Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association

Environmental justice (EJ) has been defined by the US EPA as the fair treatment of people of all races, cultures, incomes, and educational levels with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Fair treatment implies that no population should be forced to shoulder a disproportionate share of exposure to the negative effects of pollution due to lack of political or economic strength. Although EJ has been recognized as an important issue for more than 50 years, awareness has grown substantially in recent years at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Current considerations of EJ commonly entail substantial new data collection with advancing technologies, especially at more local levels, including those collected by citizens using low-cost technology. EJ is evaluated using many new screening, modelling, and other tools and is being addressed by governments in new laws and regulations. EJ is frequently linked to other social and economic matters, as well as sustainability.

Equity—past, current, and future—is a crucial societal value and is important in many aspects of protecting public health and welfare.  Planning related to energy, transportation, industry, and agriculture, among other sectors, frequently addresses EJ.  EJ is considered when addressing adaptation and mitigation related to climate change. Decisions on uses of new and cleaner technologies often consider EJ. Expanded use of monitoring, modelling, and screening tools are useful to attain EJ-related goals.  Assessment of cumulative impacts from multiple environmental stressors, also linking to social and economic factors, is an up-and-coming field of inquiry.  These activities require the best assessments and analyses.

In this Article Collection, we seek original work related to EJ from diverse stakeholders at the local, regional, national, and international levels—communities, government, academia, nonprofit organizations, and businesses.  Original work can be related to environmental assessments related to public health and welfare, monitoring, measurements, modelling, mitigation, laws, and regulations, including case studies. Economic and social sciences may be secondary topics. This Article Collection aims to discuss and highlight crucial topics such as, but not limited to:

• Environmental, climate, and energy justice;
• Energy, transportation, industry, and agricultural impacts and management;
• Public health and welfare;
• Cumulative impacts assessment;
• Laws, regulations, permitting, and compliance;
• Monitoring, measurement and modelling;
• Indexes, screening, and mapping;
• Impacts of climate change such as heat waves and sea level rise;
• Role of science and engineering;
• Climate change resilience, adaptation, and mitigation;
• Air quality, hazardous waste, solid waste, and landfills; and
• Sustainability

Guest Advisors

Dr. Marwa El-Sayed is an assistant professor of Environmental Engineering in the Civil Engineering Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She holds an M.Sc. in Sustainable Engineering from Cambridge University in 2010 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2018, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado State University. Her research focuses on characterizing atmospheric aerosol formation and air quality through field studies, laboratory experiments, and models. Recent work includes studies on low-cost air quality sensors, Environmental Justice, atmospheric microplastics, the effect of electrification on air quality, and sustainability.

El-Sayed was awarded the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) Exploratory Research grant in 2024 to study microplastics from biomass burning. Her research is funded by the US EPA and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). She is active in several professional associations including the Air and Waste Management Association (A&WMA), contributing to the broader scientific community through her extensive involvement and leadership. She serves on the finance and education committees of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR). Additionally, she is the Director of the Environmental Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), where she has chaired multiple sessions and leads its webinar committee.

John Kinsman is an environmental and energy policy analyst and leader who has been engaged for more than three decades on key issues like clean air, environmental justice, climate change, and the transforming electric power industry. He has worked for an electric utility trade association with federal and state government, industry, and non-governmental groups to educate and engage through analyses, comments, meetings, and communications. Addressed topics including greenhouse gas regulations, air quality standards and interstate transport, hazardous air pollutants, visibility, and environmental justice/energy equity. He has also held key leadership positions at Air & Waste Management Association (A&WMA) and Toastmasters International. For A&WMA, he has served as member of Board of Directors, chair of Finance Committee, chair of Publications Committee, chair of EM magazine Editorial Advisory Committee, Board member of local chapter, and has been involved with numerous conferences, publications, and webinars. He has also served as Chair of the Environmental Justice committee; co-chair with U.S. Department of Energy of inaugural 2023 Specialty Conference on environmental justice and planning of 2024 conference; and organized issues of magazine, sessions of conferences, and webinars. He also undertook consultant project regarding the interaction of electric power companies and community groups on environmental justice.

Article Collection Key Words:

1. Environmental Justice
2. Climate justice
3. Air pollution
4. Waste pollution
5. Public health

­­All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 January 2025

Please contact Alex Johnson at [email protected] with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

Please be sure to select the appropriate Article Collection from the drop-down menu in the submission system.

Instructions for AuthorsSubmit an Article