About the Center for the Urban Environment

The Center for the Urban Environment (CUE) strives to protect communities Of Color and low-income communities from disproportionately high amounts of pollution by addressing environmental justice (EJ) issues on the local, state and national levels. 

In their 2007 report entitled Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty: 1987-2007, which was prepared for the United Church of Christ, Robert D. Bullard et al. provide the following definition of EJ:

Environmental justice is defined as the “fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. Fair treatment means that no group of people, including racial, ethnic or socio­-economic groups, should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, municipal and commercial operations or the execution of federal, state, local and tribal programs and policies.” Simply put, environmental justice demands that everyone (not just the people who can “vote with their feet” and move away from threats or individuals who can afford lawyers, experts and lobbyists to fight on their behalf) is entitled to equal protection and equal enforcement of our environmental, health, housing, land use, transportation, energy and civil rights laws and regulations.

This definition relies heavily on the EPA definition of EJ, which it quotes in part.

With public health and social justice at the heart of its EJ work, one of the Center’s primary goals, as mentioned above, is to protect residents of low-income communities and communities Of Color, i.e., EJ communities, from elevated levels of pollution. CUE  also seeks to ensure that EJ communities have access to the benefits produced by improving the environment and guarantee that residents are meaningfully involved in decisions that impact them. The Center plays a significant role in helping to develop   the best possible public policies from an EJ perspective, especially those that affect public health. 

CUE works closely with the EJ advocacy community and is involved with important issues such as reducing particulate matter air pollution, climate change, energy policy, cumulative impacts, access to the natural environment and increasing the capacity of the EJ community to address these and other issues. Cumulative impacts are the risks and impacts caused by multiple pollutants and their interaction with each other and social vulnerabilities.

CUE provides technical assistance and support on policies, legislation, rules and regulations, and  attempts to ensure the meaningful participation of community residents in decisions that affect the environment which impact them. The Center’s director, Nicky Sheats, Ph.D, MPP, Esq., also spends a significant amount of time talking to various groups and institutions about EJ issues. In addition, CUE links the environmental justice community to scientific and legal support, assists in the development of legal theories and helps provide organizational capacity to the environmental justice community.
Nicky Sheats, Ph.D, MPP, Esq.,became CUE’s director at approximately the same time as the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance (NJEJA) was forming. NJEJA is the only statewide organization in New Jersey that focuses on environmental justice issues and is also the only New Jersey statewide EJ or environmental organization whose membership and leadership are both mostly Of Color. The strong relationship between CUE and NJEJA, and other environmental justice organizations in New Jersey and around the country, is an important reason that the Center has been recognized on both the state and national level for its environmental justice work.