Three years after its launch, the Philadelphia Environmental Justice Advisory Commission (PEJAC) has yet to assert itself as an impactful player in efforts to ensure that all Philadelphians live free from environmental toxins and hazards. One year into Cherelle Parker’s mayorship, the commission has been absent from the administration’s Office of Clean and Green Initiatives.
Hailed in a February 2022 press release as a “historic step in the City’s commitment to supporting the leadership of frontline communities in addressing environmental harms,” PEJAC was mandated by 2019 legislation and built on foundational work by — to quote then-Mayor Jim Kenney’s Executive Order 2-23 — “community stakeholders and environmental justice experts” convened as the Office of Sustainability’s Environmental Justice Working Group. (Initially called EJAC, the P was added to the body’s official acronym because, as commissioner Kermit O explains, “Have you ever googled EJAC? It’s unfortunate.”)
PEJAC was given a sweeping charge. Acknowledging that environmental burdens disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color, that racially-biased and discriminatory practices have contributed to environmental inequities, and that the meaningful involvement of historically-marginalized residents is critical to effectively developing and enforcing environmental regulations, Kenney’s executive order declared the commission’s purpose “to study, report on and address environmental justice issues in Philadelphia.”
Details of PEJAC’s theory of change — how its activities would lead to material mitigation of environmental injustices — were scant from the start. In Grid’s February 2022 issue (#153) Bernard Brown asked Saleem Chapman, then-deputy director of the Office of Sustainability (OOS), how the commission’s recommendations would influence government action. “We haven’t yet necessarily identified particular pathways that the commission will have in terms of effectuating change,” Chapman replied. “We’re going to leave that to the commissioners to decide.”
Easier said than done, apparently.
PEJAC’s 2023 annual report alluded to commissioners wrestling with the question of “how to function as an entity created by the Government but accountable to the citizens,” and a statement provided to Grid in January 2024 explains that much of the commission’s time during Parker’s first year as mayor was “spent navigating organizational challenges, strategic planning and building … shared analysis.”
“We recognize that our profile and impact remains relatively small,” the statement acknowledges, “and that we have yet to distinguish ourselves as a commission independent from city government.”
Genevieve LaMarr LeMee, deputy director of environmental justice at OOS, identifies “one of [PEJAC’s] main projects” as steering the City’s Community Resilience and Environmental Justice (CREJ) grant fund, launched in 2023 and dedicated to providing frontline communities the resources needed to advance their vision of an equitable and resilient future. PEJAC commissioners report that the review process for the latest round of CREJ funding was informed by presentations and site visits with OOS, through which they “witnessed the value of currently funded work on greening, local food production, pollution monitoring and other projects.” Announced in mid-January 2025, grantees include Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, Fair Amount Food Forest, Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together, Klean Kensington, Ollin Yoliztli Calmecac and Philly Tree People.
In the coming year, PEJAC will be adding new members and, according to the statement provided to Grid, “building relationships with the individuals and organizations who have been putting in the work for years.” The commissioners add: “We also look forward to aligning our work with the efforts of the new administration, such as the Clean and Green Initiative[s].”
