ABSTRACT
This article challenges social workers to expand their understanding of the ‘person-in-
environment’ perspective and become more active in addressing current environmental
crises. Although social work scholars have begun to explore the relationship between social
work and the natural and built environment and professional organizations mandate the
integration of this content into practice and education, these goals remain unrealized,
particularly in the USA. To address these issues more effectively, social work educators will
need to distinguish between understanding persons in their environment and
environmentalism, and between environmentalism and environmental justice. This
article analyzes the emergence of the environmental justicemovement in theUSAand other
nations and its relationship to environmental racism. It presents a case study of a local
environmental justice effort to demonstrate how social workers can use their knowledge and
skills to make important contributions to environmental justice and sustainability. It also
discusses the potential of ‘green social work’ and transformative learning theory as tools to
help social work educators better equip students to make strategic alliances across
professions, disciplines, and systems to address contemporary environmental crises.
