Energy Justice Network
Energy Justice Network (EJN) supports grassroots communities threatened by polluting energy and waste technologies through grassroots strategy and organizing support, research, and innovative mapping. EJN believes there is an opportunity in Baltimore to make productive use of recycled glass through the development of a social enterprise model that will generate revenue and create jobs for its Glass Recovery and Sustainable Systems (GRASS) initiative. GRASS intends to recover used bottles from restaurants and residences and resell them to local breweries, or reform the glass into new pieces – products like cups, plates, vases, and more for sale. This grant provided support for staff costs associated with social enterprise model development.
WYPR-Your Public Radio Corporation
Baltimore and Maryland face critically important and increasingly difficult environmental issues and public health challenges while news organization coverage has shrunk dramatically over the last decade. WYPR, Baltimore’s local radio station, offers “The Environment in Focus,” a weekly program providing listeners with engaging and informative stories about the environment and environmental issues, from COVID and climate change, sea level rise, and endangered species to relevant federal rulings, state policy analysis and city actions. This grant pays the full production costs of the weekly radio program.
Environmental Integrity Project (EIP)
With community partners, EIP will focus technical analysis and legal research into strengthening regulation of methane pollution from landfills, a gas that is 86 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide on a 20-year scale. The state’s largest municipal solid waste landfill, Quarantine Road Landfill, happens to be located on Hawkins Point in Baltimore City. It is the third largest emitter of methane in Maryland in 2018 and produces 500,000 tons of Greenhouse Gases annually. EIP will encourage waste reduction and diversion as well as alternative methods of waste disposal.
Blue Water Baltimore, Inc.
Blue Water Baltimore advances clean water and watershed protection and elevates citizen concerns through multiple fronts: water and outfall sampling, data collection and scientific analysis, outreach and education, green infrastructure installation and tree plantings, cultivation and sale of native plants, targeted policy work, legislative advocacy, as well as litigation to hold polluters accountable under the Clean Water Act. This grant provides staff support to address top pollutants plaguing Baltimore City and its waterways: stormwater runoff and sewage overflows.
Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Chesapeake Climate Action’s “Rebuilding Baltimore’s Workforce” initiative will advocate for a domestic Marshall Plan to create new jobs for unemployed and newly unemployed residents in Baltimore City. The intiiative builds on their track record of success in creating local jobs and job training efforts that address the global crisis of climate change. Massive urban investments to weatherize low-income homes, plant trees, and train workers for the solar and wind power and cleaner transportation jobs is intended to restart the economy and provide living wage jobs.