https://www.asccc.org/content/importance-environmental-equity-education

The Importance of Environmental Equity Education

April 2026

Xiao Behlendorf Los Angeles Valley College

Beth Abels Los Angeles Pierce College

Note: The following article is not an official statement of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The article is intended to engender discussion and consideration by local colleges but should not be seen as the endorsement of any position or practice by the ASCCC.

Talking to people about community college success regarding equity is always satisfying; few institutions are as effective at staying on target. Community colleges put equity commitments into action and do it well. Data about completion, transfer, and career outcomes is translated through the lens of equity into action. Through that same equity lens, the Sustainable Environment Institute of the Los Angeles Community College District is addressing environmental inequities in the classroom.

In 2023-24 alone, the California Community Colleges system served 2.1 million students at 116 community colleges, making it the largest community college system in the country. Of this total, 62% were classified as Perkins Economically Disadvantaged. The following demographics (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, n.d.) define the student body:

Student Demographics by Ethnicity (2023-24)

California Community College Student Enrollment and Demographics, 2023-24

Environmental crises impact everyone, but they do not impact everyone equally. Disproportionately, low-income and working-class communities of Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and people of color are hardest hit. Therefore, members of the primary demographic that the California community colleges serve are likely to experience the highest impact of climate chaos.  

The forces of climate change are unjust and compounding: increased intensity of urban heat islands and heat waves, more severe storms and drought, accelerated sea level rise, larger and more damaging wildfires, very poor air quality and polluted water, exposure to heavy metals, and overall ecological decline. In fact, the Fifth National Climate Assessment (U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2023) points out that “redlined neighborhoods” are more likely to see temperatures on hot days that are 15°F higher than the wealthier neighborhoods in the same cities. Extreme heat can lead to higher rates of illness and death in low-income neighborhoods.

A study of  by Park, Goodman, Hurwitz, and Smith (2020) found that for every one degree of heat above average, high school students lose 1% of their learning capacity.     

California community college students reside in frontline communities, those hardest hit by environmental inequities. Effective resilience, restoration, and environmental justice require climate literate communities to be able to respond to the onslaught of climate disruption. Community college students are decision makers and future leaders and offer the most promise in addressing inequity. California community colleges play a vital role in students’ ability to enhance their agency, frame climate justice, and make changes on their campuses and in their communities. This reality reflects California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian’s call for the colleges to lead in climate action in Vision 2030 (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office,2023).

Several community colleges and districts across the state have taken on this work. Presenters at Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) plenary sessions and curriculum institutes have included Mesa College, Mount San Antonio College, and Los Angeles Community College District Sustainable Environment Institute (SEI) faculty. ASCCC President LaTonya Parker discussed the importance of this work in a speech at the ASCCC 2025 Fall Plenary. Data collected by State Chancellor Climate Fellow Holly Bailey Hofmann reveals a great number of colleges and districts committed to incorporating these issues into their curriculum.

Educators are the key agents of the environmental equity education effort. Building faculty capacity statewide for interdisciplinary climate education is vital. If educators are to reach their students in vulnerable communities statewide, then a framework is needed to assist faculty in this endeavor. Not enough educators feel confident in bringing environmental education into their teaching. In a survey by the SEI, faculty stated that “not knowing enough about climate change and environmental justice to teach about it” was the number one reason that these topics are not being addressed in their classrooms. Lack of funding and not knowing where to find resources came in a close second.

The SEI developed an environmental equity education framework to address the gap for professional development and funding. The Los Angeles Community College District Environmental Equity Education Demonstration Project is an initiative focused on building and embedding environmental equity curriculum across disciplines in all nine district colleges. This demonstration project, funded by the Climate Center at West Los Angeles College, trained faculty leadership on each campus, providing professional development funding and a clearing house of resources and materials.

This framework emphasizes effective pedagogical best practices including interdisciplinary and intersectional climate and environmental education strategies to ensure a far greater number of learners increase their environmental equity literacy. The SEI has now had the opportunity to test these pedagogies and has seen great success and enthusiasm about this project.

An environmental equity liaison was trained at each of the nine Los Angeles Community College District campuses to work with five or six faculty Global Environmental Equity Educator Cohorts (GEEECos). By providing robust professional development opportunities to faculty, the SEI is significantly increasing students’ capacity to understand and advocate for environmental justice in their communities. This initiative included the development of more than fifty faculty GEEECos across more than thirty disciplines and resulted in bringing environmental equity education to over 7,000 students in the first year, with a significantly positive response.

A survey conducted after the project by an independent evaluator showed faculty felt greater confidence, excitement, and satisfaction with their curriculum and enthusiasm for their students’ experience. Faculty were able to articulate their relationship to environmental equity through the lens of their disciplines and felt more confident about articulating future career possibilities in their disciplines for students. 
An unexpected outcome was the outpouring of faculty enthusiasm regarding collaboration with others across disciplines as diverse as automotive technology, child development, dental hygiene, economics, library science, and anthropology.

In the Fall 25 end of semester survey, students enthusiastically responded to this curricular approach. Their answers reflected enhanced awareness, meaningful engagement, and the motivation to act. This was consistent through all fields surveyed, including STEM, Humanities, Social Sciences, CTE and Counseling courses.

The SEI is confident that its framework on environmental equity education will be valuable to others who are considering this work. The framework could be a model for other community colleges and districts with local flavor added. As more faculty participate in similar programs, the majority of curriculum in the California Community Colleges system will address environmental equity effectively. Students, the agents of change, will have the knowledge needed to move this work forward.

References

California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (2023, September 26). Vision 2030: A Roadmap for California Community Colleges.
California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (n.d.). Key Facts.
Park, T., Goodman, J., Hurwitz, M., & Smith, J. (2020, May). “Heat and Learning.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 12(2), 306–339
U.S. Global Change Research Program. (2023). Fifth National Climate Assessment (U). U. S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.