The Sierra Club Missouri Chapter is committed to acting for justice in all of our actions. Some of our values include:
- Anti-racism: shifting power away from white supremacy, repairing harm, and ending structural racism
- Balance: committing to caring for ourselves and others, collaboration, or the belief that just relationships that support collective work
- Justice: we are accountable for our actions, our work, and how we show up with trust and respect
- Transformation: a commitment to changing our relationships to power, privilege, and oppression—for ourselves and for the organization
Learn more about the Sierra Club and what we stand for here.
One way that our chapter works to implement our values is a commitment to organize to strengthen democracy, defend voting rights and make sure voters are aware of their rights, and continue to educate our members and the public about the importance of fair, nonpartisan redistricting, free and accessible voting rights for all, and protecting the initiative petition process. Our focus is on educating our members about the intersection of fair and nonpartisan redistricting; voting rights; building support in the legislature; and deepening our relationships with Missouri environmental allies.
Some of our accomplishments over the last few years include:
- Helped raise the Missouri minimum wage from the federally mandated minimum to $12/hour as a member of a broad-based worker's rights and economic justice coalition
- Protected voting rights for Missourians by continuing to organize on defense with coalition members (Missouri Voter Protection Coalition & MOVE Coalition) throughout the legislative session by responding to and testifying to bills, earned communication (letters-to-the editor, Op-Eds, Blog Posts) and targeted outreach + relationship building to those most impacted by voter disenfranchisement
- Ensured fair and accessible elections by recruiting our members into coalition led voter protection programs (poll monitoring, election workers, dis-information tracking, working with election administrators) since the 2022 election cycle.
- Co-led the Will of the People Campaign to protect the right of Missouri voters to collect petition signatures for ballot referendums. We organized with coalition members to keep the initiative petition process intact by educating, mobilizing, and controlling the narrative to thwart special interests trying to obstruct our constitutional right to put policy on the ballot.
- Defended Medicaid Expansion by following coalition members in advocacy needs to fully implement Medicaid, as constitutionally required, by August 2024 by supporting community engagement activities and legislative advocacy, highlighting the social and racial justice impact from fully expanding healthcare.
- Advocated for the Clean Missouri, Amendment 1, which passed in Nov 2018. Clean MO helps to avoid gerrymandering of state districts, severely limits lobbyist gifts, lengthens the time between a legislator's retirement and when they can become a lobbyist, and ensures Missouri's Sunshine Law applies to state legislators.
We also have a deep commitment to environmental justice. The MO Sierra Club was one of the members of a coalition in collaboration with the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at Washington University School of Law in creating the Environmental Racism in St. Louis Report. This report details the ways in which Black residents in St. Louis face a disproportionate burden from environmental factors. These disparities create lower health, economic, and quality of life outcomes. Our focus is ensuring our initiatives actively incorporate racial justice.
The Missouri Sierra Club has also endorsed the People’s Plan St. Louis, which is a policy agenda designed to build a new vision for our city that prioritizes justice, equity, and inclusive.