Just Sustainability in Practice: chap 4.

Agyeman creates an index of different environmental organizations, rating them based on if equity and justice are important factors in the groups description. Many of the large name organizations do not have equity or justice written in. Agyemen also gives examples of different organizations that do work on environmental issues while making equity and justice a central role. Agyeman focuses on 5 major environmental issues facing cities: land-use planning, solid waste, toxic chemical waste, residential energy use, and transportation.


What is unfortunate, but not surprising to me in this chapter is the disconnect between equity and environment. The real question is why does this separation exist, can it be eliminated (or at least lessoned), and if so, how? In the example of the Los Angeles Bus Riders Union the separation is shown, and many questions arise. In this example many of the buses which were used by lower income inner city dwellers were in bad shape, and were there were not enough of them either. On the other side the subway was losing money (therefore taking money away from what could be put towards inner city bus improvements, and while it was attempting to draw in riders, it was not doing well. In transportation especially this seems to be a problem that comes up. While many will argue that the construction of these subway lines into the suburbs must be built to create a more sustainable option to driving cars, and that support will follow, the bus riders union provides an example of the dangers of this argument. As of now it seems that the answer is yes, often sustainability and equity do have an inherent separation in many situations (but not all). Much of this has to do with money, the money it takes to create one issue often takes away from the other. Another reason for the separation is the difference of interests of different communities. For those with a lower income getting to work for cheap is what matters, for those with higher income, they have more leisure to focus on environmental sustainability. So that could be some of the why, and the pessimistic sometimes yes they are at odds. About decreasing the distance. Agyeman also provides many examples of this as well. In the same bus situation the group encouraged and got low emission buses, so while the grand scheme planning dream (at least at present) the divide seems almost inevitable, on the small scale bringing environmental sustainability to equity, and equity to sustainability (like the case of reusing materials) is possible.

While there are many good examples of equitable sustainability in practice, it would have been interesting to read about those organizations which were not working well with justice and sustainability. Why are these organizations failing, is it due to lack of trying or because of other difficulties. As stated above, I feel that Agyeman actually presents examples of the automatic separation between these issues, if Agyeman had presented failed cases and explained how they could be improved this would have been more effective then just listing good cases.