Coming Clean

Coming Clean Inc. is a highly influential and strategic collaborative of environmental health and environmental justice experts, organizations, and activists dedicated to fundamentally transforming the chemical and fossil fuel industries. Established in 2001, Coming Clean recognized that the pervasive harm caused by toxic chemicals and polluting industries demanded a unified, multi-faceted, and justice-centered approach, bringing together diverse stakeholders to drive systemic change.

The Vision: A Nontoxic, Sustainable, and Just World for All

Coming Clean's overarching vision is a world where:

• No one's health is sacrificed by toxic chemical use or energy generation.
• Every child deserves a safe and healthy environment, free from the debilitating impacts of toxic chemicals in products, air and water pollution, and places contaminated by industrial waste.
• Communities have business partners and local industries that prioritize people's health and well-being over corporate profits.
• The climate and economy are nontoxic, sustainable, and just for all.
• There is a fundamental right to know what is in our air, water, food, and products, and substances are proven safe before exposure.
• Industries and the laws governing them "come clean", meaning they operate with transparency, accountability, and a commitment to public health.

This vision is built on the profound understanding that environmental injustice is deeply intertwined with social and economic inequities, and that solutions must address these systemic issues.

Mission and Core Principles: Uniting for Systemic Change

Coming Clean's mission is to reform the chemical and fossil fuel industries so they are no longer a source of harm and to secure systemic changes that allow a safe chemical and clean energy economy to flourish, leaving no community behind.

Central to their work are guiding principles that underpin their collaborative model:

• Transparency: Openness in dialogue and decision-making at all levels.
• Collaboration: Working in a spirit of unity with all who share the vision of a toxic-free future, prioritizing collective strength over individual competition.
• Justice: Actively working to dismantle racism, sexism, classism, and other oppressions, recognizing that disproportionate impacts on communities of color and low-income communities are a result of these systemic issues.
• Capacity Building: Fostering the development of skills and expertise across the network, valuing diverse forms of knowledge and expertise.
• Respect: Striving to respect all partners in the movement, even amid disagreement, to maintain unity.
• Inclusivity: Ensuring that discussions, campaigns, and projects are accessible and relevant to the wide range of participants, considering language, cultural differences, and geographic scope.
• Openness: Sharing information, ideas, and channels to power holders to benefit the collaborative and the broader movement.
• Accountability: Holding each other accountable for actions that exclude or divide, and for adhering to the guiding principles.

These principles are further informed by foundational documents like the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals (a comprehensive roadmap for chemical reform), the Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing, and the broader Principles of Environmental Justice.

The Coming Clean Network: A Collaborative Powerhouse

What truly distinguishes Coming Clean is its unique structure as a nonprofit collaborative network. It comprises:

• Over 150 member organizations: These include grassroots environmental health and justice groups, national environmental organizations, labor unions, public health advocates, scientists, and businesses.
• Over 400 individual technical experts: Bringing scientific, legal, public health, and policy expertise to bear on complex issues.

This extensive network allows Coming Clean to:

• Coordinate hundreds of organizations and issue experts to advance integrated campaigns.
• Amplify campaigns originating from grassroots groups and national allies, ensuring that local concerns gain national attention.
• Bridge the gap between fenceline communities experiencing pollution firsthand and scientists, policymakers, and legal experts.
• Cultivate grassroots power to impact decision-making from Washington D.C. to corporate boardrooms.

The strategic partnership with the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform (EJHA) is particularly central to Coming Clean's work. EJHA is a national network of grassroots environmental and economic justice organizations and advocates in communities disproportionately impacted by toxic chemicals. This deep collaboration ensures that the work is truly justice-centered and led by those most affected.

Key Program Areas and Campaigns: Driving Change Across Industries

Coming Clean operates through several interconnected program areas and campaigns, each targeting different aspects of the chemical and fossil fuel industries:

1. Safe Chemicals & Facilities (Chemical Disaster Prevention Program):

   • Focus: Protecting communities and workers from chemical disasters, fires, leaks, and toxic discharges from hazardous chemical, oil, and gas facilities.
   • Challenge: Over 124 million people in the U.S. live within chemical disaster vulnerability zones. These zones disproportionately impact communities of color and low-income populations.
   • Work: Campaigns for stronger regulations (e.g., improvements to EPA's Risk Management Program Rule), pushes for facilities to transition to inherently safer chemicals and processes, and tracks chemical incidents across the country. They played a key role in the 2016 Executive Order on "Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security" and continue to fight rollbacks.

2. Safe Products & Stores (Campaign for Healthier Solutions):

   • Focus: Ensuring that all families have access to safe and healthy household goods, children's toys, and foods free from harmful chemicals.
   • Challenge: Many everyday products contain undisclosed or harmful chemicals, particularly in discount retailers like dollar stores, which often serve as primary retail sources in low-income communities and communities of color.
   • Work: Combines grassroots activism, scientific expertise, and consumer pressure to urge retailers (especially dollar store chains like Dollar General and Dollar Tree/Family Dollar) to phase out products with harmful chemicals and offer healthier options. They conduct product testing and publish reports (e.g., "Product Testing for the People").

3. Safe Fields & Food (Farmworker Health and Justice Program):

   • Focus: Protecting farmworkers from toxic pesticide exposure and addressing unjust worker practices, while promoting sustainable local food systems.
   • Challenge: Farmworkers face high exposure to pesticides and are often marginalized in policy development.
   • Work: Brings together farmworkers, toxicologists, advocates, and health experts to elevate farmworker voices. They've advocated for stronger protections, such as the 2016 Worker Protection Standard, and continue to fight attempts to weaken it. They also work on campaigns connecting petroleum-derived chemicals in our food system to harm to communities and climate.

4. Zero Emissions Whole Communities:

   • Focus: Advocating for pollution-reducing policies that improve community health and quality of life, often through a just transition to clean energy and non-toxic alternatives. This overlaps with their work on chemical facilities and the broader energy transition.

Impact and Achievements: A Legacy of Advocacy and Reform

Coming Clean has a remarkable track record of success:

• Groundbreaking Research & Exposé: Their origins are linked to the 2001 viewing of "Trade Secrets: A Bill Moyers Report," which exposed chemical industry collusion. They continue to produce critical research and reports that highlight chemical hazards.
• Policy Wins: Successfully advocated for the 2016 Executive Order on chemical facility safety and increased protections for farmworkers through the Worker Protection Standard. They also engage heavily in defending these gains from industry attacks.
• Corporate Accountability: Through campaigns like the Campaign for Healthier Solutions, they have pressured major retailers to adopt and improve chemical policies, leading to the removal of certain hazardous chemicals from products.
• Strengthening the Movement: By fostering collaboration and uniting diverse groups, Coming Clean has significantly strengthened the environmental health and justice movement, making it more cohesive and impactful.
• Amplifying Frontline Voices: They are committed to ensuring that the experiences and demands of communities directly impacted by pollution are at the forefront of advocacy efforts, embodying the principles of environmental justice.
• Thought Leadership: They provide critical analysis and strategic direction for the broader movement, often leading key policy discussions and developing frameworks like the Louisville Charter.

Coming Clean Inc. is a powerful force for change, continually working to transform the chemical and fossil fuel industries, not just by eliminating harm, but by building a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable future for all communities.