The Capital Region Air Justice Lab is being developed by The Sanctuary for Independent Media at NATURE Lab in North Troy.
Project Description
Launched in 2022, Air Justice Lab is a community air monitoring and educational initiative based at NATURE Lab and serving the greater Capital Region. In early 2023, Sanctuary staff, local students, and concerned residents began a collaborative effort to install a growing network of low-cost air-monitoring devices. With an initial goal of at least fifty monitoring locations, the team is installing Purple Air monitors, which feed real time air quality data to a publicly accessible map. As we begin to accumulate data, Air Justice Lab will support local environmental justice groups in accessing, interpreting, and making use of it to quantify the air quality issues in their neighborhoods, while also working to increase general public awareness around air quality and its impacts.
As Air Justice Lab develops, it will contribute to air quality monitoring and advocacy throughout the Capital Region through three key components: 1) a broad, flexible, low-cost public access network of air monitoring devices, 2) a grassroots educational program teaching the fundamentals of data science to local residents impacted by air pollution and, 3) an ambitious outreach campaign to increase public awareness of pervasive air quality issues.
The Air Justice Lab is currently funded by a DEC Environmental Justice Community Air Monitoring Capacity Building grant. To learn more about the impetus for the project, and meet some of the volunteers, staff members, and students involved, use the links below.
