Environmental Justice Strategic Plan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Strategic Plan (EJ Strategic Plan) reflects the Agency’s commitment to advance environmental, public health, and other quality of life improvements in communities—such as how the Agency prioritizes program resources, allocates funding, implements statutory authorities, and engages with Tribes, territories, states, local governments, and communities most affected by environmental and public health threats.
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Overview of the EJ Strategic Plan
This EJ Strategic Plan fulfills President Biden’s Executive Order 14096, which directs all Federal agencies in the executive branch to exercise leadership and pursue a whole-of-government approach to further the Federal government’s efforts to deliver real and measurable progress for environmental justice.
This plan deepens EPA’s commitment to protecting human health and the environment for all people and builds upon the Agency’s FY 2022 – FY 2026 Strategic Plan, which includes an unprecedented goal to advance environmental justice and external civil rights. This EJ Strategic Plan outlines three goals to guide EPA’s work to achieve tangible progress in the health and environmental protection for communities across the country—including communities that are vulnerable, underinvested, and/or overburdened. These three goals include:
- Promote Environmental Justice and Civil Rights at the Federal, Tribal, State, Local, and Community Levels;
- Embed Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights into the EPA’s Programs, Policies, and Activities; and
- Strengthen External Civil Rights Enforcement to Protect Access to a Healthy Environment for All People.
The EJ Strategic Plan advances EPA’s vision of environmental justice to ensure the just treatment and meaningful engagement of all people–regardless of income, race, color, national origin, Tribal affiliation, or disability–in Agency decision-making and other EPA activities that affect human health and the environment.
Read the Environmental Justice Strategic Plan
Executive Order 14096
Executive Order 14096
Executive Order 14096 (Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All) was established to pursue a whole-of-government approach to environmental justice by investing in and supporting culturally vibrant, sustainable, and resilient communities in which every person has safe, clean, and affordable options for housing, energy, and transportation. This order also supplements the foundational efforts of Executive Order 12898.