Dear friend,

The Environmental Working Group stands in solidarity and mourning with the family of George Floyd, to honor his memory and grieve his senseless, hateful, brutal murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.

To Mr. Floyd’s family and loved ones: Your loss has filled, and broken, the hearts of EWG colleagues who live and work in Minneapolis, and indeed everyone in the EWG family. We demand, alongside you, the full measure of justice for his death. Until that justice is rendered, we join you in support of peaceful protest, and in denouncing mindless acts of violence and destruction in Minneapolis and elsewhere that you have made clear he would have deplored.

Our grief, our anger and our demand for justice extend to the despicable recent killings of Breona Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery – and to all other Black Americans whose lives have been brutally taken by authorities who criminally violated their oath to protect life, or by racist bigots who targeted their victims simply because of the color of their skin.

EWG stands today with individuals, families and communities of color, Black Americans in particular, who for generations have had to endure a social and economic environment chronically poisoned by racism and racial discrimination. No invention of humankind has proven more insidiously toxic.

Today EWG renews and redoubles our commitment to support and join leaders in the fight against racial injustice and its many harms, in humility and with the full knowledge that until this scourge is eliminated, we cannot hope to fully empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment.

Kenneth A. Cook
President and Co-Founder