About The Environmental Action Lab

The Environmental Action Lab is driven by a team of educators, environmentalists, and community activists dedicated to reconnecting people with their environment. We provide resources that help communities engage with the natural world in a sustainable and ecologically responsible way. Through education, hands-on fieldwork, stewardship, and service learning, we inspire a deeper understanding of environmental issues and foster positive action.

Our Core Values

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the right of people to govern themselves. States and Capital have deprived people of that foundational right. Our goal is to gain independence, so that we are no longer forced to rely on systems founded on and designed to perpetuate inequity and disenfranchisement. We intend to construct parallel infrastructure design to reduce our reliance and the reliance of nearby communities on inequitable and unjust systems of exploitation.

We will govern ourselves as a community, individuals free to pursue our own passions, while coexisting and collaborating. Everyone will be a sovereign totality, within a community that will be, in itself, a sovereign totality. We will gain sovereignty through building off-grid infrastructure and caring for the land. Nature will provide us with everything we need to survive and more.

Sustainability

Sustainability is the ability to meet one's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Our current society is compromising the needs of future generations by destroying the planet. There are enough resources on Earth to sustain everyone without us irrevocably damaging the environment. We are suffering due to inequitable resource distribution and hoarding. As a community, we will not repeat those mistakes. We will balance environmental, sociological and economic factors to fulfill our duties to ourselves, each other and future generations.

Reciprocity

The practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit. We will care for each other and share goods, resources and services. Nature is the ultimate provider. Even when we destroy it, nature gives. It produces everything humans need; oxygen, food, water, shelter. In return for those services, we will care for the land through ecological restoration, stewardship and sustainable resource management.

Democracy & Consensus

A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly. Decisions will be made by voting. Everyone is given the right to state their case. All members will vote. The majority wins.

Consensus is a process by which individuals in a community can freely participate in governance on equal footing with other members of that community, with options for dissenting opinions to be addressed and their needs met without disenfranchising people of their sovereignty.

Equity

History, legislation, economic policy, and brutality have served to create, defend, and perpetuate disparities, despite our supposedly equal society. Until these disparities are addressed, there can be no equality. Without economic freedom and full personal sovereignty, there can be no liberty. We seek to address disparities and inequities, that deprive people of the exercise of their rights.

Our History

The Environmental Action Lab (TEAL) was originally founded in response to the ecological devastation wrought upon Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Dedicated to improving material conditions for working-class communities and those most affected by anthropogenic climate change, TEAL has always centered environmental justice, sustainability, and food sovereignty in its work.

In 2019, students from Brooklyn College and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry came together to organize a service trip to Puerto Rico. There, they participated in coastal restoration, permaculture, and the construction of sustainable housing. Inspired by the resilience of local activists and organizations sustaining communities despite devastation and lack of aid, TEAL was born with the goal of continuing this vital work.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced TEAL to localize its efforts, shifting its focus back to New York City. The organization rented a parcel of land in South Brooklyn and built a small educational farm, which it operated for five years. During that time, TEAL facilitated urban farming workshops, nature hikes, and stewardship programs, fostering a culture of service and a strong commitment to environmental justice.

Now, TEAL is reestablishing its center of operations in Syracuse, NY. Building on years of experience in education, fieldwork, and community organizing, TEAL continues its mission of reconnecting people to their environment, strengthening sustainable infrastructure, and empowering marginalized communities with the resources to create resilient, sovereign, and sustainable futures.