Project Incubation: Building Capacity for Ethical Communication Between Vulnerable Fenceline Communities, Industry, and Environmental Agencies

This Incubation Project is intended to develop new collaborations between communities, agencies, and industries in Michigan and to build capacity for the formation of environmental ethics among earth and environmental scientists working in resource extraction, environmental consulting, and environmental regulation. In particular, we focus on the intersection of earth and environmental impacts and communities of color.

This focus is undertaken because environmental harms disproportionately impact low-income and minoritized communities who live on the “fenceline” adjacent to hazardous areas that impact the safety and viability of soil, water, and air. To build common understanding of the need and potential for ethical earth and environmental science, this project will strengthen existing relationships and build new relationships between Michigan State University, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, and the Hispanic Latino Commission of Michigan.

We anticipate gaining deeper understanding of underlying ethical causes for environmental injustice as well as potential mechanisms for increasing community power in decision making. We also anticipate earth and environmental scientists working in resource extraction, environmental consulting, or environmental regulation will build deeper understanding of non-anthropocentric environmental ethics.

Through this increased understanding, we anticipate changes in how these scientists engage in their work and communicate with the general public, including vulnerable fenceline communities.

To this point, this project will address three goals: (1) Build an understanding of and respect for divergent interests within partnerships and communities; (2) Develop mutual trust between partners; (3) Empower communities to become full participants in research. These goals and related activities are grounded in community-based participatory research approaches.

All partner organizations will collaborate to ensure trust building and communication to participants. Activities will include brainstorming, one-on-one meetings with key stakeholders, Delphi surveys, small regional meetings, and collaborative meetings. Through these efforts the project team will develop deep understanding of differing cultural and community norms for “ethical research”.

Ultimately, this work will set the foundation for a standard grant to allow development, implementation, and evaluation of ethics training for earth and environmental scientists.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.