Turning Our Vision into Community-Built Solutions

Climate disasters are intensifying and communities in climate-vulnerable regions are being left behind. The catastrophic hurricanes and wildfires in 2024 highlighted the need for insurance companies to be accountable to how their decisions may be bluelining communities out of access to financial resources.

Wake Up Call: A Community Case Study on Emerging Bluelining Practices, authored by Climate Finance Strategist Monica Palmeira and co-authors Emman Uy and Megan Leberth in October 2024, assessed 18 metropolitan regions across the U.S. facing climate risk for signs of bluelining.

The report highlights how the ongoing trend of bluelining has started to show itself in at-risk climate communities, and offers detailed recommendations for how to address this emerging crisis. Wake-up Call advocates for data transparency from financial institutions to address the root causes of bluelining, and to provide communities with the resources to withstand the continuous impacts of climate change.

Transportation policy can and should be a tool for racial, economic, and climate justice. By centering equity and sustainability in legislative and funding decisions, lawmakers can reduce air pollution, build cleaner mobility options, and establish stronger, more resilient communities.

In 2024, Greenlining successfully co-sponsored the Transportation Accountability Act (AB 2086, Schiavo). AB 2086 created a standardized, data-driven framework to better understand how California’s multi-billion-dollar transportation investment package delivers real benefits to communities of color and low-income populations that have long borne the greatest burdens of inequitable transportation systems.

This transparency is the first step to ensuring that transportation investments prioritize benefits to the most impacted communities.

The passage of AB 2086 in September 2024 marked a major victory for equitable infrastructure in California, and set a key precedent for transparency in state transportation investments.

In 2024, Greenlining advanced climate resilience and equitable decarbonization efforts across California.

We shaped policies to protect low-income communities of color from extreme heat, including advocating for indoor temperature regulations under AB 209 and influencing the design and equity goals of the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program.

Through coalition work with the Climate Resilient Communities Working Group and events like the Climate Change Bond press conference and community tour, experts elevated frontline community priorities to state legislators and regulators.

Additionally, we contributed equity-centered recommendations as part of the ICARP Technical Advisory Council, worked with the Healthy Homes Working Group to guide implementation of the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program, and co-chaired the California Resilience Partnership to advance climate financing and capacity-building for vulnerable communities.

As AI becomes more integrated into government systems –— known as GovAI — lawmakers and advocates must ensure these tools are designed with equity at the forefront — so they don’t replicate and perpetuate racist and discriminatory patterns.

Greenlining’s report, Building Fairer Futures: The Role of AI in Equitable Government Decision-Making by Vinhcent Le and Daniella Espinoza, examines three GovAI systems and provides concrete policy recommendations for embedding fairness into their design and use.

The report offers a framework for understanding how AI impacts community outcomes — from resource distribution to public investment — and calls on lawmakers to regulate AI to prevent digital discrimination and advance equity. The report builds on our 2021 report Algorithmic Bias Explained: How Automated Decision-Making Becomes Automated Discrimination.

Without intentional and immediate action from both policymakers and lenders, racial disparities persist when it comes to mortgage lending and homeownership.

In 2024, Greenlining produced the Home Lending to Communities of Color report for 2022 and 2023, as part of our ongoing strategy to hold financial institutions accountable. The report analyzes lending data reported under the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act or HMDA. The analysis found that racial disparities in home lending continue to lock communities of color out of the housing market, perpetuating generational wealth gaps and exacerbating the housing crisis.

Report author, Rami Ibrahim, Senior Coordinator for Economic Equity provided policymakers with several recommendations for how to address lending disparities including calling for the establishment of a state Community Reinvestment Act. Because nonbanks and fintechs are not subject to the Community Reinvestment Act requirements, they don’t have the same legal obligation as traditional banks to meet the credit needs of low-to moderate income borrowers responsibly and a state CRA could remedy that.

In an effort to lay the groundwork for a successful legislative campaign, we strengthened relationships and socialized the HMDA report with the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation by co-hosting a policy briefing with Rise Economy in Sacramento, and submitted two Greenlining support letters to pave the way for AB 801 (Bonta): The California Community Reinvestment Act, introduced in early 2025.

For decades, discriminatory practices like redlining resulted in cycles of disinvestment in formerly redlined neighborhoods. Inequitable transportation infrastructure policies compounded these inequities, especially in communities of color which were often targeted for highways and industrial facilities, disrupting communities and saddling residents with higher levels of pollution.

The Roadmap to Equitable Community Transportation: Best Practices for Conducting Mobility Needs Assessments, authored by Yesenia Perez, Climate Equity Program Manager, highlights methods for conducting needs assessments and guides community engagement partners and transportation planners in determining how to design a mobility needs assessment process for their communities.

In an effort to determine how to best support organizations and communities who would most benefit from these federal dollars, tamika l. butler consulting and Greenlining interviewed and surveyed nearly 50 stakeholders with knowledge and experience working with State DOTs and compiled the report Beyond Engagement: Equity Principles to Guide State Departments of Transportation and Community Collaboration.

The report is aimed at helping CBOs and State DOTs better understand how to engage with each other in order to advance more equitable transportation policies and programs and offered recommendations for productive collaboration.

During the last decade, policymakers at the state and federal levels made historic investments in climate change solutions to reduce emissions and build community resilience. In 2014, California launched its own climate funding initiative with an intentional emphasis on equity: California Climate Investments.

A Call to Invest in Community Power: Lessons from 10 Years of California Climate Investments for the State and the Nation developed by Greenlining and USC’s Equity Research Institute, highlights that a key ingredient to CCI’s successes is the ongoing contributions of the environmental justice ecosystem in steering and shaping public investments to serve communities with the greatest needs.

The comprehensive longitudinal analysis of CCI programs also makes clear which aspects of these programs are excellent with regard to equity, areas where delivering on equity can be improved, and places where the promise of equity has been derailed.

To maximize equity outcomes under Justice40, co-author Lolly Lim, Program Manager of Climate Investments Research, leveraged these research findings to highlight effective strategies for climate investments for the state legislature and agencies, peer organizations, philanthropic organizations, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

For decades, communities of color living near ports, railyards, and freight corridors have faced severe health impacts from truck pollution. That’s why, in April 2023, Greenlining’s Transportation Equity Team helped secure the passage of California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation through the California Air Resources Board regulatory process.

In 2024, we played a leading role in offering guidance for implementing the ACF rule as part of the CARB Truck Regulation Implementation Advisory Committee, while also gathering support in coalition to secure a waiver from the federal government. While the waiver was ultimately pulled from U.S. EPA consideration by CARB, this work set Greenlining up to work in greater partnership with national partners and state agencies. As one example, The Clean RIDES Network campaign launched in 2024 in an effort to advance policies to reform Department of Transportation practices and shift funding from highways to more active transportation, transit, and electrification options — with equity at the core.

ACF is more than a regulation — it’s a pathway to cleaner air, healthier communities, and climate equity. Greenlining will continue to push for bold, justice-driven solutions that ensure frontline communities are no longer left behind in our transition to a clean energy future.

Since 2014, Greenlining has worked with Stockton community partners to build climate resilience at the neighborhood level. From hosting workshops and connecting cross-sector allies, to offering technical assistance to move community priorities into action, our work is rooted in a shared vision of a healthy, thriving Stockton.

This year, together with local stakeholders, we reactivated the Rise Stockton coalition, supporting other intermediary organizations such as Stockton Service Corps. The goal was to align technical assistance resources, identify new community supporters, and leverage current public funding opportunities for local infrastructure. Additionally, we offered grant tracking and grant writing support to help Stockton partners leverage current public funding opportunities for local infrastructure. As a result, Little Manila Rising secured $1.9 million from the California Strategic Growth Council for their community resilience hub project.

Finally, Greenlining served as a steering committee member for North Valley Thrive, a regional California Jobs First collaborative that is developing plans for economic growth and job creation in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Merced counties. We helped NVT shape and direct a $400,000 grant through CA’s regional economic development strategy and a $9,000,000 Catalyst Fund, aligning the fund to support capacity building for nonprofits and community-based organizations.

Founded at University of California, Berkeley in 1970 by Chicano/Latino students, Greenlining’s multi-racial residential leadership program is designed for full-time undergraduate students passionate about advancing racial equity.

Each academic year, this historic home known as Casa Joaquin Murrieta, becomes a home away from home for low- and moderate-income, first-generation college students from a multitude of backgrounds.

In 2024, Senior Program Manager Shondreya Landrum led the Casa’s leadership development curriculum and partnered with Greenlining’s operations team to complete a year-long restoration project, successfully modernizing the property to meet today’s eco-friendly standards. We also completed a major capital improvements project for the property to improve student experience and make the building more energy efficient.