The Tishman Environment and Design Center (TEDC) at The New School University is committed to environmental justice and community academic partnerships grounded in the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing. These principles emphasize the importance of working in solidarity and mutuality, letting communities speak for themselves, inclusivity, self-transformation and building just relationships. TEDC is modeling an approach to academic and community partnerships that can produce pedagogical and research benefits for participants.

Using this framework, the Center embarked on three projects, each reflecting the unique needs of the communities and partners involved. These projects included:

1. Community based environmental justice organization in New York City (El Puente) that we co designed and produced research about local air quality and greenspaces adjacent to roadways
2. Group of environmental justice scholars that prepared research on the environmental justice implications of the USEPA's Climate Power Plan rule
3. Global alliance of activist networks (GAIA) with research support for campaigns related to zero waste and plastics.

These three multi-scalar collaborations each produced learning outcomes for students, faculty and partner group participants. The efforts revealed some of the opportunities and challenges of academic community partnerships grounded in the Jemez principles. Some of the key lessons important for establishing authentic partnerships with communities include: (1) Training faculty and students on environmental justice and Jemez principles to familiarize academic partners about the expectations and commitments required before embarking on collaborative projects, (2) Taking care to be transparent about the terms of any collaboration using tools like Memorandums of Understanding or Principles of Collaboration and (3) Building trusting relationships based on an ethic of care and rather than purely transactional partnerships. TEDC is building on these lessons to deepen our engagement with communities and our learning on how to be good allies in efforts to promote environmental justice.