About
The Environmental Justice Scorecard
President Biden prioritized environmental justice from the start of the Biden-Harris Administration by launching a whole-of-government effort to confront longstanding environmental injustices and inequities. The Environmental Justice Scorecard is a signature component of this commitment. It provides transparency for the public, ensures accountability for federal agencies, and demonstrates the federal government’s progress on advancing environmental justice over time.
Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, directs the White House Office of Management and Budget, in coordination with the White House Council on Environmental Quality and other relevant agency heads, to publish an annual Environmental Justice Scorecard detailing agency environmental justice performance measures. The White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council (IAC) is also directed to develop performance measures to ensure accountability for work to address current and historic environmental injustice. Executive Order 14096, Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, provides the first government-wide definition of environmental justice and further outlines goals for the Environmental Justice Scorecard.
Progress on the Justice40 Initiative
Through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and other sources, the Biden-Harris Administration has secured:
approximately
$613 billion
in funds from Fiscal Years (FY) 2022-2027 for programs that are part of the Justice40 Initiative.*
Through President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, more than 500 programs across 19 federal agencies are working to deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution. Each program that is part of the Justice40 Initiative delivers benefits in at least one of seven categories of investment, and many programs are delivering benefits to communities across multiple categories of investment. The more than 500 Justice40 covered programs working to deliver benefits for communities include:
- 253 programs protecting communities from the impacts of climate change
- 193 programs advancing clean and affordable energy for communities
- 82 programs delivering and advancing clean transportation options for communities
- 71 programs advancing affordable and sustainable housing
- 125 programs delivering training and workforce development benefits
- 93 programs addressing the remediation and reduction of legacy pollution
- 72 programs delivering critical clean water and wastewater infrastructure benefits
Overall, agencies are making concrete, tangible improvements to benefit disadvantaged communities across America through the Justice40 Initiative. These investments are resulting in cleaner air and water, more affordable clean energy, good-paying jobs, and other results that people are seeing and feeling today and into the future.
For additional information about the Justice40 Initiative, please see below.
*In the Phase Two Scorecard, the Justice40 Initiative section contains information about federal investments that Congress has funded through both discretionary and mandatory appropriations, as well as supplemental appropriations, such as those that Congress made in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Pub. L. 117-58) and the Inflation Reduction Act (Pub. L. 117-169). The Phase Two Scorecard includes information on each agency’s budget authority (that is, the total amount of funds that Congress has appropriated to the agency to spend on Justice40 covered programs) and the period of availability (that is, the period of time over which Congress has authorized the agency to spend the funds).
In some cases, agencies may not yet have the authority to spend the full amount indicated, such as when Congress has appropriated funds that will only become available in future Fiscal Years. Agencies provided the data presented here in spring 2024, and therefore the data does not reflect the annual appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024 that Congress made in March 2024.
Thus, the information that the Phase Two Scorecard presents in this section includes what the agency has available to spend in its Justice40 covered programs (i.e., its budget authority). These figures represent the total funding amount for all Justice40 covered programs, not only the portion that benefits disadvantaged communities.
The Phase Two Scorecard
The Phase Two Scorecard incorporates recommendations and feedback from environmental justice stakeholders, experts, and the public. In particular, recommendations from the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and public comments informed its development.
The Phase Two Scorecard builds upon the baseline assessment of the federal government’s efforts to secure environmental justice established in the Phase One Scorecard, which included actions taken by federal agencies in 2021 and 2022. The Phase Two Scorecard outlines the progress by federal agencies in Fiscal Year 2023 (October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023) to achieve the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental justice goals.
Building upon the Phase One Scorecard, the Phase Two Scorecard demonstrates progress made by federal agencies to:
- Advance environmental justice as part of each agency’s individual and unique mission, work, and scope;
- Revitalize agencies’ commitment to environmental justice, including through strategic planning;
- Make a difference on the ground with and for communities, including delivering benefits through the Justice40 Initiative;
- Promote meaningful engagement with communities with environmental justice concerns and expand access to information for the public, including about the outcomes of agencies’ activities; and
- Enhance collaboration across the federal government and with other governments, including through consultation with Tribal Nations.
The metrics and actions included in the Phase Two Scorecard vary based on the type, size, and mission of each federal agency. For example, some but not all of the agencies participating in the Phase Two Scorecard are members of the IAC and have Justice40 covered programs. If data is unavailable for a federal agency, the corresponding metrics do not appear on that agency’s page.
Similar to the Phase One Scorecard, the Phase Two Scorecard provides a valuable snapshot of key environmental justice work in progress at a particular point in time, but it alone cannot fully capture the depth or range of agencies’ active work or the long-term impact of that work on communities. Ensuring environmental justice for all is not a goal that can be achieved in one year, nor through a single initiative. Advancing environmental justice across the federal government requires federal agencies to provide opportunities for early, meaningful, and sustained partnership with communities and dedicated and sustained leadership over time. The Environmental Justice Scorecard will be updated annually, with the goal of creating a durable, robust, and comprehensive tool to assess and demonstrate the federal government’s efforts to secure environmental justice for all.
About the Justice40 Initiative
The Justice40 Initiative was established in 2021 as a key component of the Biden-Harris Administration’s environmental justice agenda. Under the Justice40 Initiative, the federal government is working toward the goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.
The Phase Two Scorecard provides an update on progress made by agencies implementing the Justice40 Initiative. Future versions of the Environmental Justice Scorecard will continue to measure the progress of federal agencies over time and provide additional information on how this work is benefiting disadvantaged communities. The Interim Implementation Guidance for the Justice40 Initiative and Addendum on using the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool provide guidance to agencies on how to identify and track these benefits.