HMMH partnered with The Ohio State University and the Thrivance Group to develop the ACRP Research Report 265: Incorporating Environmental Justice and Equity Principles: A Toolkit for Airports. The Toolkit provides resources to educate and support airport practitioners in integrating environmental justice and equity more holistically into airport decision-making, acknowledging and thinking beyond the regulatory definitions that may be familiar to them. To work towards an aspirational goal of creating a more inclusive and equitable industry, practitioners can begin by acknowledging historical harms and expanding their knowledge to recognize how systemic inequities persist within the industry today. Airport practitioners can build their foundational knowledge of and capacity for environmental justice and equity work by interacting with the research products associated with this project and applying the knowledge in their roles.
The Toolkit includes four modules:
- Module 1: Self-Assess Equity Practice provides guidance to develop airport decision-making processes that include input from impacted groups, improve institutional capacity to address equity gaps, and drive positive outcomes.
- Module 2: Seek Meaningful Stakeholder and Community Engagement provides guidance to ensure airport stakeholder and community engagement processes meet community members where they are, share influence with community members as a part of the decision-making process, and acknowledge and reduce past and ongoing harm derived from inequitable decisions in transportation and airport planning.
- Module 3: Use Spatial Data, Methods, and Tools to Assess Environmental Justice and Equity provides guidance for airport practitioners to use spatial data, methods, and tools to inform equity-centered decision-making. An appendix includes one-page summaries of browser-based mapping tools in greater detail.
- Module 4: Embed and Institutionalize Equity provides guidance for airport practitioners to incorporate equity into airport plans and actions in a holistic manner by evaluating the organization’s values and governance systems, organizational structure, and decision-making processes.
The Toolkit’s Case Studies illustrate real-world examples of equity-oriented airport decision-making relevant to airports. The Toolkit identifies an additional list of resources (in addition to the list of references) for practitioners to reference for additional information, concepts, tools, and frameworks. It also provides a glossary of equity and environmental justice terms that guide and define work in the field of equitable transportation planning.
Additionally, the research team authored a supplemental report titled ACRP Web-Only Document 60: Structural Racism and Inequity in the U.S. Aviation Industry: Foundations and Implications. This report provides the historical context of systemic racism in the transportation sector with a focus on airports and present-day implications. It guides airport practitioners to reflect on a range of systemic inequalities and consider strategies to examine current practices within the industry, their organization, or their specific role.