), showcasing the power of cross-sector advocacy. However, progress was hindered by industry interference, with bills like AB 1000—meant to protect communities from large warehouses near sensitive sites—stalling early. While 2023 saw the introduction of bold, precedent-setting EJ bills, many failed to reach a floor vote due to intense lobbying. CEJA remains committed to advancing stronger EJ legislation in 2024.
The Maryland EJ Scorecard series was first developed in 2019. The Agency Scorecard rated nine agencies from 0–5 across five areas, including EJ office establishment, environmental protection, focus on impacted communities, environmental literacy efforts, and proactive EJ work. From 2019–2023, the top-performing agencies were the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources, while the Department of Housing showed the greatest need for improvement. The team plans to expand the scorecard to other states in the Mid-Atlantic updating it every two years.
This scorecard tracks the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) (141 Delegates and 47 Senators) voting histories on environmental justice legislation. A thorough search of the MGA archives for EJ-related legislation from 2019-2024 was conducted. Appropriate bills were placed into priority tiers, ranked to promote inter-rater reliability, and legislator scores were generated accordingly as a weighted percentile rank. Overall, this Scorecard provides a tool to educate residents about the voting record on EJ bills and organizations can use the tool to both challenge elected officials for change in areas where EJ is overlooked and applaud legislators who have been EJ advocates.
Across the nation, community science trainings have been used to equip residents impacted by air pollution and extreme heat with the skills to use low-cost air sensors to collect meaningful data on their exposures in order to address environmental injustices. While the Trump Administration has dismantled EJ funding, many projects are still ongoing with the support and resilience of local stakeholders. Below are examples of such projects around the nation:
Across the nation, community science trainings have been used to equip residents impacted by air pollution and extreme heat with the skills to use low-cost air sensors to collect meaningful data on their exposures in order to address environmental injustices. While the Trump Administration has dismantled EJ funding, many projects are still ongoing with the support and resilience of local stakeholders. Below are examples of such projects around the nation:
This tool was created by the Bullard Center for Environmental Justice with support from the Bezos Earth Fund. The Bullard Center worked with a team of Historically Black Colleges and Universities-based EJ scholars to visualize how neighborhood factors of race and ethnicity intersect with the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Justice 40 Disadvantaged Community (DAC) designation, which does not include those factors by design. By integrating datasets on air quality, toxic facilities, climate risks, and social determinants of health, the tool enables users—especially grassroots organizations, researchers, and policymakers—to advocate for targeted interventions. It also serves as an accountability mechanism to ensure federal and state policies reach those most impacted by environmental and climate justice issues.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a national public health institute in the United States focused on protecting public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability.
The Environmental Justice Index (EJI) is the first national, place-based tool designed to measure the cumulative impacts of environmental burden through the lens of human health and health equity. The EJI delivers a single rank for each community to identify and map areas most at risk for the health impacts of environmental burden. The 2024 iteration of the EJI includes several updates based on feedback received through community engagement mechanisms, including the addition of a Climate Burden Module and an EJI + Climate Burden rank that integrates data on climate risks, environmental hazards, socioeconomic inequality, and population health.
Pulling in 184 sets of data to rank more than 70,000 U.S. Census tracts, the CVI integrates climate data, pollution exposure, public health metrics, and socio-economic factors to help policymakers, advocates, and community leaders prioritize resources and interventions where they are needed most. Feedback from community partners at each stage of CVI development ensured the tool included data reflecting their lived experiences, which is crucial for advocacy efforts and helps define where programs and policies can best meet existing needs and promote stronger, more resilient neighborhoods.
This tool allows users to compare EJ scores relevant to their area of interest with other states or areas in the Mid-Atlantic Region (DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia). The tool has five domains (Health, Climate, Socioeconomic, Environmental Exposure, and Environmental Effects) The EJ Score is computed by multiplying the Pollution Burden—which is weighted over (Environmental Exposure, Climate Change, and Environmental Effects) —by Population Characteristics—which is the average of (Socioeconomic and Health factors). The cumulative score determines the EJ score for each census tract. At the census tract level, the indicator scores were ordered from lowest to highest and given percentile values ranging from 0 to 100.
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) released a draft CalEnviroScreen 4.0 for public comment from February to May, 2021. OEHHA convened a webinar and six workshops on the draft CalEnviroScreen 4.0 for the public to learn about the updates and provide public comment on the draft. Feedback was integrated into the current live version of the tool. Users can filter CalEnviroScreen 4.0 data by geography (county, city, or legislative district) and by any combination of the results from the 21 CalEnviroScreen indicators.
MD EJSCREEN brings together data from four core environmental justice areas of concern (Environmental Exposure, Environmental Effects, Sensitive Populations, and Socioeconomic Factors) in order to determine the overall “EJ Score” for census tracts in Maryland. Users can also click on a block group to view the values of all the indicators in the top-most active layer for that block group. Recent revisions to the tool include 1) updating the ArcGIS platform to handle more data from more sources; 2) a buffer selection subtool; 3) the addition of some climate indicators, and vulnerability, economic inequality, and health indicators, and improved functionality and navigability; and a 4) ‘Generate Report’ function. The tool communicates the reality of environmental injustice in Maryland to community members and policymakers alike in a clear, concise and statistically significant manner.
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Collaborate with residents, advocates, and policymakers driving justice.
Since 2011, CEEJH has partnered with frontline and fenceline communities to address environmental, climate, and energy injustices through grassroots action and policy co-creation. We center those most impacted by harm to lead action and social change.
