2025 ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY TOOLKIT: Impacts and Solutions for Latino Communities

This toolkit was created to show the importance of environmental policy to Latinos across the U.S., from the states to the territories. Hispanic Access Foundation created the first version of this toolkit in 2019, to change that narrative and bring Latino viewpoints and priorities to the forefront of environmental policy. As time goes on, it only becomes clearer that each of us has a stake in this moment of converging climate, nature, and public health emergencies –- and frontline communities most of all.

This toolkit is divided into chapters based on four foundational pillars: 1) Protecting and Restoring Healthy Lands, Waterways, and Ocean; 2) Addressing the Climate Crisis, including policies for mitigation and adaptation; 3) Environmental Justice & Health, including sections on mental health and how environmental protection policies can mitigate the severity of the pandemic and health crises to come; and 4) Latino Heritage at Risk.

At the end of each chapter is a set of recommendations to achieve Hispanic Access Foundation’s overall goals for that pillar, which flow from the results in the toolkit. However, it is important to note these policies are not the end-all, be-all of just environmental policy; they may contain flaws and require additional action to ensure equitable implementation. Hispanic Access Foundation recommends these policy measures as incremental steps toward a sustainable, and healthy environment for all.