About Urban Data Response

Urban Data Response (UDR) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enable participatory programs that leverage data to shape public policy for climate justice in cities. We believe that making data open, legible, and usable is a foundational step to addressing climate change and delivering solutions equitably.

In its work, UDR will:

target cities in its work because they represent the highest concentration of people and of emissions,
engage communities at the hyperlocal level, so solutions are relevant, sustainable, and fair to the people they’ll affect, and
build upon (and with) existing efforts, making sure its output is novel and accretive to the great work that communities and other experts are already doing.

What we’re doing

For its first project, UDR will help local stakeholders hold large e-commerce retailers, like Amazon, to account for their environmental impact. To start, we will “inventory” advocacy efforts across the country, potential localized impacts of e-comm, and potential solutions or policy actions to mitigate negative climate impact. Once these efforts and resources are mapped, UDR will identify an appropriate strategic response with communities and mission-aligned partners. This strategy will include multiple geographies and leverage its scale to attract new resources to support frontline communities.

That's why we believe if the system is not working for those outside the center, we have to rebuild it from the outside in.

Why we’re doing this

A study by the University of Washington shows that these last mile warehouses tend to be located in areas with more low-income households and people of color than the metro they commercially serve; meanwhile, these immediate neighbors are also less likely to order packages, thus not reaping the proposed benefit despite paying the highest price.

UDR seeks first to build an understanding of the current status of their efforts, related policy, and the power map of involved parties. In our initial research, it has become clear that large e-commerce companies have national strategies with hyperlocal impacts, but hyperlocal advocacy has not yet led to national impact. UDR’s goal will be to build on resources that coordinate local communities to leverage a similarly powerful national counter action.

How it works

Anyone can submit a fight to our map, which will be reviewed and approved by Urban Data Response. We’re interested in including the following information on the map:

Where is this fight happening?
Who owns the facilities you are targeting with your work?
Who are the communities/organizations at the center of this work?

Privacy and data

When you submit a new effort to the map, the Urban Data Response team can view the information you input; however, private information such as your name and contact info is not publicly visible on the map and is encrypted in our Vercel database. We will never sell your data to anyone. We do not collect site analytics data. We do not set tracking cookings, store IP addresses, or any other personal data when you browse our website.

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