Search

1. The primary initiatives CBE has organized are generally to build power for low-income communities of color. The CBE conducts community-led research that extensively documents pollution's environmental and health impacts on low-income communities of color. Notably, they host Toxic Tours that visit sources of industrial pollution linked to many health disparities and ailments. Typically, they feature the personal stories of residents fighting to hold industry polluters and government officials accountable for the toxic exposure within their neighborhoods.

2. The CBE research team is also essential to the organizations' overall work because their team further examines the environmental and health harms that are often overlooked and the communities that become unaccounted for. Their work highlights the heavy concentration of polluters in the local community, critiques the continued reliance and increasing demand for fossil fuels in our society, and flaws within the government's regulatory systems. 

1. CBE’s fundamental model for infrastructure is through community organizing. Through the relationships built between the organization and the local community and its stakeholders, it can create strong motions of change by engaging its local members.

2. On their website and social media, they can circulate necessary communications among the organization, its members, and the public. They can promote the organization's work and engage its supporters by marketing their latest campaigns and upcoming events on these platforms. 

CBE receives funding through foundation grants, government contracts, individual donations, and fundraising events. CBE gets funding from government contracts like the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This supports the CBE’s work on policy changes related to environmental justice issues. Individual donations are also crucial for funding the CBE’s mission. Lastly, CBE holds fundraising events, including its annual.

CBE is a nonprofit organization with a Board of Directors, leadership teams, and volunteers who assist with organizing, advocacy, research, and development. Among the board of directors includes professors, scientists, students, and executive directors of partnered organizations

1. “CBE’s mission is to build people’s power in California’s communities of color and low-income neighborhoods to achieve environmental health and justice by preventing and reducing pollution and building green, healthy, and sustainable communities and environments. CBE Provides residents in heavily polluted urban communities in California with the organizing skills, leadership training, and legal, scientific, and technical assistance to successfully confront threats to their health and well-being.”

2. CBE’s vision embrace local transformation. In public meetings and individual conversations, CBE members and volunteers emphasize the importance of community-led solutions to environmental justice issues. They also highlight the organization's commitment to centering the voices and experiences of the most impacted communities. CBE is grounded in the belief that all people have the right to a healthy environment and that achieving environmental justice requires addressing the structural inequalities and power imbalances that contribute to environmental injustice.

1. Events that have had a significant impact on the evolution of this organization include the Love Canal disaster in 1978, the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in 1984, and other highlighted dangers from industrial and agricultural pollution that garnered public attention and were critical to raising awareness and the necessity for stronger environmental regulations to be advocated for. 

2. Community-led research under the CBE has provided extensive documentation on the impacts of environmental and health conditions from pollution in low-income communities of color in California.

3. CBE played an instrumental role in the passage of the California Environmental Justice Act in 1999, which mandated that state agencies identify and address the disproportionate impacts on marginalized communities in California.

1. In the 1970s, California was experiencing a surge of industrial development and urbanization; building such infrastructure resulted in a significant increase in air and water pollution. Following political protests and victories such as the Civil Rights Movement, Feminist Movements, and other social justice initiatives, the awareness of systemic discrimination and inequality affecting people’s lives became more evident. CBE shaped its political content to reflect the broader conversation on more than conservation or preservation efforts and include more socially-oriented approaches to its campaigns.

1. Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) is a nonprofit organization founded in the 1970s. In 1978, CBE first established itself in response to the growing environmental activism movement to propel landmark policies such as Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act.

2. CBE’s efforts include community organizing, scientific research, and public education. They work to empower communities to advocate for their right to a healthy environment and challenge the unfair distribution of environmental harms that research has shown to impact low-income and communities of color.