by Reza Cristián

Intersectional Environmentalist is a movement that ties environmental and social justice together. The term didn’t start to gain momentum until just recently when an Instagram post, created by Leah Thomas, 25, went viral around the time Black Lives Matter protests were going on in our country back in May. A movement that is needed in a time where injustices and racism still exist and run deep in our country.

The history of the term, “intersectionality”, was coined almost 30-years ago by Kimberlee Crenshaw, an American lawyer, civil rights advocate, and a leading scholar of critical race theory (which is used to describe how race, class, gender and other characteristics intersect with one another.) 

For our fall digital cover story, we’ve virtually sat down with co-founders, Diandra Marizet, 27, Sabs Katz, 25, and Philip Aiken, 27. As each person has their own unique story of how they’ve got to where they are when it comes to dismantling systems of oppression in the environmental space.

As for being an intersectional environmentalist, this type of thinking may have existed for a while, but was not readily named. Specifically BIPOC in the environmental and activism space who are pioneers, but are not given enough recognition by the more widely mainstream sustainable industry that we’ve seen today. 

In a time when a very white and granola mainstream industry has been the norm, Leah, created this specific graphic back in hopes to call on “the environmentalist community to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement” who are impacted by both social and environmental injustice. From there Intersectional Environmentalist was born. It leads an inclusive version of environmentalism that advocates for both the protection of people and the planet.

“It identifies the ways in which injustices happening to marginalized communities and the earth are interconnected,” Leah wrote in a post on May 28th. “It brings injustices done to the most vulnerable communities, and the earth, to the forefront and does not minimize or silence social inequality.”

The co-founders brought their own backgrounds to the forefront to help solve these issues. By being an environmental activist, conscious curator or low impact writer/advocate. From hosting an eco podcast and creating digestible environmental TikToks, each team member is able to come together and create a welcoming community for all and interconnect the challenges that we are facing when it comes to tackling the climate crisis.

Intersectional Environmentalist creates content from articles, community pages, digital downloads, but has also recently started their accountability program, which is spearheaded by Diandra, who is a Latinx conscious curator.

“Our goal is to give participants within organizations the tools they need to shift internal culture through education, empathy and empowerment,” Diandra said. “We know from working in corporate settings ourselves that there are likely plenty of folks within orgs that are passionate enough to help foster change, but the comfort of status quo can really stifle any ripple effects produced by one to two people.”

Originally from Texas, Diandra brings her own experiences through her Mexican culture on reframing sustainability as something her community can represent  in their own unique ways given to them by their ancestors.

The IE organization isn’t solely run by the four co-founders, but also through their powerful council board members that includes environmental activists and sustainable advocates from all diverse backgrounds. 

“Our council is composed of 23 incredible and diverse activists, influencers, creatives and artists- all of whom embody the ideals of intersectional environmentalism,” Sabs said. “Council members have a unique opportunity to help shape the future of IE, provide peer-to-peer mentorship to individual activists and grassroots organizations and encourage accountability within the IE team and community.”

Sabs, who is a low impact advocate and social activist, started her journey through the zero-waste movement. She has also seen firsthand how this sort of community was “led by upper middle class white women with the privilege to make these choices.”

She talks about how personally she would like to see more low impact accounts openly discuss social justice issues. “Performative environmentalism is just greenwashing, and performative social activism is woke-washing.”

The IE team is working hard to dismantle these systems and work from the inside out to help better connect what it means to care for both our momma Earth and the people that live on it. They are adding more people to the team by partnering with Tazo to help sponsor their new internship program. 

“Being an ally or accomplice, whichever term you choose to use, is a practice not a title,” Phil said. “Everyday you wake up and structure your life in such a way to maximize on the dismantling of oppressive systems and minimize on your actions' negative effects on other people.”

With Phil’s background in multimedia, from creating a podcast, ‘just to save the world’ to acquiring over 43,000 followers on TikTok, he is looking to help expand the storytelling aspect of IE.

If you are looking to learn something today by reading this feature, understand the current issues we need to focus on is how we can explore social justice in the areas we already take up space in. 

“We NEED intersectional environmentalism because nothing happens in a vacuum,” said Sabs. “Being able to selectively participate in the ‘apolitical’ parts of the environmental movement is a privilege not everyone has, and white folks need to start taking responsibility for our complicity.”

Photography by: Gabby Hall, Jalin Abston and Stephen Troiano.

Cover Illustration Design by Julia Le