Abstract

The case deals with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving (EJCPS) Model that community-based organizations used to address local environmental and/or public health issues in American communities. The Model provided a framework for community-based organizations to work with multiple stakeholders to address environmental justice issues in local communities. It emphasized multi-stakeholder collaboration as a transformative mechanism that enabled communities as well as stakeholders to identify and assess the concerns of the community and devise appropriate strategies to come up with a lasting solution to environmental justice issues. The case describes the seven elements of the EJCPS framework which served as a guideline to organizations to address environmental justice concerns.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept of collaborative problem-solving and its application in addressing environmental justice issues in vulnerable communities.
• Understand why EPA focused on the collaborative approach to problem-solving as a systematic approach while resolving environmental and/or health problems in communities.
• Study and analyze EPA’s application of sustainable principles and practices to its work in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Discuss and debate whether the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Model (EJCPS Model) delivered positive outcomes in terms of addressing the complex environmental justice issues in the community.
• Understand the difficulties in the application of the EJCPS Model and explore the ways in which it can address the issue.

Keywords

Collaborative problem-solving, Environment justice issues, Environmental hazards, Environmental risk, Sustainable environment, Sustainable community, Reducing pollution and promoting environmentally conscious designs, Innovative environment management, Multi-stakeholders’ engagement, Stakeholders’ relationships, Stakeholder dialogue and discussion, Stakeholder management, Stakeholder tension, Stakeholders’ responsibility, Public-private partnership