JUSTICE40

What is Justice40?
During his first week in office, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad. Section 223 of EO 14008 established the Justice40 Initiative, which directs 40% of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments – including investments in clean energy and energy efficiency; clean transit; affordable and sustainable housing; training and workforce development; the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution; and the development of clean water infrastructure – to flow to disadvantaged communities (DACs).

Executive order 14008 Sec. 212. Policy states,

“This Nation needs millions of construction, manufacturing, engineering, and skilled-trades workers to build a new American infrastructure and clean energy economy. These jobs will create opportunities for young people and for older workers shifting to new professions, and for people from all backgrounds and communities. Such jobs will bring opportunity to communities too often left behind—places that have suffered as a result of economic shifts and places that have suffered the most from persistent pollution, including low-income rural and urban communities, communities of color, and Native communities.”

Executive order 14008 Sec. 223 directs 40 percent of overall benefits derived from this order to go flow to disadvantaged communities, calling this effort the Justice 40 Initiative. Justice40 requires agencies to identify benefits of programs that cover the initiative, determine how the programs distribute the benefits, and calculate and report on reaching the 40 percent goal set by the Initiative.

What is a disadvantaged community?

Disadvantaged – a combination of variables that may include but are not limited to:
• Low income, high and/or persistent poverty
• High unemployment and underemployment
• Racial and ethnic residential segregation, particularly where the segregation stems from
discriminate by government entities
• Linguistic isolation
• High house cost burden and substandard housing
• Distressed neighborhoods
• High transportation cost burden and/or low transporation access
• Disproportionate environmental stressor burden and high cumulative impacts
• Limited water and sanitation access and affordability
• Disproportionate impacts from climate change
• High energy cost burden and low energy access
• Jobs lost through the energy transition
• Access to healthcare
• Geographic areas within Tribal jurisdictions

Methodologies by Category of Burden

To find out eligibility, you can use the following tool: screen.epa.gov/mapper/

The tool highlights disadvantaged census tracts across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories.

Communities are considered disadvantaged:

If they are in census tracts that meet the thresholds for at least one of the tool’s categories of burden, or
If they are on land within the boundaries of Federally Recognized Tribes

The tool uses datasets as indicators of burdens. The burdens are organized into categories. A community is highlighted as disadvantaged on the CEJST map if it is in a census tract that is (1) at or above the threshold for one or more environmental, climate, or other burdens, and (2) at or above the threshold for an associated socioeconomic burden.

In addition, a census tract that is completely surrounded by disadvantaged communities and is at or above the 50% percentile for low income is also considered disadvantaged.

Census tracts are small units of geography.

Climate Change