Published on 12 May 2025
Catriona McKinnon – University of Exeter
Alice Moseley – University of Exeter
Ria Poole – University of Exeter
Bingshu Zhao – University of Exeter
Many communities feel disconnected from nature and its benefits. RENEW’s people-in-nature approach puts fairness for people at the heart of biodiversity renewal. This means taking environmental injustice seriously. But what is environmental justice, and what does it mean in the context of nature and biodiversity renewal? What is being done about it, and what more needs to be done?
Working with partners from RENEW and the wider environmental sector, this work aims to:
RENEW has convened an Environmental Justice Forum through a series of online workshops, bringing together practitioners, activists, and NGO representatives to discuss, debate, and identify actions and priorities to help those working in the environmental sector to move forward in addressing issues of environmental justice in the UK.
Forum one, ‘Exploring Environmental Justice’, took place in February 2025 and invited activists and changemakers to share their experiences of environmental injustice. Discussion was centred around different dimensions of inclusion and exclusion, exploring how to take a meaningful intersectional approach to considering the historical roots of injustice, and how this approach relates to people’s experiences in the present day.
Forum two, ‘Expanding the Conversation’, took place in June 2025, building on the learnings from the first session and unpacking three key themes that emerged: 1) Beyond access – centred on questions around belonging, identity and trust; 2) Scale of change – the need for a systemic, holistic, and global approach; 3) Meaning and connection – the importance of feeling joy, recognising beauty, and having an emotional connection with nature.
Forum three, in February 2026, took the form of a facilitated discussion leading to identifying calls to action. Themes and learnings from the first two sessions were shared and then participants were prompted to think about questions around three domains: 1) Resources and funding; 2) Organisational culture and leadership; 3) Policy and politics. Ideas were captured through an interactive Padlet board and developed into a set of bold, effective, and actionable steps for actors in different domains and across different timescales that addressed each of these three areas.
Inspired by the conversations taking place in these forums, RENEW’s Biodiversity Parliament 2025 event was themed around environmental justice. Taking place in November 2025, over 100 researchers, practitioners, and activists came together online to explore what environmental justice means in theory and practice, to inspire thinking and steps toward positive action. The event was co-designed with facilitators Iris & Birch and colleagues and partners from the University of Exeter, National Trust, The Wildlife Trusts, The Poetry Society, and Natural England. Bringing together leading voices from a diverse range of expertise and perspectives, our programme of speakers and workshops reflected the depth of thought and breadth of experience from those committed to influencing change within the sector.
The findings from this work are now being synthesised and developed into a co-produced ‘Environmental Justice Digest’ – an online hub hosted on the RENEW website for practitioners, activists, policy makers and citizens. The hub will include a thematic summary of the forum findings with key recommendations and priorities, and will signpost useful resources, links, and case studies.
Photographer - Markus Spiske, Unsplash Community
