Sustainability and Environmental Justice
Portland prides itself on its status as one of America's most sustainable cities - but the benefits of living in a sustainable city are not distributed equally among its residents. When compared with its white population, Portland's minorities tend to live in areas with poorer air quality and higher asthma rates. Minorities are also more likely to live in neighborhoods where the land is contaminated by past use and where it is harder to access natural areas.
On January 22, City Club welcomes Willamette University Law Professors Robin Morris Collin and Robert William Collin for a discussion of sustainability and environmental justice. Robin Morris Collin, Director of Willamette's Certificate Program in Sustainability Law, will discuss the impact of human and economic activities on the larger ecosystem, while highlighting how minorities in Oregon often receive an inequitable distribution of the benefits and burdens of policies intended to enhance sustainability. Robert William Collin, Senior Research Scholar at Willamette's Center for Sustainable Communities, will address how the work of environmental justice activists can challenge racial disparities in Portland and produce a genuinely more sustainable community.
