Perspectives on Social and Environmental Justice

Hosted by: Phil Dillard

In this episode, we dive into the importance and meaning of environmental and social justice across different regions. We hear from Social and Environmental Justice experts Erica Olesson, Sustainability Leader, Tonkin + Taylor in New Zealand, Scott Recker, Environmental Remediation Practice Leader at Antea Group USA, and Valentina Vieri, a Sustainability Specialist for HPC Italy. The group discusses strategies for achieving sustainable development, emphasizing the need for community engagement, regulatory compliance, and addressing vulnerable groups.

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Scott Recker

Antea Group - USA

Scott Recker, Antea Group’s Environmental Remediation Practice Leader, has more than 35 years of experience solving environmental business problems. His expertise lies specifically in a sound, scientific foundation coupled with building fit for purpose solutions to help clients navigate regulatory, community, technical and stakeholder perspective during site closures or divestitures. Scott’s areas of expertise include remediation portfolio management and management consulting, complex multi-source investigations, environmental needs assessments, and regulatory negotiation.

Valentina Vieri

HPC - Italy

Valentina is a sustainability specialist, eager to assist clients from the corporate sector in the transition toward more sustainable practices. She is an expert in ESRS and GRI reporting standards, ESG and SDGs analysis, and stakeholder engagement. Valentina has a multi-disciplinary background. She specialized in Environment Management and Control, and Circular Economy at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (IT) and prior to this she obtained a MSc in Sustainability Science and Policy at Maastricht University (NL) and a Bachelor in Economic Development and International Cooperation at the University of Florence (IT). She has been with HPC since 2019 as part of the "Permitting and Sustainability" section. She works on sustainability topics, specifically on projects related to ESG and SDGs analysis, stakeholder analysis and engagement, action plans for the creation of shared value, carbon footprint, sustainability reporting, Sustainability MCA, and Circular and water resilience studies.

Erica Olesson

Tonkin + Taylor - New Zealand

Erica's passion is helping organisations understand the impacts they have (directly or indirectly) on their communities and natural environment, and working collaboratively towards a brighter future through big and small changes in what they do and how they do it. Erica's Masters research considered sustainability from an innovation lens; how pockets of activity can move and grow through an organisation. Her Doctoral research including developing a model of what a fully sustainable business model would look like, and explored how existing norms and expectations in an organisation can in some cases be barriers to sustainability, and in some cases be enablers. Erica now leads Tonkin + Taylor’s sustainability programme, supporting improving the organisation to ‘walk the talk’ and integrating sustainability into Tonkin + Taylor’s approach to client work.

“That term, environmental and social justice, is not one that we use very commonly in Australia and New Zealand where I've worked. We talk more about social license to operate, so it's a similar concept, perhaps a bit reversed. It's more about what the organization needs to do for the community to be happy that they're there and to be making sure that they're responding to those community needs.” - Erica Olesson

“So the term environmental justice has been in use in the U.S. for probably at least 40 years. And it's really been indoctrinated into legislation and regulation in the last 3 or 4 years. So, it has a very specific definition in the U.S. and what that really means is equal treatment of community, regardless of your race, color, national origin, your income, where you live, all of those things need to be treated equally. If we go to different parts of the world, and I work with my Inogen Alliance Associates all over the planet, it means different things in different places.” - Scott Recker

“Sustainability is, I think, a global vision of different topics, of different perspectives. And what we try to do is to integrate these perspectives together, these different points of view, and try to find a common solution that can bring values, not just for a company or a person, but for the environment, the people and the planet. So for everybody, this is what we try to do.” - Valentina Vieri

00:00 Roundtable conversation

00:19 Valentina's perspective on environmental and social justice

04:26 Scott's insights on environmental justice in the U.S.

08:52 Erica's view on social license to operate

12:14 Challenges and trends in environmental and social justice

29:44 Measuring impact and benefits

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