5 Lessons in 5 Years

JustAir started with a few monitors and text alerts to help our neighbors know when air quality was poor. Five years later, we’ve built tools that improved accessibility and quality. Our platform now supports over 30 air quality programs across 13 states and helps thousands of people make sense of their air. We’ve learned so much throughout this journey and here are five lessons that stand out as I look back on the first five years of JustAir and look ahead on how to shape the future of clean air action. 

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Grand Rapids Invests in Community Monitoring, Bringing Data Back Online for Residents

Since the beginning of April, Grand Rapids residents in the 49507 ZIP code have once again been able to access hyperlocal air quality data, thanks to the leadership of the City of Grand Rapids.

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Celebrating Women's History Month: Denise Patel

Women's History Month is a time to honor the leaders who have shaped history and are building the future. Denise Patel is one of those leaders.

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Celebrating Black History: The Women of 48217

On February 17, 2026, a federal court ordered DTE and EES Coke to pay a $100 million civil penalty and invest another $20 million directly into community health projects, one of the most significant environmental justice victories in Southwest Detroit's history. For Theresa Landrum, a resident of 48217, the state's most polluted zip code, the ruling was decades in the making.

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Celebrating Black History: Vernice Miller-Travis

Vernice Miller-Travis’ work helped define and continues to shape the environmental justice movement. In 1987, Miller-Travis worked at the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice when she helped research and write the first report to document the relationship between race and the siting of hazardous waste facilities, Toxic Waste and Race in the United States. After analyzing over decades of EPA data on hazardous waste sites, the report found that race (over income and property value) was the most significant predictor of where toxic waste landfills were placed in America.

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Celebrating Black History: Marshall Kilgore

Marshall Kilgore is a human rights advocate who has dedicated his career to uplifting underserved communities through environmental justice and civic engagement. He has already made history by serving as the City of Grand Rapids' youngest and first openly LGBTQ+ City Commissioner. Kilgore also serves as a movement building coordinator at the Michigan Environmental Council, where he partners with nearly 100 member organizations to build a more inclusive environmental movement across the state.

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Dearborn Community Air Quality Pilot Becomes City-funded Program

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JustAir at Four: A Reflection on Progress, Purpose & People

JustAir sparked from something personal. I developed asthma as an adult while living in Southwest Detroit, one of the most polluted areas in the country. Then came COVID. And the pandemic made it painfully clear how Black and Brown communities were hit the hardest, largely due to long-standing health disparities, many of which are tied to the air we breathe.

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Making Air Quality Colors Accessible to All

Did you know there are over 300 million people with color vision differences? That’s why we recently updated our dashboard’s Air Quality Index (AQI) colors - to advance in public health communication and accessibility.

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Women's History Month Feature: Dr. Lisa Patel

We sat down with Dr. Lisa Patel, who leads work across the country at intersection of health and climate.

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Women's History Month Feature: Angela Fox

Angela Fox, a sustainability expert with 15 years of experience and current professor at Arizona State University, exemplifies the powerful impact women continue to make in environmental leadership during Women's History Month. JustAir Partnerships Fellow Natalie Lambert sat down with Angela to learn more about her journey.

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Black History Month Feature: Regina Strong

Black History Month provides an opportunity to honor the trailblazers who are driving change and shaping a more equitable future for Black Americans. This year, we are proud to highlight Regina Strong, who leads the Office of the Environmental Justice Advocate, within the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). She has served as the state’s inaugural Environmental Justice Public Advocate since the role's creation in 2019 by Governor Whitmer. She leads the State of Michigan Interagency Environmental Justice Response Team, and launched the state's first environmental justice advisory council, the Michigan Advisory Council for Environmental Justice.

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Celebrating Black Excellence in Tech at JustAir

This Black History Month, we’re proud to spotlight the incredible talent behind our platform—our all-Black software development team! According to the Kapor Center, Black talent represents just 3.7 percent of the tech workforce. But at JustAir, our software team is breaking barriers, building powerful tools, and making clean air data accessible to all - and they all happen to be Black! Each team member has amazing expertise in software development and their careers have led them to use technology to create healthier communities.

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Black History Month Feature: LaTricea Adams

Black History Month provides an opportunity to honor the trailblazers who are driving change and shaping a more equitable future for Black Americans. This year, we are proud to highlight LaTricea Adams, the CEO & Founder of Young, Gifted, and Green (YGG), a non-profit environmental justice organization that influences policy change through political advocacy, mentorship, and training.

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Black History Month Feature: Kieshaun White

Black History Month provides an opportunity to honor the trailblazers who are driving change and shaping a more equitable future for Black Americans. This year, we are proud to highlight Kieshaun White, the CEO & Founder of Healthy Fresno Air, a community-driven organization dedicated to monitoring air quality, raising awareness, and advocating for cleaner air in Fresno’s underserved neighborhoods.

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Understanding Winter Air: How Cold Weather Affects What We Breathe

Many of us think of the summer months being full of air quality alerts - from wildfires to fireworks to Ozone Action Days. Warm weather can also bring pollen, humidity, and other factors that make breathing more difficult for many. But is winter air any cleaner?‍

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How Can the Olympics Impact Air Quality? A Beijing Success Story

Everyday, the 2024 Olympics are carrying inspiration from Paris around the world, including to our U.S.-based JustAir team. We’ve been inspired by the athletes’ amazing feats, of course. But because we think about air quality a lot, we can’t help but be inspired when an actual Olympics x air quality success story crosses our purview.

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Ground-Level Ozone: What to Know & How to Stay Safe

Ground-level ozone forms when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from sources like vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions react in the presence of sunlight and heat. This reaction produces ozone, which can cause respiratory problems, aggravate asthma, and reduce lung function, particularly in vulnerable populations.

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Wildfire Smoke: What to Know & How to Stay Safe

Wildfires are increasingly common due to a combination of factors, including climate change, which leads to hotter and drier conditions conducive to fire spread. Human activities such as land-use changes and fire suppression practices also play significant roles in wildfire frequency and intensity.

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Enhancing Air Quality through Nature-Based Solutions

Environmental infrastructure within city planning is a keystone element of sustainable cities. As we move toward a more sustainable and equitable future, ensuring improved quality of life for all people has to be at the forefront of these plans. This means prioritizing the voices of community members, collecting and measuring data on proposed changes, and increasingly, incorporating nature-based solutions into city planning.

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From Grassroots to Policy: Stories of Environmental Change

The push for structural change often begins at the grassroots level with local leaders and community members identifying a problem, raising awareness, then acting to remedy an issue as change agents. This is especially true in the environmental justice landscape where citizens are often in unique positions to observe immediate impacts of pollution at a local level.

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Breathe Easy: Tips for Improving Indoor Air Quality

Although outdoor air quality is our focus at JustAir, we get a lot of questions about indoor air. Through this article, we aim to inform individuals and families on common sources of indoor air pollutants and on how to stay safe whether you’re inside or outside.

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EPA Strengthens National Air Quality Standards: What It Means for You and Your Community

The EPA's new PM 2.5 standards is expected to save thousands of lives over the next decade. Here's what the new ruling means for you, your community, and the JustAir dashboard.

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Taking Action: An Interview with Dearborn's Department of Public Health's Founding Director

The City of Dearborn is a JustAir partner taking proactive measures for public health. We sat down with Ali Abazeed, the founding director of the City’s Department of Public Health, to learn more about their innovative community clean air project.

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What’s in the Air? Common Pollutants in the Air we Breathe

Become familiar with the most common air pollutants and understand big picture ways to stay safe.

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Donate to an Environmental Justice Organization This Giving Tuesday

Use your year-end gifts to support environmental justice partners fighting for clean air and a better world.

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JustAir Co-hosts Community Workshop in Grand Rapids

On June 29, while Canadian wildfire smoke spread across the Midwest, residents gathered for an air quality workshop. Residents left with more information on air quality and how JustAirs data can keep their communities safe.

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Black Leaders in the Fight for Environmental Justice

As we celebrate Black History Month, it's important to recognize the significant contributions of Black Americans in the fight for environmental justice. From advocating for clean air and water to pushing for more equitable access to green spaces, Black leaders have played a critical role in the environmental movement.

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Real-Time Air Quality Monitoring: A Step Toward Cleaner, Healthier Communities

Air pollution is a major global concern, especially in underserved and minority communities. However, the live data and alert systems built into real-time air quality monitoring systems are inspiring change for communities.

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Community Spotlight: Kareem Scales

Get to know our community partner, Kareem Scales. Scales is a Civil Rights activist, community advocate, and grass roots organizer. He focuses on creating transformational change in BIPOC communities centering residents in the urban core that have historically been disproportionately impacted by systemic and unjust practices.

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Does Your City Have High Asthma Rates? The Contributors And What Cities Can Do

Asthma is one of the most chronic diseases affecting people living in cities in the United States. Discover the main contributors and what can your city do to reduce asthma rates.

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What’s the History of Air Monitoring and How Can We Create a Better Future?

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Staying Safe When Air Quality is Poor

Poor air quality can stem from natural events like wildfires, hurricanes, or even floods. But in too many cases, it’s a result of human actions, such as the use of fossil fuels for our cars, factories, and homes. So, if you get a JustAir text alert saying the air quality near you is poor, what do you do?

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How Air Quality Affects Health at a Local Level & What You Can Do About It

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