Standing on (Energy) Business 💁🏽‍♀️

By Karringtyn Johnson and Sophia Boyd

As part of the Girl + Environment Energy Justice Ambassador Program, Karringtyn Johnson and Sophia Boyd hosted a dinner event titled “Standing on (Energy) Business”. Here’s a glimpse into the event from their perspective:

The title “Standing on (Energy) Business” was inspired by the popular social media phrase “Standing on Business,” which means taking accountability and taking care of your responsibilities. We chose this because energy burden and justice are responsibilities and actions we must uphold in our communities. The scope of our project focused on facilitating an educational workshop catered to our community about energy justice. The workshop would prompt our peers to describe what energy justice means to them and to creatively design an energy plan that serves the entire population of Atlanta after learning about the energy justice experiences within the area. This activity would also help us identify what improvements need to be made in the world of energy as it pertains to the city of Atlanta.

Planning for our workshop on energy justice was broken down into several key steps.

We have to admit that educating a community on energy justice was an unfamiliar process, as we were the only attendees in the room who knew more about the topic than our audience. However, within our workshop, we hoped to create a connection between the understanding of energy justice and our peers. This event aimed to raise awareness about energy justice, foster creative thinking about energy solutions, and encourage community engagement. When our audience was asked what energy justice was, they appeared puzzled, with some feeling embarrassed about knowing so little or, in some cases, nothing at all about the focus of the event.

We each spoke to our audiences of five people during dinner to determine how the workshop could positively impact them in the real world when they go on to advocate for energy justice themselves. In this case, it would be our peers who might consider inviting faculty, staff, or local community members interested in the topic to become environmental activists. We introduced and educated our audience on what it means to be involved and aware of energy policy. We also allowed them to voice their own detailed agenda, outlining the flow of an energy justice system that is equitable for all residents. This included how they would conduct their own platforms and information segments to present or discuss the topic of energy justice. Some peers mentioned how they would use the strategy of creative design activities within large spaces or events in the city of Atlanta to vocalize the issue.

After the event, we reflected on ways to keep our community engaged and encourage continued learning about energy justice. In addition to our suggestions and perspectives, our audience proposed continuing the advocacy through popular outlets like social media. They mentioned that using various channels would help promote energy justice workshops and encourage participation. This could include social media, posters on campus, email newsletters, and word-of-mouth. Our reflection on the workshop showed that even moderate discussions about environmental issues can make an impact. We often think that facilitating important discussions requires a large event, but our conversations with the community ensured that knowledge about energy justice would be actively shared and awareness would continue to grow. In the end, we did stand on our energy business, proving that even small-scale conversations can spark lasting change and drive awareness around the critical issue of energy justice.