This month marks our 5th anniversary. What a roller coaster it has been! Just Solutions began amid a once-in-a-generation pandemic, escalating climate impacts, and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. I, along with our board, believing in the power of communities and self-determination, began working to fill a gap in the movement’s infrastructure so those disproportionately impacted by climate and environmental injustice would have greater capacity to advance their ideas into laws and government programs.  

We’ve worked hard to be responsive to the needs of frontline advocates, but this last year has been the toughest. On the federal level, unprecedented attacks and rollbacks on fundamental environmental protections and civil rights are having far-reaching impacts at a pace that is difficult to keep up with. The next several years will be defined by state leadership. State-based climate justice coalitions and organizations are defending progress, meeting urgent community needs, and building the power and intersectional policy models required for local and future national breakthroughs. 

Milestones like our 5th anniversary are an opportunity to recommit ourselves to our purpose, take stock of what we have accomplished, and express gratitude for our partners. Each and every one of you, in your own way, in your community, in the halls of decision-making, or over dinner with your friends and family, who advocate for health, safety, opportunity, and fundamental rights for everyone, especially those who are experiencing the worst of these times. 

What gives me hope is how you, our partners, and Just Solutions build and leverage broader, stronger coalitions that bring direct benefits to lower and moderate-income people, and investments in disproportionately impacted, Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities. Still, the climate movement is not as strong as it needs to be. 

The climate crisis is accelerating at the same time that democratic institutions, civil rights protections, and environmental safeguards are under coordinated attack. Under the Trump Administration, key federal climate investments have been reversed, fundamental environmental laws have been eliminated, the cost of living is increasing, and climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent, more severe, and more costly. Attacks on so many fronts compound the challenges for advocates to track, understand, and respond. 

“I think Just Solutions is incredible at demystifying complicated federal and state language, which often creates barriers for grassroots organizations to respond in the moment to advocacy needs. They make things more accessible by bridging strategy with need, creating pathways for community-driven solutions.”

– Latia Leonard
Justice 40 Program Manager, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition

With federal protections eroding, states are the last line of defense—and the first line of opportunity. Yet most state-based environmental and climate justice organizations and coalitions lack the policy capacity, staffing, legal support, and movement infrastructure needed to defend gains or advance bold, people-centered solutions. With our partners, Just Solutions has been working since our creation to be positioned for this moment; building movement infrastructure to lead and win with the help of customized research, policy analysis, strategic communications, convening power, and additional staffing capacity—always guided by our state partners’ priorities, so together we can advance common ground and common-sense solutions. 

Just Solutions has been an important resource for gaining a national and comparative perspective on issues affecting people living on the frontlines. They are who we turn to as a national thought partner for smart strategies, comparative research, deep analysis, and a perspective that connects key issues, policies and people.
– Aurora Martin
 Executive Director, Front & Centered, Washington State

Our staff and board bring decades of direct on-the-ground experience and formal academic training in research, analysis, and technical assistance. We are working with leaders across the country and leveraging our collective experience and knowledge so groups have the support they need now to defend climate justice.

Working at Just Solutions as a Senior Fellow is always rich and stimulating. I appreciate the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with brilliant climate justice organizers and researchers who are constantly bridging worlds, connecting frontline communities and leaders with effective and equitable environmental and climate justice policies.

– State Senator Khanh Pham
Senator (D-Portland), Senior Fellow, Just Solutions

Together we:

• Strengthen state power and movement infrastructure. 
  • Convening nearly 30 national partners as ClimateMAX, a table of policy and legal experts on intersectional issues of climate, including housing, civil rights, consumer protection, and public health. 
  • Supporting state climate justice coalitions across the US to collectively develop analyses, strategize, and collaborate to advance model solutions and collectively defend against climate justice attacks being pushed in state houses. 
• Built infrastructure for advocacy and keeping elected officials accountable. 
  • Conducting research and policy analyses for frontline organizers and coalitions working in state capitols, creating customized papers, state-by-state comparisons, and providing technical assistance on a wide array of complex issues like hydrogen energy, energy affordability, clean energy solutions, state budgets, and climate disasters. 
  • Responding to the urgent, immediate need from frontline advocates for information on emerging issues, including a comprehensive analysis published days after President Trump’s inauguration that examined his likely actions and what states can do to respond. 
  • Compiling policy solutions with frameworks, analysis of strengths and shortcomings, and recommended improvements. Including on energy affordability, hydrogen energy, and on community-created guidance for a just and regenerative 100% policy. 
• Advance impactful, ambitious, and practical pathways for action.
  • Developing relevant and timely educational resources and training, including a wide array of timely and relevant webinars that generate up to 400+ RSVPs.
  • Organizing deep issue and policy trainings for community leaders to identify solutions and coordinate responses to emerging problems that are seen across geography and demographics. 
  • Producing our Just Solutions Podcast, hosted by me, Aiko Schaefer. And after just 2 seasons, garnering listeners in all 50 US states and over 30 other countries.

Just Solutions Collective offers a high-leverage opportunity to strengthen the backbone of the climate justice movement—state by state. Collective power is crucial in challenging circumstances, now more than ever. 

While we are thankful to our foundation partners who have funded our staff and program to address immediate problems and opportunities, like most non-profits, we are concerned about recent hesitations from philanthropy to invest broadly in solutions, or their outright withdrawal from funding work in the US. In order to maintain and expand our work, we will need to rely more on individual donors who remain committed to the work we are doing.

As we celebrate our 5th anniversary, we celebrate you and our partnership. In these unprecedented times of unravelling and undermining of environmental protections, together we can respond in ways that show our true love of humanity and caring for one another. So let’s make a wish, blow out the candle on our 5th anniversary cake, then get back to work.