Carbon Dioxide Removal and Environmental Justice in the US

Dr. Gutierrez is an environmental and climate justice practitioner, drawing on work across community-based research, public policy, and direct climate advocacy. Trained as a cultural anthropologist and political ecologist, he has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with environmental justice movements in Chile, rural northern California, and the Puget Sound on topics of watershed conservation and Indigenous sovereignty, renewable energy development, superfund remediation, and floodplain restoration. Alongside his work at Relae, he is affiliate faculty at the School of Environmental & Forest Sciences at the University of Washington, where he teaches and conducts research on the environmental justice dimensions of climate change adaptation.

Prior to joining Relae, Grant served as an environmental justice policy lead in state and local government in Washington, where he led efforts to implement the HEAL Act—Washington’s landmark environmental justice law—and advance equitable development and community planning through the Duwamish Valley Program at the City of Seattle. He serves on the board of the Duwamish River Community Coalition, a community-based organization focused on environmental justice and climate resilience in South Seattle.