Environmental Justice 

For years, the considerably lofty goals of environmental justice had limited, if any, practical or operational ramifications for businesses.

The tides are changing

A number of actions have recently been implemented at both the federal and state levels in the environmental justice policy world.

Initial policy developments have been focused on directing funding and resources to disproportionately affected communities to study and ameliorate impacts from concentrated areas of pollution. Agencies are also increasingly focused on ramping up enforcement, incorporating environmental justice into natural resource damage (NRD) actions, and imposing new requirements or heightened scrutiny in major permit applications or renewals.

The impacts of environmental justice are also on the rise in corporate governance and disclosures, as well as corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.

We steer you through

Our team advises clients in all industries on anticipating and managing environmental justice issues throughout the life cycle of a project, from planning, communications, community engagement and financing, to investment, permitting, compliance counseling, and defense.

Impacts to the regulated community are expected to increase as new environmental justice requirements are enacted, enforcement policies enhanced, and lawsuits are filed. We will be walking our clients through these changes as they arise.