EnDyna supports US government and constituents by providing expert technical assistance, stakeholder engagement and best practices for environmental justice and climate adaptation/resilience, as well as civil rights of current and historic environmental injustice.
In different of affected and underserved communities across the Unites States, environmental injustice is taking place due to different socio-economic factors and disproportional impacts of climate change, pollutants (air, water, solid and hazardous waste pollution), natural resource depletion, proximity near superfund sites, natural resource damages due to extreme heat, flooding, wildfire, as well as toxic emissions that are at the root of environmental injustice in disadvantaged neighborhoods, tribes and communities. EPA has a map of these ‘disadvantaged communities’ known as the Climate & Economic Justice Screening Tool (CEJST), which is used to identify them in furtherance of the Justice40 Initiative from EO14008. Disadvantage communities can be geographically or non-geographically defined (such as migrant farmworkers). EnDyna’s capabilities in environmental justice services for the US government and its constituents are comprehensive and include:
EnDyna works with an inclusive process between communities, governments, partners and other stakeholders and excels in and supports all aspects of government-provided technical assistance to communities. Specifically, EnDyna engages in assessment and mitigation of environment and climate-related risks to engage, listen, assess, develop, implement strategies that build systemic responses and resilence for environmental justice challenges that affect human health, environmental and economic impacts to communities. Throughout, EnDyna implements an informed approach to systemic inequality to strengthen environmental resilience of compromised communities, including but not necessarily limited to communities of color, indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ groups, women and youth.
EnDyna has several prime and subcontracts that engage the services and capabilities to support the U.S. government in its mission to deliver on transformative potential of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for communities most adversely and disproportionately impacted by climate change, legacy pollution and historical disinvestments and to build the capacity for communities to tackle environmental and climate justice challenges, strengthen their resilence and advance clean energy.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Right (OEJECR), Technical Assistance for Grant Applicants/Recipients and Administrative Support for EPA Under the Clear Air Section 138 Environmental and Climate Justice Program (ECJ Program): Under this prime contract, the EnDyna Team provides the project planning, development, implementation and reporting assistance to Eligible Entities for pre-award, award, post-award, and general activities related to the EPA's Community Change Technical Assistance (TA) Program as appropriate, which is codified in Clean Air Act (CAA) section 138. EnDyna will also provide administrative support and additional services, including but not limited to grants and program management support grant and contract administration support; and other support and services related to managing, administering and carrying out the ECJ Program.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR), Programing and Learning Products: EnDyna, as Prime, provides the development of learning materials and activities that include training, learning products, programming content/topics and facilitation of select meetings in support of implementing EJ and Civil Rights into EPA policies, programs, and activities.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Policy, Community Action for a Renewed Environments (CARE): EnDyna coordinated the technical and logistical planning, execution, and follow-up for national training workshops inclusive of concurrent workshop sessions, exhibits and related events in 2008 and 2009 which reached full capacity. These three-day workshops focused on the CARE competitive grants program, which offered innovative ways for communities to organize to reduce pollution in their local environments. Thirty-one separate workshop sessions were held, with up to five concurrent sessions at any one time. Topics ranged broadly and included but were not limited to environmental justice, children’s health and healthy homes, brownfields development and tribal issues. Over 200 attendees participated.
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH): Under the direction of Dr. John Balbus of NIH, EnDyna created a Healthcare Climate Resilience Guide and Resource Packet as an initial component of the President’s Climate Action Plan that was released by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Studies (NIEHS) in 2013. The Plan included recommendation for action to promote resilence in the health sector. In response to this call for action, EnDyna convened a collaborative effort that included inter-agency engagement, participation of non-profit organizations and input from key stakeholders. The Healthcare Climate Resilience Guide and Resource Packet are documents designed for practioners and experts from all sectors and disciplines engaged in healthcare facility climate resilence, to assist in increasing the ability to withstand and rebound from extreme weather events and return to normal or a new normal. SMEs on the EnDyna Team examined a core issue: whether the new and volving hazards presented by climate change and extreme weather require additional guidance and tools. The disruptions and losses incurred by the US healthcare sector in recent extreme weather events suggest an urgent need for climate resilience-specific facility guidance.
US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS): For NIEHS, EnDyna developed the Environmental Justice and Health Implementation Manual for NEPA Practioners that incorporate health consideration of low-income and minority populations into environmental compliance guidance. The innovative decision-support tool is designed to help identify EJ communities affected by a NEPA activity, assess the potential health impacts using Health Impact Assessment (HIA) and determine how best to engage a potential affected community throughout the process.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), EARTH Grants: Office of Air and Radiation Funding Assistance Programs for Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG): As a subcontractor to RTI International, EnDyna is conducting technical assistance support for all EPA regions and their stakeholders (communities, tribes, and other stakeholders) across a broad range of impact areas that include agriculture/natural & working lands, climate planning process, climate planning analytics, commercial & residential buildings, electric power sector, industrial sector, low-income & disadvantaged communities, tribes + territories, transportation sector, waste and materials management. EnDyna services include administration, planning, overseeing and hosting technical assistance meetings and webinars, creating and maintaining websites, community outreach, creating and managing email and feedback from the mailbox with participants, writing the meeting session notes, as well as providing data analysis on stakeholder engagement and engaging in continuous collaborative communications and feedback as meetings are scheduled on a rolling basis over several months.