Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary’s (G-ETS) project, “Mattering Faith; A Community-Based Climate Initiative to Measure Environmental Racism,” is a community-based climate initiative addressing the impact of environmental racism in Evanston, Illinois. Through partnering with local community organizations, local churches, and ecologically focused community groups, G-ETS aims to empower seminary students to be citizen scientists who address environmental racism and deepen their capacity for partnering with community organizations and local congregations in evidence-based social action.

This project is helping gather data on a waste transfer station in a historically black ward of Evanston through a citizen science air quality study. Through this study, they aim to enable seminary students, local activists and community organizations to monitor and record air quality parameters of concern. This data will be collected in such a manner as to publicly share findings.

This program will also gather qualitative data through the engagement of student fellows who will conduct interviews with local residents. These interviews will be used both in the final air quality report and in the ministerial leadership handbook to “matter” the local experiences of environmental racism. The research team members will develop a guidebook for Christian congregational climate science initiatives for addressing ecological racism in their local community including theoethical foundations, the basics of community partnership development across religious and secular groups, and the how-to of citizen science testing and assessment.

In the fall of 2025, G-ETS will host a livestreamed and on campus event to release the findings of the study and to reflect on learnings from the grant. The event will include citizen climate scientists, G-ETS faculty and student researchers, and community leaders and scientists who contributed to the grant project.