2023 | Just | Change | Aida Ayuk and Elisa Castañeda
The burdens and risks of climate change are not falling equally on everyone. The poor and communities of color, who have typically contributed the least towards climate change, are shouldering a disproportionate share of the impacts of extreme heat, severe storms, flooding, and wildfires. This imbalance between who benefits and who suffers is similar to the patterns observed by those concerned with issues of environmental justice, where these same communities are often those with highest exposure to environmental hazards: air pollution, contaminated soils, toxic wastes.
The Just | Change fellowship investigated how design can be a tool for equity by addressing these systemic disparities. Through direct engagement with local organizations and impacted communities, the fellowship explored strategies to embed equity into the design process—translating research into actionable frameworks for future projects.
The fellowship produced two key resources:
1. The Equity Guide: A practical tool for designers to identify and integrate equity opportunities into projects.
2. The Resource Book: Mapping Equity: A detailed compilation of research, interviews, and case studies, offering a framework for connecting equity issues to design strategies.
The research focused on New Orleans and Washington, D.C.—the firm’s dual office cities—where she collaborated with 15 local organizations tackling environmental justice challenges. Through interviews, field visits, and community engagement, she documented the lived experiences of residents facing systemic inequities.
Key organizations she partnered with include:
The Urban Conservancy
Jericho Road Episcopal Housing Initiative
Recirculating Farms
Edible Schoolyard New Orleans
Youth Empowerment Project
Colloqate Design
Innocence Project New Orleans
Louisiana Center for Children's Rights
The Equity Guide
The Equity Guide is a resource for designers seeking to identify equity opportunities in projects. It provides a structured framework for evaluating project sites, by organizing research and insights into six key equity categories.
Download the Equity Guide tool here.
Resource Book
The Just | Change Resource Fellowship Book, '“Mapping Equity” is the compiled research of EskewDumezRipple's 2023-2024 fellowship, focused on climate and environmental justice. Through community engagement and real-world examples, the book offers a framework for connecting equity issues to opportunities.
How This Book Works
The book is divided into six chapters:
Environmental Impact, Quantity of People, Unmet Community Needs, Intersectionality, Target Area Vulnerabilities, Yes to Engagement
This book is intended to teach readers how to connect equity issues to opportunities. The structure encourages readers to think differently, analyze site contexts critically, and evaluate project sites for equity-based opportunities, ensuring a more equitable impact.
Each Chapter Overview is followed by an Assessment Metric, outlining the relevant submetrics to enhance understanding of the chapter. Following the Assessment Metric, the book explores ways to translate collected stories, data, and research into tangible applications by examining submetrics through a repeated series:
Narrative: Key takeaways from interviews with community stakeholders.
Deep Dive: Supplemental in-depth analyses of key assessment submetrics.
Spatial Mapping: Simplified visuals illustrating ways to interpret EJ Screening data.
Case Study: Design projects examined through the lens of key assessment submetrics.
