Centering Justice in Cross-Sector Environmental Research Collaborations

Abstract

Environmental justice has also always been an interdisciplinary movement requiring leadership, knowledge, and skills from a diverse range of constituents, while centering communities that are most affected. Doing environmental research with justice intentions is becoming more mainstream, however the implementation and results do not always achieve their intended outcomes for the most vulnerable and overexposed. This is a byproduct of both an incredibly challenging problem as well as the realistic challenges of interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. For the past year, developing a use-inspired research program with environmental justice goals has required a different approach, preparation, and engagement strategy that has led to learning, perspective, and opportunity identification worth sharing. Facilitating this effort in a practical and technical sense with intention, has offered opportunity for reflection, lesson identification, and challenges to share with others with similar research goals in mind. The aim for this presentation is to share the ideation process, researcher positionality exercises, topical area selection, and collaboration approach that has been underway for the last year to develop and advance industry-academic-nonprofit collaboration in environmental justice research and solutions.