Reference no: EM133715263

Scenario:

Social Justice Scenario from Project Guidelines and Rubric You live in a neighborhood with an active community organization. You and your neighbors are very concerned about inequity, as the city is spending money on improving road conditions in some areas, but not others. One of your neighbors asked you to join them in attending a community action meeting to address these observations in the form of an informational campaign. By reading the Elm Glen city profile, you will learn about an example that highlights sustainability in action. In the Project Template, you will describe some actionable steps the organization could take for each pillar of sustainability. Organization Profile Elm Glen is a primarily residential neighborhood in a mid-sized city. It is a densely urban area with a diverse population. About a quarter of the people in the community speak a language other than English as their primary language.

The median family income is average compared to the rest of the city. The neighborhood is served by public transportation and is home to a commercial strip along Academy Boulevard. The neighborhood has a community organization called the Elm Glen Community Association, which is made up of a small group of residents of the neighborhood who work to make sure the area is safe and well maintained by the city. The neighborhood has a mix of streets, with some generally more well maintained than others. Members of the community association have observed that the city has prioritized spending money on repairing broken sidewalks, clearing sewer drains, and beautifying medians in some areas, while neglecting other areas.

In looking at the environmental concerns they have for the neighborhood, the association has decided to look at the specifics of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis to see what issues, missteps, and obstacles the city encountered in addressing that crisis. They will then use that information to help determine the steps they should recommend the city takes to prevent inequity in addressing the concerns of the neighborhood. Case Study Summary The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, is a case of governmental negligence and environmental injustice. As a sustainability pillar, environmental justice relates to the human impact on environmental quality and its unfairly distributed impacts.

Flint's mishandling of the water supply in 2014 adversely affected the drinking water supply of 100,000 people, and the impacts disproportionately fell on those with little resources to effectively provide themselves with safe drinking water. The city's governmental leaders failed in providing the basic necessity of water to its residents, resulting in tragic lead poisoning, which is especially dangerous to children. As you will read in detail, the Flint water crisis is about much more than lead water pipes; it is about intentional environmental injustice. In the aftermath of the tragedy, we have learned lessons about promoting environmental justice in sustainability decision-making.

Overview:

Earlier in this course, we explored how the environment has impacted humans and how humans have impacted the environment. It is not enough to recognize that impacts have occurred, however. We must also consider actionable steps that can be taken to address the sustainability issues these impacts have caused.

Directions:

In this short paper, you will describe actionable steps that organizations, governments, or people can take to address a sustainability issue.

Then, address the prompts below. Specifically, you must address the following:

Describe the impact of the business or organization on the environment.

1. How is the business or organization helping the environment, and how is it hurting the environment? (For example, some theme parks recycle regularly and landscape with only edible plants, but they still use single-use plastic cups.)

2. Describe actions that can be taken to help the business or organization become more sustainable.

• What can the business or organization do to improve sustainability?
• What policies or standards could help improve the business or organization's sustainability?
• What can people from outside or inside the business or organization do to help improve the business or organization's sustainability?