JE-L researches policy and design for the creation of just environments before and after disasters.

Our primary goal is to leverage planning and design research to prevent disasters from occurring by increasing access to hazard mitigation in under-resourced and underrepresented communities. However, there are unfortunately times when these communities need post-disaster response, recovery, and reconstruction assistance. We leverage environmental justice theories and policies as a starting point for assisting these communities before and after disasters, as everyone deserves safety.

Our work is often deeply community-engaged. As such, we have or currently are working with underrepresented communities across: Puerto Rico, the Río Grande Valley of South Texas, and California. Their community-led theories and community science form the basis for our work.

The Just Environments Lab (JE-L) was founded in 2018 first as Comunidad at the University of Colorado Boulder. The lab changed its name in the summer of 2021 to expand its focus when it moved to the University of California Berkeley.