The Environmental Justice team at COPAL works to ensure that all Latine families in Minnesota can live with dignity in safe, healthy, and thriving communities—regardless of race, income, or culture—in the places where we live, work, play, learn, and pray.
The Environmental Justice team works to fight these injustices, lift up community voices, and make sure families can live in neighborhoods that are healthy, safe, and sustainable. Latine communities disproportionately face unjust environmental harms—from heightened exposure to polluted air and water, to fewer parks in green spaces in predominately Latine neighborhoods and bigger risks from climate change. These problems affect our health, safety, and daily lives, and they come from systems that put profit over people. Many families arrive in the United States after leaving their homes in Latin America, where US-backed governments have cleared land for large mining projects, big farms, and lumber operations.
This has left the land damaged by droughts, pests, heat waves, and hurricanes. When families come here, they often face more challenges, including physical, emotional, and systemic violence. In Minneapolis, for example, long-standing redlining has placed polluting factories and busy highways in BIPOC working-class neighborhoods. That means less tree cover, fewer green spaces, more polluted air, and contaminated soil.
COPAL’s Environmental Justice (EJ) work supports healthier communities, clean energy solutions, and strong leadership in neighborhoods most impacted by pollution and climate change. Through committees, partnerships, and community programs, we help residents learn, organize, and advocate for environmental justice across Minnesota.
COPAL works with partners across Minnesota to advance environmental justice policies that protect frontline communities — neighborhoods most impacted by pollution and climate change.
COPAL supports policies that:
• Hold polluting industries accountable
• Protect community health
• Promote climate justice
• Ensure government agencies listen to impacted communities
Members of COPAL’s Environmental Justice Committee participate in public meetings, advocacy efforts, write comments and testimonies, and engage in policy discussions to ene community voices are heard.
COPAL’s Environmental Justice team partners with local organizations, businesses and state parks to host monthly outdoor events. These events break down barriers to enjoying nature—like cost, transportation, equipment, and lack of Spanish-language information. Working with naturalists, we provide fun, accurate, and culturally-responsive activities that connect families to resources for climate resilience, adaptation strategies, and healthy homes.
Our outdoor events show how COPAL organizes differently: we center joy, nature, and collaboration. This approach has helped grow our community and reach more people than traditional organizing alone.
Our community events and programming bring people together for advocacy, learning, connection, and celebration. From the monthly Environmental Justice Committee meetings to our annual college tour, educational environmental justice tour, farm tour and harvest gatherings, green job fairs, policy and regulatory workshops, and Latine Day at the State Fair, these events offer community members hands-on experiences, new opportunities, and a chance to connect and get involved with environmental justice work.
• Frontline Communities Protection Coalition
• Clean Heat Minnesota
• Rural Progress Table
• Popular Democracy Climate work
• Coming Clean
• Midwest Environmental Justice Network
• Cooperative Energy Future – Sustainable Homes
• Industrial Decarbonization
• Community Energy Collaboration -CEC-, Dep. Commerce
• Clean Rides MN
COPAL supports pathways into green jobs and clean energy careers through green workforce training programs for Spanish-speaking community members.
Through partnerships with training organizations and energy experts, participants can receive education and certifications that lead to careers in fields such as:
• Solar energy installation
• Energy auditing
• HVAC systems
• Home insulation and efficiency
These programs help expand access to good-paying green jobs while building a more sustainable energy future for Minnesota
Training the Next Generation of Climate Leaders
COPAL’s Environmental Justice Academy is a community-led program designed to build knowledge, leadership, and collective power around environmental justice.
Led by COPAL’s Environmental Justice Committee, the Academy offers educational sessions and advocacy training on key topics such as climate justice, climate adaptation, climate change, community participation, a just energy transition, water, air, soil, and green jobs.
Through this program, participants deepen their understanding of environmental issues while developing the skills to take action and share knowledge within their communities.
The Academy is offered through both spring and fall cohorts each year.
For more information, please contact info@copalmn.org.
Tune in to ˘Qué Onda, Minnesota? / What’s up, Minnesota?, our weekly environmental justice radio show Thursdays at 5pm on Radio Jornalera!
We want to create community, empower individuals, build power, and inspire meaningful action. Your participation is crucial in achieving these goals. Join us!
Donate today to empower the Latine community, continue building community power, foster participatory democracy, and enhance the quality of life for Latines in Minnesota!
COPAL’s Minneapolis administrative offices and the Primero de Mayo Workers’ Center are now located at the Coliseum building:
