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The Office of Environmental Justice is pleased to announce the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Justice Action Plan, an agency self-assessment to create more equitable and just services and initiatives for the betterment of overburdened communities (OBCs) across New Jersey.

The action plan is an honest self-examination of DEP’s strengths, challenges, and opportunities to further institutionalize environmental justice as a facet of each DEP function and workstream. 

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With 62 total actions, DEP’s Environmental Justice Action Plan lays the groundwork to measurably improve environmental and public health outcomes in New Jersey’s overburdened communities by engaging all programs throughout the agency in the effort to operationalize environmental justice. 

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The Foundation of the Environmental Justice Action Plan

The plan follows guidance developed by the DEP according to Executive Order 23, which required all executive branch departments and agencies to incorporate environmental justice considerations into their work through the creation of environmental justice assessments and action plans. While the EJ Law focuses outward on certain types of polluting facilities the DEP regulates, the action plan turns the lens inward, ensuring that environmental justice principles guide all DEP policies, resources allocations, and engagement strategies.

The Plan’s Development in Detail

To develop this action plan, all DEP program areas engaged in reflection and assessment to reimagine their core mission and goals through the lens of equity and environmental justice, while evaluating how their key functions and tasks may be adapted to promote equitable outcomes for the state’s overburdened communities.  

DEP’s Environmental Justice Action Plan was developed through engagement with programs across the agency that included exercises such as:

  • Know our Communities: Programs were asked to familiarize themselves with the EJ Mapping Assessment and Protection (EJMAP) tool to better understand the location of and impacts on the overburdened communities we serve.
  • Reimagining Program Functions to Promote More Just Outcomes: Programs were asked to identify their primary functions and opportunities to increase participation, reduce environmental and public health stressors, and increase environmental and public health benefits. 
  • Reconsidering allocation of funds: Programs were asked to identify sources of funding (i.e., grants, loans) they oversee or administer and consider how funding could be reallocated to achieve more just outcomes.

In addition to direct solicitation from DEP’s programs, ideas for DEP’s EJ actions were informed by the insights and testimonies of many OBC residents during DEP’s years long Environmental Justice Community Engagement Tour and DEP’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council, comprised of the state’s leading environmental justice stakeholders and experts.  

 

These insights and reflections informed DEP’s understanding of how environmental justice can be integrated into the agency’s most performed functions. The findings were summarized into the following 5 chapters:

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1. Engage People and Communities

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2. Ensure Environmental Quality

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3. Invest in Environmental Improvements

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4. Expand and Improve Equitable Access to Natural and Historic Resources

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5. Study, Make, and Plan Policy

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