Open Environmental Data Project

Meet OEDP Board Member, @joannecheung.com ! Joanne is a lifelong #EnvironmentalJustice advocate whose homeland is the Jianghan. She carries the care + creativity of her ancestral lineage of traditional medicine practitioners in her practice to support global env., climate + food justice movements 💫

Another Community Data Demo & Workshop

Community Data Demo & Workshop on Oct 8 now sold out

Due to high demand, we've added ANOTHER Community Data Demo & Workshop! Registration is capped at 100 people to keep the workshop interactive so make sure to grab your spot ASAP ~

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📆 Tues, Oct. 14
⏰ 10 - 11:15 am PT
🔗 Registration link at us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

#DataCenter #WaterUse #Energy #EnergyGrid #AI #LoudounCounty #AlbemarleCounty #VA #Virginia #EnvironmentalPolicy #Advocacy #Coalition #Reform #Mapping #Legislation #CommunityOrganizing #StateLegislation

Local Advocacy in the Data Center Capital: An Interview with Julie Bolthouse In this interview with Policy & Communications Fellow Sean Wang, Julie Bolthouse talks about mapping and legislative projects and how they’ve empowered communities and legislators to tackle this ever-...

Read the transcript for this interview, where Julie discusses the resources PEC has built, including a map of existing + proposed data centers, plus a framework to encourage legislative action.

www.openenvironmentaldata.org/storytelling...

Julie works in Virginia’s nine-county region advocating for more #sustainability in #planning processes and land use decisions. She also co-organizes the VA #DataCenter Reform Coalition, bringing together 40+ community partners to understand the impacts of rapid hyperscale data center development.

Local Advocacy in the Data Center Capital: An Interview with Julie Bolthouse

It's hard to talk about the explosion of #ArtificalIntelligence without talking about #DataCenters or the world's data center capital... #Virginia. This summer, Policy & Communications Fellow Sean Wang Zi-Ming sat down with Julie Bolthouse, Director of Land Use at the Piedmont Environmental Council.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Community Data Demo and Workshop. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. Communities around the world collect and use environmental data, but often face barriers in using data to its fullest extent: technical solutions are cost-prohibitive or unsuited to social context and...

This workshop is designed for folks working with community-generated environmental data: as a data steward, collector, analyst, researcher, technologist + the community environmental data-curious!

📆 Wed, Oct. 8
⏰ 9 - 10:15 am PT
🔗 Registration link at
us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Join us for a demo and workshop to dive into all things data governance! During the workshop, we will:

🔍 give a primer on the Community Data Playbook,
🧩 test out a few Plays,
📚 launch and demo our Resource Library, and
🗣 provide space for feedback and ideas.

A primer on insurance in the time of climate change

Different insurance options

Who to hold accountable and what states are doing

The data gap

Here is a set of readings about climate insurance, curated by Research & Policy Manager Emelia Williams. It includes topics like:

📕 A primer on insurance in the time of #ClimateChange,
📑 Different #insurance options,
🤝 Who to hold accountable and what states are doing, and
⭕ The #data gap.

What we're reading / watching / listening to about Climate Insurance

After floods, fires + hurricanes, insurance increasingly affects people's ability to live and work in the places they call home. At OEDP, we're interested in how env. + climate data affects the current insurance system, both in understanding risks + exploring different insurance models/policies.

Lessons from Unexpected Places An Attention Inventory from Cathy Richards, OEDP's Civic Science Fellow and Data Inclusion Specialist

This month’s Attention Inventory is compiled by Cathy Richards, Civic Science Fellow + Data Inclusion Specialist at OEDP. Cathy talks about:

🫀 taking the pulse of the planet,
🌱 finding ways to resist,
🧛🏾‍♂️ the history + soundtrack of Sinners.

Read more at open.substack.com/pub/openenvi...

A Certification System for Third Party Climate Models to Support Local Planning and Flood Resilience - Federation of American Scientists Establishing an objective and widely recognized certification standard for climate and weather models would support actors both within and outside of government to use a growing wealth of flooding and...

fas.org/publication/...

They outline how a certification system/clearinghouse for climate models would let cash-strapped state + local gov'ts make more informed and cost-effective choices about which models to use, empowering local communities and potentially saving billions of $$ in disaster damages and clean up costs

Read our newest policy memo: "A Certification System for Third Party Climate Models to Support Local Planning and Flood Resilience", written by Katie Hoeberling and Emelia Williams for @scientistsorg.bsky.social

Reflections on AGU's Days of Action

The urgency of the budget cuts

These aren't abstract policy debates: they affect people's lives

The many sectors that need to be heard; and how we can speak up

Since Exec. Director Brittany Janis attended @agu.org 's #DaysOfAction, she's been reflecting on the urgency of the budget cuts, the ways these policies are impacting day-to-day lives, and the approaches people need to take, across sectors, to be heard 👂🏻

June updates from OEDP

Our June newsletter is out! Catch up on OEDP's recent goings-on, including:

🤝 highlights from the Community Data Playbook;

✍ an op-ed about hardware procurement from @sdosemagen.bsky.social , Eunice Mercado-Lara + Alison Parker;

☀️ AGU's Days of Action in D.C.

open.substack.com/pub/openenvi...

The results of these sessions are all in the Community Data Playbook, including templates you can use if you’re asking similar questions!

You can get it at: zenodo.org/records/1528...
En español: zenodo.org/records/1548...

Last year, we collaborated on a workshop for SHE's programs on Water Quality Testing & Filtration. We:
1️⃣ brainstormed their team’s data values,
2️⃣ built the foundation of a data co-ownership agreement, and
3️⃣ strategized around risk-reducing practices for data products they're developing.

There’s sometimes a disconnect b/w private homeowners + gov't officials: homeowners don’t want water usage being monitored by the gov't, but data collected to understand the environmental conditions can inform policy + $$.

Today, we're highlighting our work with Self-Help Enterprises (SHE), a non-profit based in Visalia, CA (USA) whose mission is to work together with low-income families to build and sustain healthy homes and communities.

📚 What We're Reading: June 2025 📚

Every month, we publish what we're reading/watching/listening to on topics like #DataGovernance, #OpenSource, #EnvironmentalJustice + #ArtificialIntelligence. Here are some highlights and you can get the full list at www.openenvironmentaldata.org/what-were-reading

Reflections on CAPS25

Reflections on the AI double standard

Reflections on community & memory at the Ethical Considerations Panel

Reflections on Reciprocity

Thanks to AAPS for a wonderful #CAPS25 conference last week! Here are some reflections from Research & Policy Manager Emelia Williams ✨

Looking and Listening Deeply: An Attention Inventory from Emelia Williams

This month’s Attention Inventory is compiled by E Williams who talks about:

👂🏻 data centers' impact on our ability to hear + listen,
🔥 the aftermath of LA fires,
👀 their work as a fire lookout volunteer +
🎶 the search for a perfect workday playlist

Read more at open.substack.com/pub/openenvi...

Unlocking Innovation: Why Federal Procurement Should Embrace Open Source | TechPolicy.Press Eunice Mercado-Lara, Shannon Dosemagen, and Alison Parker make the case for reforming federal procurement rules to boost open source solutions.

It's an important step, but misses a key component of new tech: #OpenSource.

In their article for @techpolicypress.bsky.social, @sdosemagen.bsky.social, Eunice Mercado-Lara, and Alison Parker identify 3 principles that can help bring #OS into fed. procurement

www.techpolicy.press/unlocking-in...

Unlocking Innovation: Why Federal Procurement Should Embrace Open Source | TechPolicy.Press Eunice Mercado-Lara, Shannon Dosemagen, and Alison Parker make the case for reforming federal procurement rules to boost open source solutions.

On 4/15, the White House released an EO to "Restore Common Sense to Federal Procurement." It promises to reduce bureaucratic hurdles, create a more competitive environment + streamline the Federal Acquisition Regulation so small businesses can participate in federal contracting

Are you attending the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences' #CAPS25 Conference in Portland today?

OEDP's Research & Policy Manager Emelia Williams will be there discussing our Community Data Playbook. Join them at the Ethical Considerations talk session today at 3:45 pm PT 💫

Our Community Data Playbook is also available in Spanish! | ¡Nuestro Manual de Datos Comunitarios también está disponible en español!

zenodo.org/records/1548...

Get the full playbook (in English) here: zenodo.org/records/1528...

The Community Data Playbook:
🔍 compiles case studies of env. data governance, from our partnerships with: CHARRS, CENIT + Self-Help Enterprises,
🧩 outlines “plays,” or modular strategies + opportunities that #data stewards can use,
📖 provides #templates + #resources data stewards can repurpose.

Community Data Playbook Cover

We’re so proud to release the Community Data Playbook!

Communities around the world collect and use #environmental data, but face barriers in using data to its fullest extent; to unlock the potential benefits of community-generated environmental data, we need better data governance approaches.