category finalist
nikkia@brandsavor.co
Challenge
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is the South’s most effective environmental advocate, defending clean air, clean water, and a livable climate. Yet the systemic environmental injustices faced by Black communities across the region remain underreported and poorly understood by national audiences.
SELC launched Plantations to Pollution: Black Communities, Legacy Pollution, and the Path Forward—a landmark storytelling initiative examining how the legacy of slavery and industrial development created disproportionate environmental harm in Black communities.
To ensure the project sparked meaningful national dialogue, SELC partnered with BrandSavor to elevate visibility for the initiative and the launch of Broken Ground Season 8, a podcast exploring these critical stories.
The challenge: transform a deeply researched environmental justice project into a national conversation about historical accountability and environmental equity.
Insight
Environmental justice is often framed as a modern issue. But for communities across the American South, today’s pollution patterns are directly connected to centuries-old systems of land ownership, labor exploitation, and industrial development.
By connecting the historical legacy of plantations to present-day environmental harm, SELC could reframe environmental justice as both a civil rights issue and a national reckoning with history.
What We Did
BrandSavor developed an integrated communications strategy designed to elevate the campaign’s historical narrative while connecting it to current environmental justice conversations.
Key components included:
Integrated Communications Strategy
We built a communications and media relations plan aligned with ongoing national conversations around environmental justice, climate equity, and systemic inequality.
Narrative Development
We crafted a messaging framework that connected SELC’s legal and advocacy work to real-world community impact, emphasizing the human stories behind environmental injustice.
National Media Strategy
We executed a national PR campaign to support the launch of Plantations to Pollution and Broken Ground Season 8, positioning the project as a must-cover story for journalists covering environment, social justice, and culture.
Thought Leadership
We elevated Chandra Taylor-Sawyer as a leading voice on environmental equity, securing opportunities to highlight SELC’s work and expand the conversation around environmental justice.
Results
The campaign successfully amplified the conversation around environmental justice and SELC’s leadership in the field.
30+ media placements across national, regional, and trade outlets
Feature coverage in Authority Magazine and Ebony Magazine and ABC11 WTVD (NC)
Features in HotHouse Earth Podcast, Environmental Justice Lab Podcast, Climate Justice Y’All Podcast and #RaceClass Podcast
Expanded visibility for Broken Ground Season 8
Introduced SELC’s work to new national audiences
Most importantly, the campaign strengthened SELC’s reputation as a pioneering organization connecting historical injustice with today’s environmental realities.
Why This Work Matters
Environmental injustice does not exist in isolation—it is rooted in history. Plantations to Pollution reframed environmental advocacy by exposing the historical systems that created today’s inequities.
By amplifying this story nationally, the campaign helped shift the conversation from isolated incidents of pollution to a deeper understanding of systemic environmental harm—and the urgent need for change.
