Working Towards Justice

MEIC envisions cleaner air and water, whole landscapes, and resilient ecosystems that will foster better lives for all people of this and future generations in what is currently Montana. MEIC’s motto draws upon an excerpt from the 1972 Montana Constitution’s environmental rights provision as our north star: “Clean and healthful. It’s your right, our mission.”  

The right to a clean and healthful environment is one of a number of fundamental and interconnected rights of all people. MEIC is firmly resolved to building an environmental movement in Montana that affirms and values people of diverse ethnicity, race, ancestry, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, socioeconomic status, and disability status. MEIC has long been committed to respecting and promoting these fundamental rights of all people.

The staff and board of directors of MEIC are committed to learning and improving, at individual and organizational levels. We engage in equity and environmental justice learning to advance our organizational mission, with the understanding that this will be a rewarding, ongoing, and, often challenging process for the duration of our organization’s existence. As a first step, we engaged in an anti-racism audit process to identify and begin addressing areas for improvement, including an updated mission statement, guiding principles, strategic plan, and organizational policies with an eye for embedding equity and justice into all aspects of our organization and its mission. We are also pursuing continual learning opportunities for our board and staff members, and constantly working to establish and improve relationships with Tribal communities to better ensure MEIC is thoughtfully and justly following the leadership, supporting the goals and, if desired, contributing to pre-existing and ongoing work of these sovereign nations. We seek to be transparent in this work and will endeavor to share updates on a regular basis.

While this work is being pursued at the individual and organizational level, we recognize that the environmental problems MEIC seeks to resolve are historically and intrinsically linked to systems of injustice and oppression. The American environmental movement to which MEIC belongs often operates from a set of Western European values and assumptions. These values have all too often perpetuated inequity and discrimination in the name of prioritizing the concerns of White and wealthy communities over those with less power. To achieve transformational change and dismantle systems of oppression, we must take actions to address past and current injustices, as well as to prevent future harm and rebuild a more equitable movement. For MEIC, this includes forming reciprocal relationships with our partners, seeking the leadership of impacted communities, being accountable to our allies – especially those from marginalized communities – and making amends if we have caused harm. 

Here is what MEIC is doing to further our own understanding and pursuit of anti-racism:

    • Anti-racism audit of MEIC materials, procedures, and more:
      • In 2023, MEIC board and staff commissioned an anti-racism audit from WiderStand Consulting. In this process, WiderStand consultants reviewed MEIC materials, work procedures, board and staff policies, and conducted focus group discussions to identify organizational elements that might be alienating or even harmful for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color on our staff, on our board, our community of partners and supporters, or people impacted by our work. This process was challenging, but important – MEIC has long worked to be non-discriminatory, but some practices and language can be so embedded that they’re hard to see unless someone points it out. We’re grateful to WiderStand and our Equity and Justice board committee for their work and guidance through this process.
      • We are now digging into continued learning and improvement in order to make our work and workplace safe and productive for employees and board members of color. We need to address our work policies, the way we talk about our work in-person and on our website, and much more. We will endeavor to be transparent and communicative about this process as we work through the recommendations we have received.
      • We are open to feedback about this process and other parts of our work, which can be submitted anonymously if desired through our website: https://meic.org/about/contact-us/ 
    • MEIC’s DEIJ board/staff committee
      • MEIC’s DEIJ board/staff committee is dedicated to helping guide the board and staff through the anti-racism education and action processes. The committee conducts research, proposes updates and revisions to organizational materials congruent with DEIJ recommendations, recommends and conducts ongoing learning opportunities, and otherwise guides the organization’s growth.
    • Updating board and staff policies 
      • As with many predominantly White organizations, many of our guiding policy documents needed (and will likely continue to need) improvement to ensure thoughtful consideration and enshrined protections specifically for (but not limited to) BIPOC staff and board members. These changes have been made and approved, but are part of living documents that can be reviewed and revised as needed.
    • Community Connectors program
      • MEIC is formalizing our working relationship with many communities around the state, including Tribal communities, by hiring members of those communities as part-time employees. This relationship allows MEIC to follow the lead of Tribes and communities that our board and staff are not otherwise part of, thus attempting to prevent White saviorism or parachute activism, and allow us to better follow local leaders and support community action.
    • Hiring processes
      • MEIC has always been dedicated to non-discriminatory hiring practices, but our Widerstand audit revealed that we needed to do more to proactively encourage applications from BIPOC. Since that time, MEIC has made concerted efforts to share job descriptions with schools, communities, and organizations more accessible to BIPOC.
    • Litigation Board Committee
      • MEIC has adopted a policy to always consider equity and justice issues in proposed litigation, and to note those considerations in legal memos.
    • Lifting up communities – not co-opting their stories
      • MEIC endeavors to partner with, support, and lift up community organizers by directly sharing the words, videos, social posts, etc, from the preferred source. This often means we’ll “share” a post from a partner on social media, or quote the person saying it rather than paraphrasing in our own words. MEIC is not here to take credit for the lived experiences, labor, or other efforts made by activists and seeks to shine a light directly on these changemakers whenever possible.
    • Continual staff and board education/learning
      • MEIC staff dedicate one staff meeting each month to a curated set of materials meant to shine light on historical and current racism and discrimination, as well as materials that highlight work by activists pursuing justice, especially in the environmental realm. See some of these resources below, and send suggestions to meic@meic.org.

MEIC’s justice work spans across the state with many communities. Here are a few examples:

Supporting the Fort Belknap Indian Community in their pursuit of justice for their water and sacred sites impacted by the defunct Zortman-Landusky mining complex. Read more:

MEIC supported the efforts of the Greeley Neighborhood Community Development Corporation (GNCDC) in their pursuit of answers about the health impacts of living adjacent to an active heavy metal mine. Read more:

Suggested resources for continued learning:

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