Campaigns

Clean Air builds power by developing grassroots leaders who organize their communities to run and win environmental justice and public health campaigns. Our organizing work is planned and executed through campaign teams that consist of members who live in the communities our campaigns are based in.

Organizing is the heart of Clean Air, but just as central is how we build our capacity to organize and lead. We believe that leaders invest time to build relationships, handle conflicts in a constructive manner, and share control. Teams matter because it is through collective action that we can move decision-makers and control the decisions that impact our lives.

Tonawanda: There are 53 industrial facilities in Tonawanda, the highest concentration of air regulated facilities in the state. Two major interstate highways intersect in the community and one holds a tollbooth where traffic congestion is a problem. We work every day to build community power to reduce environmental risks and better community health. Learn more here.

Seneca Babcock: Since Battaglia Demolition began operations a little over 10 years ago residents of Peabody St. and the surrounding neighborhood have complained to the State and City of Buffalo regarding dust and soot coming from the facility; loud noise beginning early in the morning from the bulldozers and the concrete crusher; and massive truck traffic that is routed down small residential streets. Learn more here.

Delavan Grider: The American Axle site located in Buffalo’s east side Delavan Grider community is ground zero for contamination. State records confirmed that the site contains hazardous oil, grease and PCBs that have leached into the surrounding sewer system. PCBs, toxins banned in 1979, are known to cause cancer as well as a variety of adverse health effects. In 2015, Clean Air joined the resident-based American Axle Steering Committee to organize to stop the toxic runoff and re-mediate legacy waste.  Learn more here. 

Participatory Budgeting: PB is a different way to manage public money and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make budget decisions that affect their lives. Learn more here. 

Just Transition: For us, a just transition means building an economy that provides family sustaining jobs and consistent tax revenue, while improving the environment, public health, and democracy. With our partners in organized labor we have lead the charge in Tonawanda, NY with the retirement and transition of the NRG Huntly plant, and in South Buffalo with organizing efforts to unionize Tesla Gigafactory 2. Learn more here.