Achieving an ecologically sustainable world is inextricably tied to achieve environmental justice and climate justice.

As a society, we are increasingly coming to understand the profound connections between ecological sustainability and human rights. One cannot be achieved without the other. At the University, students, faculty and staff in dozens of schools and departments are working with purpose and passion to further explore and address this urgent issue of environmental and climate justice.

Listed here are some of the University’s programs, policies and partnerships focused on the intersections of equity and the environment.  This page is a work in progress and will continually be developed. The Office for Sustainability welcomes your feedback, questions, collaboration and ideas.

>> Students looking for a starting point to get involved can visit this webpage.

>> The Committee on Sustainability hosts the Equity & Environment Fund grant program

UVA acknowledges it is on Monacan land. Learn more here.

UVA Strategic Plans

• Great and Good: UVA’s 2030 Strategic Plan
• Inclusive Excellence: Framework for Organizational Change
• Audacious Future: UVA Racial Equity Task Force Goals
• 2030 Sustainability Plan

Office for Sustainability & Committee on Sustainability

• Civic Engagement Subcommittee - Collaborative group, open membership
• Equity & Environment Fund - Funding resource, available to all
• Sustainable Food Collaborative - Collaborative group, open membership

Co-host of intersectional events, including: 

• Affordable Housing is Sustainable Housing
• Panel Discussion: People of Color in Sustainability
• Speaker: Intersectional Sustainability
• Our Evolving Food System: From Slavery to Sovereignty

Email us to share a collaboration idea: sustainability [at] virginia.edu 

Initiatives Across UVA

• UVA Division for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• The Equity Center - A UVA Democracy Initiative center
• Environmental Resilience Institute - UVA hub of environmental resilience and sustainability research
• Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic - UVA School of Law
• Environmental Justice Collective - A student organization
• The Repair Lab: Environmental Justice Policy Clinic – A program of UVA’s Democracy Initiative
• Environmental Justice: Graduate School of Arts & Sciences - Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship program
• The Environmental Inequality Lab - Data-driven, evidence-based research
• Institute for Engagement & Negotiation (formerly the Institute for Environmental Negotiation) – A program of the School of Architecture

 

Local, Regional and State Organizations

• Cultivate Charlottesville -Engages with youth and community to build a healthy and just food system in Central Virginia.
• Community Climate Collaborative – Catalyzes local climate action through partnerships, programs and advocacy and through a lens of inclusion, diversity and equity.
• Virginia Council on Environmental Justice - Advisory group appointed by the Governor whose mission is to ensure that environmental justice concerns are understood and a framework is in place to address them.
• Virginia Environmental Justice Collaborative – Nonprofit group that builds the health and wealth of communities of color, low-income communities, and communities overburdened by pollution in Virginia.
• Virginia Interfaith Power and Light – Collaborates among people of faith and conscience to grow healthy communities by advancing climate and environmental justice.
• Southern Environmental Law Center- Nonprofit law and advocacy organization working to protect clean air and water, preserve the region’s natural resources, and provide a healthy environment for all.

 

Higher Education Resources

Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) - The 2021 Anthology on Racial Equity and Social Justice