Coffee Hour: Environmental Justice

May 23, 2022

As part of a celebration for Earth Day, the E&I Events and Programs subcommittee hosted our April Coffee Hour on Environmental Justice (EJ). The discussion primarily focused on EJ communities, specifically on the federal criteria for EJ and outreach conducted for HSH projects under the new Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) regulations. The two projects reviewed included the Chelsea Viaduct and Sumner Tunnel Restoration projects.

There was an overview of how the Public Involvement team approaches outreach for projects, including identifying key stakeholders and their needs and wants, how best to provide them the information they need, and how the Public Involvement group evaluates the success in its approach. This process has a heavy emphasis on reaching out to EJ communities. After the presentation, the coffee hour participants split into two groups to talk about the presentation and other questions. Conversation topics included how other departments work with EJ communities in their projects and how, if at all, the new MEPA regulations impacted their work.

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