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Economic
Pursuing profit at-all-costs results in severe consequences for the environment.
Environmental
The environment in which we live directly impacts our health.
Social
Social inequities have a negative effect on the economy.
Economic
Pursuing profit at-all-costs results in severe consequences for the environment.
Environmental
The environment in which we live directly impacts our health.
Social
Social inequities have a negative effect on the economy.
- Protecting and enhancing our natural and developed environment—our water quality, air quality, and reduction of environmental stressors, like greenhouse gas emissions.
- Improving biodiversity
- Using natural resources wisely
- Minimizing waste and pollution
- Adapting to and helping to decrease climate change
Essential Reading
The Most Detailed Map of Cancer Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.
Cancer Alley
In Louisiana, an 85-mile section of land between Baton Rouge and New Orleans goes by the name “Cancer Alley.” There are over 150 fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities packed in with suburban communities and small towns. The facilities tend to be concentrated in the poorest communities—especially those of color.
Here, residents complain of chemical mists that fall like raindrops in the evenings. An acrid odor hangs ever-present in the air. Fruit trees bear black leaves, and there’s an oily taste to the water.
Residents of St. John the Baptist, a two-mile community surrounded by petrochemical plants, are 800 times more likely than the average American to get cancer in their lifetime, according to a Business Insider profile.
- Fostering a good quality of life and ensuring basic needs are met for all members of society at the individual, group, and community level (health, housing, education, employment, resource security, and safety)
- Providing equitable opportunities and outcomes for all members
- Implementing and maintaining democratic processes, in addition to open and accountable structures of governance
- Promoting and encouraging diversity
- Creating systems and structures that support connectedness within and outside the community
- Inventing better and more useful products for the population that, rather than having little-to-no negative impact on the environment, have a positive one
- Aligning lending and investment policies with sustainability goals
- Quantifying ecosystem services—measuring the value of natural environments and the benefits they provide—and incorporating them into value chain indexes
- Nature and its bounty and beauty are priceless. However, when we don’t price resources because they seem incalculable, we have a tendency to disregard trade-offs and think of them as “free.”
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