Introduction
Despite an abundance of lawyers, the United States has an access to justice crisis. It also has profound disparities in the distribution of environmental harm. Poor people and people of color are disproportionately targeted to host polluting industrial projects—exposing these communities to pollutants and toxins, which in many cases lead to high rates of asthma, cancer, and other diseases.
From 2019–2025, Namati’s U.S. Environmental Justice program partnered with five local organizations across DC, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware to advance environmental justice. Together, we organized to challenge destructive projects, helped ensure that community voices were heard and reflected in key decisions, and secured lasting policy changes to prevent future environmental injustices.
Learn more about Namati’s Land, Environmental, and Climate (LEC) Justice program here.
Since 2025, our work in the U.S. has entered a new phase. We have wound down our direct involvement on environmental justice in the mid-Atlantic region. We are partnering with the Bernstein Institute at NYU Law and a number of dynamic justice groups to deepen legal empowerment practice across issues and across the country. We co-organized a national convening in February 2026 and are preparing a U.S.-focused learning opportunity through the Grassroots Justice Network Academy.
