August Partner Highlight: Community Members for Environmental Justice
To read more about the region-wide work of our partners, check out our August newsletter. This month’s partner highlight features Community Members for Environmental Justice, the North Minneapolis-based coalition with deep roots in the Twin Cities’ environmental justice movement.
Community Members for Environmental Justice (CMEJ) grew from a coalition of Minneapolis community members concerned with the environmental injustices and pollution disproportionately impacting their neighborhoods. Made up of over one hundred informally active members, CMEJ was officially organized in 2018 by Executive Director Roxxanne O’Brien and Co-founder Shalini Gupta–but the coalition’s work in the Twin Cities dates back over a decade.
CMEJ organizes the fight for policy issues that reduce community-identified pollutants and health hazards across the cities. Rooted in their homebase in North Minneapolis, a fenceline community of color that has been heavily impacted by industrial pollution, their work has included leading environmental justice tours, hosting trainings on climate emergency preparedness, and advocating for policy change at the state and city levels.
In a landmark win, they were responsible for the closing of Northern Metals, a metal shredder in Minneapolis that had falsified air pollution records from their facilities. This battle was won in 2019 after organizing efforts from CMEJ members that lasted over a decade.
As O’Brien told Sahan Journal, “Our community’s natural capital has historically been damaged and exploited by century-old racist land policies and processes. We have waited far too long for this moment in history where government finally puts a halt on the expansion of sacrifice zones in poor, Indigenous and Black and Brown neighborhoods.”
Their recent advocacy efforts have also been focused on the passage of an amortization bill in the Minnesota legislature that would authorize cities across the state to eliminate a use by amortization for businesses involved in industrial uses, production and processing. During a hearing this spring to consider the bill, Assistant Project Manager and Media Manager Justice Jones asked state representatives, “in the future, when you are asked how your time served and how your position was beneficial to the greater good, what will be your answer?”
This spring, CMEJ co-founder and Executive Director Roxxanne O’Brien joined our Leadership Team at the Midwest Environmental Justice Network. We are extremely grateful and excited to have her onboard to help guide our work.
You can stay connected to CMEJ and find out more about how to support their work in our August newsletter!
“Our community’s natural capital has historically been damaged and exploited by century-old racist land policies and processes. We have waited far too long for this moment in history where government finally puts a halt on the expansion of sacrifice zones in poor, Indigenous and Black and Brown neighborhoods.”