Cal/EPA Intra-Agency Environmental Justice Strategy

Pursuant to Public Resources Code (PRC) sections 71110-71113, the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) has finalized our intra-agency environmental justice strategy (EJ Strategy). The EJ Strategy sets forth Cal/EPA’s environmental justice mission, vision, core values, goals, and objectives. It will guide Cal/EPA’s Boards, Departments and Office (BDOs) in identifying and addressing gaps in programs, policies and activities that may impede the achievement of environmental justice.

The EJ Strategy is the product of a multi-year collaboration between the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice, the Advisory Committee on Environmental Justice, and other EJ stakeholders - including community, local government, business, industry, and Tribal representatives. (Development of the EJ Strategy) The strategy provides the foundation for addressing environmental justice issues and shall be reviewed regularly and revised as necessary in consideration of evolving environmental justice issues, programs, policies, and activities.

• Previous Secretary Tamminen's Memorandum on Finalization of the EJ Strategy (August 27, 2004) (.pdf format)
• Cal/EPA EJ Strategy (August 2004) (.pdf format)
• Estrategia de Justicia Ambiental de Cal/EPA (.pdf format)

Cal/EPA has purposely developed broad concepts and themes to guide our BDOs in the development of BDO-specific environmental justice objectives and work plans, with specific and measurable targets adapted to BDO-specific responsibilities and priorities. Cal/EPA believes this approach is necessary to address the complexity of environmental justice in a timely, deliberate, and coordinated manner.

This strategy represents the initial step in Cal/EPA’s long-term environmental justice strategic planning process, which is supplemented with short-term activities in Cal/EPA’s EJ Action Plan. Together, the EJ Strategy and EJ Action Plan form the “Two-Pathway Approach” that Cal/EPA is taking to implement environmental justice. The short-term activities of the EJ Action Plan will feed back into the long-term strategic planning process, and vice versa. These efforts will combine into an integrated EJ implementation mechanism for Cal/EPA.