Practicing environmental data justice: From DataRescue to Data Together

Abstract

The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) formed in response tothe 2016 US elections and the resulting political shifts which created widespreadpublic concern about the future integrity of US environmental agencies and policy.As a distributed, consensus‐based organisation, EDGI has worked to document,contextualise, and analyse changes to environmental data and governance practicesin the US. One project EDGI has undertaken is the grassroots archiving of govern-ment environmental data sets through our involvement with the DataRescue move-ment. However, over the past year, our focus has shifted from savingenvironmental data to a broader project of rethinking the infrastructures requiredfor community stewardship of data: Data Together. Through this project, EDGIseeks to make data more accessible and environmental decision‐making moreaccountable through new social and technical infrastructures. The shift fromDataRescue to Data Together exemplifies EDGI's ongoing attempts to put an“en-vironmental data justice”prioritising community self‐determination into practice.By drawing on environmental justice, critical GIS, critical data studies, and emerg-ing data justice scholarship, EDGI hopes to inform our ongoing engagement inprojects that seek to enact alternative futures for data stewardship.