Magazine

Kari Fulton is on the cusp of something big. At age 23, she has emerged as one of the youngest and most popular national leaders in climate and environmental justice. Her organization, the Energy Action Coalition, which unites 50 North American environmental groups, won an Elle 2008 Green Award (second place, after someone named Brad Pitt). In March she was named one of Glamour’s “Eco Heroes” along with Lisa Jackson, the new head of the EPA. Despite her assertion that she is more focused on her cause than with the press she’s been getting, the attention certainly can’t hurt her cause. Fulton helped bring more than 1,200 young people of color to Power Shift 2009. With 12,000 attendees, it was the largest youth summit on climate change in U.S. history. As national campus campaign coordinator for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC), Fulton also mobilizes college students to push for campus sustainability and climate justice, mainly at HB CUs, or historically black colleges and universities (Fulton attended Howard University). In mid-March, Next American City caught up with Fulton just before she visited Louisiana’s Grambling State University to interview students about how HB CU students are greening their campuses and local communities.

What first got you interested in environmental issues?

I’m from Denver, so it’s pretty green out there. My neighbors composted. I never thought of that as “green” — I just thought of it as regular stuff that people did. I worked on campaigns around renewable energy in Colorado, and it really frustrated me because I was given maybe three talking points, but I didn’t know the issues. It was frustrating because I’m this little black girl talking about renewable energy in white neighborhoods and I didn’t even get it. After Hurricane Katrina I ended up going to the Gulf Coast region and volunteering. That was kind of my “A-ha!” moment. I said, “Okay, this is connected to our environment.” So, I started getting more involved in my campus and in doing community service.