A Greener World: Nobel Cause Consulting's Emily Nobel Maxwell on Environmental Justice and Substantive Campaigns for Change
By Julia Gamolina
Emily Nobel Maxwell designs and leads initiatives that advance environmental quality and justice to grow a more verdant, just world. Now Nobel Cause Consulting principal, from 2013–2024, Maxwell was Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Cities Program in New York.
An architect of the NYC Urban Forest Agenda and author of the State of the Urban Forest in NYC, she was instrumental in launching Forest for All NYC. Maxwell is also author of Building Capacity Through Diversity and Urban Coastal Resilience: Valuing Nature's Role. Her collaborative leadership has resulted in greener cities, community garden protection, equitable green roof incentives, novel urban forest policy, and broad-based coalitions effectively driving just environmental change.
In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Emily talks about developing her focus on making cities more verdant and just, and the commitment required to programs, processes and policies to do so. She advises those just starting their careers to seeing things through from start to finish.
JG: You first studied urban studies — what did you envision yourself doing in the world?
ENM: Early on, I thought I wanted to be an ecologist. My dream shifted as I started studying for that degree — it rapidly became clear that being raised in downtown Philly with annual forays to the Adirondacks had profoundly shaped my worldview. My passion was at the intersection of ecology, human wellbeing, and justice, and that came through in my work on community gardens.
Essentially, I understood through lived experience that when it came to a healthy natural world, access was divided by race and class, and this inequity became my central focus. Zip code should not dictate life outcomes, and yet, that’s what the data tells us happens. This understanding led me to pursue a degree in urban studies at the New School in New York City where I also helped develop their first environmental justice course curriculum. That set the stage for my graduate work in environmental justice, but it was my early career that really galvanized my dedication to pursuing that degree.
Emily emceeing a rally in support of legislation to protect, maintain and grow New York City’s urban forest in Fall 2023. Photography by Jonathan Grassi Photography, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy.
Tell me about your early career.
I started working part-time with the NYC Community Garden Coalition after moving to New York City in the late 1990s. I also became very involved in a community garden in the South Bronx, the Cherry Tree Garden, which later, alongside 109 other community gardens, was put up for auction. It was a quintessential example of green gentrification — the sweat equity of local residents, and their dedication to their communities, resulted in the City trying to sell these lots to the highest bidder for development.
While many were trying to “save the gardens,” a subset of us saw this as a passive, losing frame, and we coined the phrase and organization “More Gardens!”—an example of shifting the narrative from a “save us” perspective to “we need more of this incredible asset.” In other words, this was narrative change work, focused on uplifting the positive aspects rather than positioning ourselves as something others should rescue. Fast forward over the course of a year, and we won, largely thanks to public outcry, colorful media, and a lawsuit that we requested — picture me, dressed as a sunflower, making this request publicly — by the attorney general followed by land conservation organizations and local leaders taking up the cause.
This showed me that with good organizing, narrative control, and people power, change was possible. It also reaffirmed to me that environmental justice needed to be the frame for my future work. This orientation continues to underpin all of my work.
How did the focus on environmental justice solidify that then led to your graduate work?
I was profoundly affected by the daily experience of what truly felt like segregation by design. This led me to explore desegregation efforts more broadly, and I landed in South Africa, working with Umtapo Centre, which utilized environmental education as a peacebuilding activity. Seeing their earnest efforts at racial reconciliation contextualized in a country that had utilized clear segregation strategies, including land based conservation as a wedge rather than a bridge between communities, galvanized my future focus on working at the intersections of land, ecology, people, and justice.
Following that, I ran a community greening project in Philadelphia – we worked on greening vacant lots, expanding the urban forest, and environmental education. The sad part of that story is that first, the federal government cut funding for the program. Then, while we were able to set up acquisition for all the lots we greened, which had been identified as priorities by the local community, the organization I worked for at the time, a local Community Development Corporation, ultimately decided they couldn’t hold the land. It was somewhat of a devastating blow, but reinforced what I was seeing in so many places — that structural racism and land dispossession was driving the alienation of communities from their local environment. And, as a white woman who has worked in the conservation field, I see it as in part my responsibility to help transform the practices of conservation organizations to ensure their work is reparative for social issues.
All this inspired me to pursue a Masters in Natural Resource Policy with a specialization in environmental justice at University of Michigan. At the time, it was one of the only programs in the country that offered that degree, with seminal environmental justice leaders Dr. Bunyan Bryant and Dr. Dorceta Taylor. It was a powerful experience that shapes me to this day.
“Zip code should not dictate life outcomes, and yet, that’s what the data tells us happens.”
Tell me about your time with the Nature Conservancy.
For the last eleven years, I served as the Director of the Cities program at The Nature Conservancy in New York. I went to The Nature Conservancy to launch that program, as I had a vision of wanting to help big green organizations do meaningful and effective work that truly serves cities and their residents and advances restorative and distributive justice in the conservation field.
When I started, I knew that the urban forest in NYC was underresourced. As a lifelong dendrophile, that felt like a glaring omission as it provides essential services to New Yorkers, from cooling our city to clearing our air and water. As a whole system though, there was not a clear vision, plan, or voice for the urban forest, and so it was also underfunded and inequitably distributed. To address that, we launched Future Forest NYC, to generate just that missing story, vision, plan and voice, which were by design and necessity collective efforts. We did great research to explain the current State of the Urban Forest in NYC, convened 50 organizations as the NYC Urban Forest Task Force to develop the NYC Urban Forest Agenda, and launched and convened Forest for All NYC,
All of this work culminated in the passage of two terrific pieces of legislation in fall of 2023, one of which requires a citywide urban forest plan for NYC with a goal of achieving at least 30 percent canopy cover — up from 22 percent — and ongoing monitoring, and the other of which amended the City Charter to require the City to consider trees and canopy in long term sustainability planning. To make these changes, a positive vision and collective action were needed, and the strength of the team and coalition that carry it forward is amazing.
And you just launched your own consultancy — congratulations! Tell me about this.
For personal reasons, I recently relocated to the Adirondacks and pivoted to launching a consulting practice. Nobel Cause Consulting helps organizations achieve harmonized environmental and social justice goals, closing the gap between aspirations and outcomes for a greener, more just world.
So many environmental organizations have made stated commitments to equity, justice, and sovereignty. That’s a great step, but, actualizing those commitments can be challenging and we all know the saying: action speaks louder than words. Ensuring organizations embody those commitments in their programs, processes, and policies is my calling, and I am thrilled to help organizations match their stated intent with their actions and investments. I also advise organizations on effective coalition-building one of my favorite topics and areas of experience, and something that underpins any substantive campaigns for change. While my practice still largely focuses on greening cities, I am excited to work on issues of equity and justice in larger, more rural landscapes now as well.
Emily, joined by Forest for All NYC Leadership Team members, before delivering a talk for the United Nations International Day of Forests in 2022. Courtesy of The Nature Conservancy.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
If I am honest, which is tough, the biggest challenge for me was personal, and something that many women and people who may be able to get pregnant face. In the middle of the launch of one of my most meaningful and important projects, the launch of the NYC Urban Forest Task Force, I was going through a protracted ectopic pregnancy during IVF cycling. The urban forest work was motivating and inspiring, and I knew we are on the cusp of something important that would make a difference. But, my days started with hospital visits for a while until things resolved, and that resolution meant a huge life disappointment that I needed to cope with and process.
To manage all that, and to show up with energy to hold space for and motivate a team, partners, and build something new was a big effort. I can’t say I was graceful every day, but knowing that even as personal things weren’t going as planned, that seeing my vision for a truly intersectional initiative for the NYC urban forest take shape, surrounded by dedicated peers and colleagues, kept me going. In hindsight, taking more time for myself might not have been a bad idea, but the passion I held around my work, and the collaboration of so many amazing people, was a balm.
What have you also learned in the last six months?
The last six months have underscored for me the power of love and trust in organizing and campaign work, and how important it is to lead with those from the get go. Even campaigns that have “perfect” strategies and tactics will fail if they don’t have heart and connections, and true diversity in their membership. I truly believe our work succeeded in passing real and meaningful policy change because it was founded with authenticity, transparency, trust, mutual respect, and love for a common issue, in this case, the urban forest.
“Architects in particular have tremendous capacity and opportunity to help shape our world to be friendlier to the range of needs that all communities have, and I encourage folks starting out to challenge themselves on this front — and to actively ask how your works are addressing this.”
What are you most excited about right now?
The ways that the intersectionality of environmental and social justice issues are being acknowledged, and the ways in which so many truly diverse leaders are advancing both. What excites me is helping to do this work authentically, and going beyond acknowledgment and rhetoric into the elevation of leaders and work that truly helps grow a more just and verdant world.
Who are you admiring now and why?
Most recently, I have been so wowed by local leaders in NYC like Council Member Shekar Krishnan, who continues to doggedly work for a greener and more just city. He is the kind of public official we need, as he truly understands the complexity and intersectionality of the challenges we face. I’ve also loved witnessing the leadership of friends like Rami Dinnawi of El Puente, who uplifts justice with unwavering grace, Victoria Sanders and Shravanthi Kanekal of NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, and Annel Hernandez who works in NYC Council, all of whom consistently represent the communities they serve. Pamela Pettyjohn of Coney Island Beautification Project is another advocate from whom I learn so much.
And, three amazing, and very different, authors, thought leaders and advocates who inspire me are Suzanne Simard, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Selena Rezvani. Amazing new leaders are also emerging, and I am learning so much from women like Wawa Gatheru of Black Girl Environmentalist, and, Charitie Ropati, an education and environmental activist and researcher who studies the intersections of plant ecology, permafrost, and cultural resilience in coastal Native communities.
It’s also worth mentioning that I have a couple of friends going through challenging health circumstances right now. Their journeys, and the grace with which they go through them, remind me every day what matters most, and about the power of love and community.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
My personal focus remains unwavering to social and environmental justice action that addresses the crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. What this looks like is a daily practice — ensuring the right voices are elevated, that all environmental efforts center equity and justice, and that resources are redistributed. In tangible terms, it means that your zip code does not dictate your life outcomes, that right relationships among people and between people and land are restored, that clean air and clean water are available for everyone, that as a world we make a dramatic u-turn with carbon emissions, and that we invest in the restoration of communities and ecosystems that have been degraded and dispossessed.
Planting a community garden in East New York. Photography by Jonathan Grassi Photography, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Early in your career, I’d advise seeing some things through from start to finish, no matter how challenging. Being able to show that you have some real things that you contributed to that were completed is huge. The other thing to consider is carving out a niche and a network. This takes a lot of time, but identifying your own strengths and the unique contributions you want to make is crucial. It’s also good to ensure your network includes people who support you, challenge you, are part of your choir, sing a different tune, and who share values but perhaps not approach. Learning from differences is crucial to long term success.
For women specifically, in some ways this goes without saying, but one needs to remain aware that sexism remains alive and thriving. All of us who identify and show up in the world as women remain subject to various facets of discrimination, from underestimation and having to outperform our male counterparts, to wage inequities which are even worse for women of color, to living in a world that doesn't prioritize our needs and realities. Celebrate your wins, find your allies, and believe in yourself. When the path isn’t clear in front of you, or the spaces you’re in aren’t conducive to success, you can create your own, or find others that are.
Architects in particular have tremendous capacity and opportunity to help shape our world to be friendlier to the range of needs that all communities have, and I encourage folks starting out to challenge themselves on this front — and to actively ask how your works are addressing this.