ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Advocating for Impacted Communities
Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s (SCSJ) Environmental Justice Program seeks to empower economically and politically disadvantaged communities and communities of color (together, “impacted communities”) in their efforts to overcome environmental injustice at a time when climate impacts exacerbate environmental inequities.
Our Work
Our community-based lawyering approach empowers the community itself as the agent of change and the experts in their own needs
Community Health
We assist communities in fighting for community health and mitigating pollution.
Community Resilience
We help communities impacted by environmental injustices build resilience against climate disasters.
Energy Equity
We work to advance energy equity by advocating for clean and renewable energy for impacted communities.
Zoning & Land Use
We challenge adverse zoning and land use policies that disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color.
SCSJ Remains Committed to Environmental and Climate Justice
Read our statement on recent executive orders.
How We Advance Environmental Justice
Community legal education empowers organizing and collective action by equipping EJ communities with the resources for self-advocacy on an ongoing basis. SCSJ further empowers advocacy and facilitates community connections by providing research and communications support in addition to our legal expertise.
We provide strategic counseling and advice to both community members and decision-makers. For community members, this goes beyond general community legal education. It is tailored to community-specific issues faced by our partners and their communities and will depend on community-identified needs.
While litigation is a measure of last resort and not appropriate to achieving desired outcomes in every scenario, it is a necessary and powerful tool to enforce justice, improve equity, and empower EJ communities.
Environmental Justice News
New Hanover NAACP Challenges Companies’ Bid to Hide Cape Fear River Pollution
RALEIGH, N.C (April 29, 2025) — Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) filed a motion today on behalf of the NAACP New Hanover County Branch objecting to an attempt by Chemours and DuPont to hide potentially hundreds of documents showing their release of harmful substances into the Cape Fear River. Chemours made the motion to…
Read More New Hanover NAACP Challenges Companies’ Bid to Hide Cape Fear River Pollution
SCSJ’s Statement on Appeal in Moriah Energy Center Case
ROUGEMONT, N.C. (Jan. 13, 2025) — Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) released the following statement alongside its appeal in Clayton, et al. v. Person County. The case challenges Person County’s rezoning of parcels from rural residential and conservation designations to industrial zoning for the plans of Enbridge – formerly Dominion Energy – to construct…
Read More SCSJ’s Statement on Appeal in Moriah Energy Center Case