Our PRograms
our campaigns
Current Campaigns
Increase accessibility to energy efficient housing for low-income communities by assisting developers and architects in constructing new buildings inexpensively that are certified LEED Zero building design or certified passive house building design.
Advocating for the adoption of renewable energy in our community. ACE is working with neighborhood associations and cooperatives to include low-income solar that serves Roxbury residents and communities of color.
Reducing lead and improving indoor air quality in Roxbury. ACE is working in conjunction with ally experts to monitor indoor air quality and to address indoor and external public health concerns to address asthma, lead poisoning, and existing carcinogens.
Addressing out-of-state energy providers. ACE is working with long term allies at the Green Justice Coalition, a statewide Environmental Justice nonprofit coalition, in order to deliver an electricity alternative in Boston.
Strengthening Boston’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Ordinance (DERO 2.0)
In 2015, Mayor Marty Walsh signed “An Ordinance to Protect Air Quality Throughout the City of Boston by Reducing Fuel Emissions,” after a five year campaign led by the ACE youth team (REEP), ACE organizers and members. The passage of this ordinance was the culmination of many ACE campaigns and an important first step in limiting diesel emissions and pollution caused by rapid development in Roxbury, and throughout the City of Boston.
The implementation and enforcement of the ordinance since its passage however, has been limited. Asthma rates remain high in Roxbury, which is a hot spot for diesel trucks, development, and displacement. So, ACE is working to ensure that DERO is updated with stronger enforcement mechanisms, and Roxbury residents can breathe easier.
our programs
Environmental Justice
ACE’s commitment has always been to improve environmental justice and civil rights for our community by addressing systemic racism and its impacts on environmental justice. ACE is currently engaged in campaigns to reduce decades of pollution and the heat island effect.
The EJLS program anchors ACE’s organizational and coalition work with a robust legal framework grounded in federal and state civil rights and environmental laws. Our staff attorney collaborates with non-EJLS staff and members to ensure that legal arguments and campaigns are grounded both in the law and in the lived experiences of staff and community members. Our work on DERO, both historically and in the present day, proves how powerful our organizing and theory of change can be.
ACE partners with a table of lawyers who are committed to defending justice. EJCLC develops legal and policy responses to the challenges facing ACE’s members and other communities, The Center draws out experts and other resources in support of the campaigns and projects for ACE and our key coalitions.
Join us for a Toxic Tour of Nubian Square and learn about the history of environmental justice and the development without displacement campaign in our neighborhood home. Toxic Tours are great for students, teachers, community organizations, faith-based groups, public health professionals, politicians and anyone interested in Environmental Justice advocacy, organizing and policy change.
Tours usually last about two hours and we are happy to work with your group’s specific needs. In exchange, we ask for a sliding scale honorarium to support this work. See more details and contact us to schedule a tour.
Community Organizing & Youth Empowerment
We recognize that environmental injustices affect lower income communities and communities of color worldwide, and that working in collaboration with other communities and youth-led groups help to strengthen our work and make it more effective.
ACE offers a monthly potluck dinner to Roxbury residents to address the imbalance of decades of public policy neglect in the Roxbury community. At these dinners we talk about Air pollution, Development, Service needs and building a community of support.
REEP is a youth-led, adult-supported, environmental-justice, community-organizing effort. We develop leadership and build youth power, membership and movement by developing the leadership of primarily youth of color from Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan. ACE youth led campaigns and projects.
Public Transit & Development
Public transit is a vital service for communities throughout the state of Massachusetts and across the country. Particularly in lower-income communities and communities of color, where car ownership is less common and environmental injustice is already severe, public transit allows residents access to employment opportunities, school, friends and family, and goods and services, while reducing pollution and contributing to a healthy lifestyle.
Although public transit is such an important service for urban communities, local governments and transit agencies systematically fail to meet the needs of transit-dependent neighborhoods in Greater Boston and across the state.
The T Riders Union organizes transit riders to fight for first-class MBTA service in Greater Boston. TRU is a voice of the movement for equitable public transportation in lower-income communities and communities of color. We demand respect, equality, accountability, first-class service, accessibility and affordability.
ACE took on development without displacement work starting in 2015. ACE has founded and now leads 4 coalitions that work with architects, lawyers and developers, as well as housing and climate activists to build solutions that serve a sustainable community. Our work currently includes:
- Increasing accessibility to energy efficient housing for low-income communities by assisting developers and architects in constructing new buildings inexpensively that are certified LEED Zero building design or certified passive house building design.
- Demanding civic and road design that reflects community demands for fair, adequate and free public transit, such that it is an asset for economic mobility for Roxbury residents and residents across Massachusetts.
- Working with the most impacted residents to build power and relationships to have input in shaping development in Boston’s traditional low-income communities.