Draft Environmental Justice strategy and maps will be available for public comment
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA)
EEA is pleased to announce that it is undertaking two significant initiatives: (1) release of the draft EEA secretariat-wide Environmental Justice (EJ) Strategy and (2) release of updated EJ Maps, to be shared with the Environmental Justice Council for a vote on November 9, 2022. Further explanations of these initiatives appear below. Please contact EEA’s Director of Environmental Justice, Rishi Reddi, at rishi.p.reddi@mass.gov or, EEA’s Deputy Director of EJ for External Stakeholder Coordination, Carline Lemoine at carline.lemoine2@mass.gov, with any further questions. All materials can be found through at EEA’s Environmental Justice webpage this week.
Strategy The EEA EJ Strategy is required under Executive Order 552 and within EEA’s EJ Policy. The document was developed by a Secretariat-wide EJ Task Force that was convened in September 2020 comprising representatives of each of EEA’s agencies, major offices, and affiliated organizations. The draft strategy contains chapters that pertain to each of these agencies and offices and is tailored to the unique mandate of each entity. It also provides a consistent approach to common issues, such as the development of EJ metrics to measure progress, staff training for awareness of EJ issues, commitment to diversity in hiring, inclusion of EJ criteria in grant disbursement and commitment to provision of languages services. The draft strategy will be available for public comment from November 9, 2022 to January 13, 2023 through a link available at EEA’s Environmental Justice webpage, including translated versions. EEA intends to hold in-person public meetings on November 28, 2022 (Boston) and December 15, 2022 (Springfield) and two remote meetings on January 10, 2023 (day and early evening). EEA plans to issue the final EJ Strategy in mid-March and invites you to review and provide comments on this important document which we hope will advance environmental justice across the commonwealth.
Thank you No Coal No Gas
