ELI 2021 Corporate & Policy Forum
In the age of private environmental governance, companies play a growing role in environmental management and sustainability. The ESG (environment, social, and governance) priority — the new frame for corporate sustainability thinking — has companies increasingly focused on strategies for improving their relationships with the communities in which they operate, including environmental justice (EJ) communities. Evolving corporate EJ strategies may be a valuable addition to efforts to shift the power dynamics that have contributed to the legacy of environmental injustice.
Governments at all levels, long challenged in the quest to level the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, are reexamining how to make further progress on this important front. The role of local land use planning laws and decisions in contributing to cumulative environmental impact scenarios remains a difficult point of intersection. But new energy in the federal government to make progress on these issues, along with the intensifying efforts in the private sector, make this an important moment of opportunity for progress on this key issue.
But what makes for actions and decisions that avoid new burdens for overburdened communities or that offset or reduce existing burdens? How can corporations, governments, and community groups work together more effectively to these ends? What kinds of outreach and engagement has proven effective in involving EJ communities in environmental decisions that affect them and in engendering community support? How can land use planners and environmental regulators work together more effectively to avoid or ameliorate pollution hotspots? What are the lessons learned by companies and governments implementing EJ policies, and how can success be replicated? Join ELI for this year’s combined Corporate & Policy Forum, featuring expert panelists exploring best practices for and lessons learned from private and public governance that can contribute to a more just environmental future.
Panelists:
Arielle V. King, Environmental Justice Staff Attorney, Environmental Law Institute, Moderator
Carlos M. Brown, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, Dominion Energy
Stacey Sublett Halliday, Principal, Beveridge & Diamond
Dana Johnson, Director of the Federal Policy Office, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Marco K. Merrick, Acting Chief, Equity and Environmental Justice, Department of Public Works, Baltimore City
Fred Tutman, Riverkeeper & CEO, Patuxent Riverkeeper
Materials:
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