For the second year in a row, the University of Memphis will host the Sierra Club for its Environmental Justice Community Conference. In its 14th year, the conference will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 7. The conference is free to the public and includes free lunch and free parking on campus.
"Envisioning a Cleaner Healthier Environment” is this year’s conference theme.
U.S. Representative Keith Ellison, of Minnesota’s 5th district (which includes Minneapolis) will serve as the event’s keynote speaker. Aaron Mair, recently elected as national Sierra Club president, will keynote the lunch session.
U.S. Rep. Ellison co-founded Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, which focuses on resolving environmental issues that lead to health disparities in people of color, low income communities, and indigenous communities. He has also supported environmental legislation on the national level. Ellison will be signing copies of his book My Country Tis of Thee: My Faith, My Family, Our Future after his speech.
Mair, of Schenectady, New York, was elected to office in May and is the organization’s first African-American president. Mair works as an epidemiological-spatial analyst with the New York State Department of Health and has volunteered with the Sierra Club and environmental causes for over 25 years.
Also after Ellison’s speech Memphis U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen will receive the 2015 Environmental Justice Award for supporting environmental legislation nationally, as well as supporting efforts of the Sierra Club locally.
Conference workshop sessions will focus on tri-state concerns such as transportation, solar energy, city planning, climate change, air pollution, women’s health, asthma, and other issues.The
Sierra Club Chickasaw Group puts on the conference as a way to disseminate information and allow attendees to network with expert speakers.
Senior organizing representative Rita Harris said that the conference hopes to attract college students and professors, neighborhood watch leaders, community activities, community groups, community leaders, and the “average person next door.” She believes that at least one topic in the conference will appeal to any person living in the area.
“Environmental justice has to do with our quality of life,” Harris said. “...The environment is where we live, work and play. It’s our wellbeing, our health. It’s about how decisions in our community are made that affect our air, our water, our land.”
After the hour-long sessions, attendees can find out how to take the next steps.
“It’s a way of letting people know who has what information, and if they want to go deeper they know who to call,” Harris said.
Two hundred and fifty people registered for the 2014 conference, which was the biggest group to date.
At last year’s conference there was a session on the health department’s residential air monitoring. At this year’s conference, attendees will learn results of the monitoring. Over the past year, in 100 census tracts, people volunteered their backyards, which were monitored four times during the year.
“We were monitoring for car emissions at high traffic areas but weren’t looking at hazardous air pollutants in neighborhoods,” Harris said.
New at this year’s conference will be information on the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan for Healthier Communities, State Implementation Plans, what it means for low income communities. Information will be provided by Leslie Fields, Sierra Club’s national Environmental Justice and Partnerships Program Director.
Many of the event speakers are local to Memphis, such as Brad Watkins, Executive Director for the Mid South Peace and Justice Center who will present on organizing and advocacy, and Omidele Ayetoro, who will share health benefits of a plant-based diets.
Representing the greater region are two EPA representatives (a scientist and environmental justice officer) and an attorney from the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Nashville office.
The deadline to register for the conference is November 2. Registration is online only.