Jane Mantey: Bringing Environmental Justice to the Forefront

Who are you? 

I am Jane Mantey, Ph.D., a Black queer woman [biomedical] scientist turned environmental and climate policy professional based in Texas with an expressed focus on eliminating health and economic inequities created or perpetuated by public policy or business practices.

What do you do at Ceres? 

Currently, I am the Senior Manager, Environmental Justice (EJ) Policy, where I serve as an expert and resource to my Ceres colleagues and member companies (mostly consumer brands) on environmental and climate justice issues and potential policy efforts at the state and federal levels. Through my engagement with companies and policymakers, I strive to 1) harmonize corporate sustainability with environmental justice, 2) center and promote the perspectives and solutions coming forth from the EJ movement in Ceres’ strategies to set and impact public policy positions and outcomes, and 3) encourage companies to consider and incorporate the needs of and benefits to other stakeholders – in particular fenceline communities, frontline workers, and consumers – in their policy advocacy. 

You’ve worked in government, in non-profit and now with companies. What have you picked up working within all these groups? 



“That it is a lot easier to say you support social – e.g. racial, gender, disability, etc. – justice than to actually reorient your organization or institution to do so. Social justice requires making difficult, risky decisions, formally acknowledging and rectifying past wrongs, dismantling systems and shifting/sharing power, “checking” yourself and your peers, reallocating deep resources (money, staffing, etc.) to workplace equity and justice initiatives, and transforming organizational culture and practices. Social justice is not impossible to achieve, but it is hard, and you will face a lot of resistance whether you’re working in government, nonprofit, or corporate sector. It’s still a worthy organizational goal, though, and integral to achieving environmental sustainability.”

What issues are you most concerned about in sustainability? 

Really our overall approach to energy, climate, and the environment. Sustainability has largely disregarded the lived experiences and needs of people of color and other marginalized populations globally, who bear the brunt of pollution and climate disasters. Interpersonal and systemic racism paved the way for climate change to happen, and our unwillingness to deal with that as a field is why we’re unable to stop or mitigate climate change effectively.

As a field, sustainability has been led predominantly by white professionals, who believed working with historically white-led companies and institutions to embrace the economic benefits of being green and conserving would be the route(s) of least resistance. But, it has only been the route of least resistance because continuous – unsustainable – economic growth and profiteering often come at the expense of people of color, whether through their displacement, subpar or lack of compensation, the decimation or poisoning of their homelands, natural resources and other spaces they rely on, etc.

Social injustice remains lucrative, even when hidden in supply/value chains, but sustainability fails to contend with that reality. We fail to contend with how social injustice allows for and drives toxic exposures and pollution, ecological destruction, and climate disasters.  

Rather than address directly what we, as a society, were willing to allow to happen to certain demographics of people for the sake of economic growth, sustainability professionals and organizations chose to be race neutral/colorblind, which only allows environmental racism to fester. Instead, our field focused on counting carbon, getting companies and institutions to make carbon pledges and plans, promoting new markets and new technology that still support and extend the life of heavy polluting industries (e.g. fossil fuels, mining, industrial agriculture, etc.), advocating for market-based mechanisms and government incentives for companies and institutions that do not really change those entities’ behaviors and have spurred many allegations of greenwashing, etc. We're afraid of addressing the elephant in the room...

But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Sustainability professionals and organizations could be vocal advocates for more stringent and competitive environmental checks & balances on companies and institutions, whether thru public policy (direct regulations, mandated standards, enforcement, and penalties), robust standards and best practices from trade organizations, and pressure and divestment from peer institutions, investors, and consumers alike. 

Jane at the March for Science.

“We also could be yielding and listening to environmental, energy, climate justice grassroots organizers (and racial justice-focused advocates, researchers, and scholars), learning from their lessons, prioritizing and amplifying the solutions that they have been demanding for the last 30+ years to safeguard their health, their communities and their livelihoods. But, as a field, we aren’t, which continues to leave many Black, Latino, Native, and Asian American/Arab/Pacific Islander communities at unnecessary yet grave risk and prevents all nations from achieving our proclaimed national/international climate & sustainability goals.”

What is your advice for people who want to get into this sector? 

Sustainability is not an island. It is interconnected to matters aside from energy and resource conservation; it’s very much tied to day-to-day violence and exploitation against people of color and other marginalized populations. So, I foresee the sustainability sector needing a lot more professionals and experts, who have a strong grasp of how racism, sexism, ableism, classism manifest in the context of water, food, energy, waste, air, mobility, buildings, other resource management, etc. and can offer direct and blunt remedies. Having a background in (or taking classes in) Ethnic Studies, Disability Studies, or Gender/Sexuality Studies would not hurt at all.

Are there any quotes/philosophies that you try to live your life by? 

Don’t panic, organize! (I find that this quote, which is a remix on "don't mourn, organize!" can be applied to many problems in life.)

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future? 

Both. I’m pessimistic in my belief that certain societal systems and business ideologies and practices can remain as they are if we just decouple production/growth from emissions. I’m optimistic about the fact that we can come up with new ways of being and do better by one another, by other living creatures, and by the planet if we’re going to realize a just, sustainable, and equitable future. (I highly recommend the TED talk from Colette Pichon Battle for an example of what makes me optimistic about the future.)