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Environmental Justice

Protecting marginalized communities from environmental harms

All communities have the right to live, work, and raise families in an environment that is safe, healthy, and free of industrial pollution.

Unfortunately, marginalized communities (often low-income or people of color) are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards where they live—such as contaminated air, water, or soil. Those fighting to create environmental equity and justice are giving voice to the historically disenfranchised.

We’re saying enough is enough, and we’re standing up for a better, cleaner future for ourselves and our children.

United States, 2021
Sharon Lavigne

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Goldman Prize Winners awarded for Environmental Justice

Photo of Chilekwa Mumba

Chilekwa Mumba

2023 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
Africa
Zambia

Alarmed by the pollution produced by the Konkola Copper Mines operation in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, Chilekwa Mumba organized a lawsuit to hold the mine’s parent company, Vedanta Resources, responsible. Chilekwa’s victory in the UK Supreme Court set a legal precedent—it was the first time an English court ruled that a British company could be held liable for the environmental damage caused by subsidiary-run operations in another country. This precedent has since been applied to hold Shell Global—one of the world’s 10 largest corporations by revenue—liable for its pollution in Nigeria.


Nalleli Cobo

Nalleli Cobo

2022 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
North America
United States

Nalleli Cobo led a coalition to permanently shut down a toxic oil-drilling site in her community in March 2020, at the age of 19—an oil site that caused serious health issues for her and others. Her continued organizing against urban oil extraction has now yielded major policy movement within both the Los Angeles City Council and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which voted unanimously to ban new oil exploration and phase out of existing sites.


Sharon Lavigne

2021 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
North America
United States

In September 2019, Sharon Lavigne, a special education teacher turned environmental justice advocate, successfully stopped the construction of a US$1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant alongside the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Lavigne mobilized grassroots opposition to the project, educated community members, and organized peaceful protests to defend her predominantly African American community. The plant would have generated one million pounds of liquid hazardous waste annually, in a region already contending with known carcinogens and toxic air pollution.


LeeAnne Walters

2018 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
North America
United States

LeeAnne Walters led a citizens’ movement that tested the tap water in Flint, Michigan, and exposed the Flint water crisis. The results showed that one in six homes had lead levels in water that exceeded the EPA’s safety threshold. Walters’ persistence compelled the local, state, and federal governments to take action and ensure that residents of Flint have access to clean water.


Mark Lopez

mark! Lopez

2017 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
North America
United States

Born and raised in a family of community activists, mark! Lopez persuaded the state of California to provide comprehensive lead testing and cleanup of East Los Angeles homes contaminated by a battery smelter that had polluted the community for over three decades.


Destiny Watford

2016 Goldman Prize Winner
Environmental Justice
North America
United States

In a community whose environmental rights had long been sidelined to make room for heavy industry, Destiny Watford inspired residents of a Baltimore neighborhood to defeat plans to build the nation’s largest incinerator less than a mile away from her high school.


Partners in Environmental Justice

The Goldman Prize is honored to partner with a variety of environmental organizations around the world, each of them united in the goal of protecting our planet. From our nominating partners to global organizations to grassroots NGOs led by Prize winners, they are all essential parts of the environmental community.

  • Moving Forward Network logo
  • Earth Rights International logo
  • Sierra Club logo
  • CJGEA logo
  • SDCEA logo
  • Green Connection logo
  • Rise St. James logo
  • Community In Power and Development Association logo
  • groundWork logo
  • Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) logo
  • East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice  logo