From Vulnerable to Valuable: How To Tackle Eco-Gentrification This August
August 13, 2025
What is the real cost of environmental disasters?
For people with limited means who live in disadvantaged communities, those still grappling with the harsh realities of racial inequality and economic marginalization, the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina beckons the need to reopen actionable conversations. We must use this moment to take a hard look at the effects of environmental gentrification, the failed promises of racial equity, and the role businesses can take on to steer us all back in the direction of justice.
The Perspective of History: What Is the Real Cost of Environmental Disasters?
Since 1980, the United States has suffered 403 major weather and climate disasters.
Between 2020 and 2024 alone, we’ve witnessed 115 major disasters, incurring over $700 billion in damages, with a loss of more than 2,500 lives. Of all these disasters, the most deadly, costly, and recurring have been hurricanes, followed by severe storms and flooding. Hurricane Katrina remains one of the most fatal and devastating disasters to date.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. loses an average of 160 individuals and $34.3 billion each year to tropical storm systems. Sadly, this year might be no different. The NOAA has a 70% forecast confidence that 3 to 5 major hurricanes could occur between June and November 2025.
As distressing as this news is, it’s nothing compared to the anxiety that marginalized, disabled, and traumatized individuals in disaster-prone regions feel at the thought of reliving these events.
We often gauge the destructive effects of disasters in economic terms. But the real cost of hurricanes, floods, and other environmental disasters isn’t the billions of dollars lost in revenue and property damage; it’s the thousands of lives lost in these tragedies and the battered hope of survivors who continue to suffer under the unyielding brunt of environmental gentrification.
Climate Risks and Environmental Equity: Who Bears the Burden of Environmental Disasters?
While we applaud the government agencies and independent organizations that have invested billions of dollars in mitigating hurricanes and other natural disasters, one question still lingers: how do we truly provide support for affected communities? To those who can neither afford to easily move, nor contend with the economic and psychological burdens of these disasters?
Every year, thousands of people of color and low-income families face a high risk of permanent displacement and loss of economic independence because of environmental disasters. According to the 2023 Poverty in the U.S. Report from the U.S. Census Bureau, one in six Black individuals and one in five Hispanic individuals live below the poverty line. At the same time, these groups have a much higher risk of exposure to environmental disasters.
55% of all Black Americans live in the South and Southeast region of the U.S.; several states in these regions have recorded the highest incidence rates for major environmental disasters. Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina, which have suffered from the most natural disasters in U.S. history, house more people of color than most other states, along with a higher proportion of households earning below the poverty line.
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) recorded 108 Hurricane Helene-induced fatalities between December 2024 and July of 2025. North Carolina (NC) recently suffered Tropical Storm Chantal, a life-threatening flood that started as a tropical depression and progressed to a flash flood, leaving at least six victims in its wake.
Marginalized People Face More Risks During Environmental Disasters
New Orleans, a Black-majority city, was the area Hurricane Katrina hit the hardest. The tragedy led to an 8.5% decline in its Black population within a year, while the population of every other race in the city increased during the same period.
Perhaps this unequal recovery had to do with the fact that 75% of affected individuals in New Orleans City were Black, 29.2% lived below the poverty line, and 52% were renters, so they had no valuable property to reclaim. Or maybe, it was because the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) may have mismanaged some of the disaster relief funds and could no longer compensate all the disadvantaged communities.
A new study by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) revealed that 43% of 90,000 flooded buildings in NC between 1996 and 2020 were outside of FEMA’s designated floodplains, meaning flood insurance was unavailable to them. This data suggests that some communities outside FEMA’s high-risk areas may have experienced devastating floods no meaningful form of economic protection or compensation.
In the recent California wildfire, most of the victims were people of color, the elderly, and the disabled. Some of the neighborhoods of Altadena and Pacific Palisades received late evacuation orders; seventeen residents died from a fire they didn’t anticipate. This 14,000-acre fire engulfed homes and properties, left thousands of structures damaged, and displaced countless more people.
How B Corps and Value-led Businesses Can Lead Justice-Driven Strategies
Some of the disaster mitigation and restoration efforts widen the social gaps in affected communities, rather than improve the standard of living for all. After these tragedies, compensation agencies, such as FEMA, prioritize home ownership and property market value over individual economic needs.
Here are some restorative strategies we can implement right away.
Sponsor Local Frontline Evacuation Aid
In times of crisis, the elderly, impoverished, and disabled often lag in exiting designated regions, as they typically lack the resources and options to relocate. Sponsoring crisis response organizations in your community can help reduce the burden on all parties involved, ensuring that more people can evacuate while giving those that stay more options for safe sheltering.
Look at B Lab’s Government Affairs and Collective Action standard to learn more.
Support Local Regenerative Economy Efforts
By adopting circular designs and renewable energy policies and using your platforms to advocate for climate justice, your organization can contribute to a more sustainable environment, reducing the risk of disasters as we move towards greater climate crisis risks in the future.
Read B Lab’s Climate Action and Environmental Stewardship and Circulation standards to learn more about implementing this approach.
Factor Economic Need Into Hiring Policy
One way to foster environmental justice and anti-racism within your operation is to provide marginalized individuals and disaster survivors with job protection, fair-wage employment, and wealth creation opportunities. These purposeful, equity-restoring measures reduce the chances that someone may be left stranded or without any resources after a crisis.
B Lab’s new Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Human Rights, and Fair Work standards provide tips for achieving these goals.
A Sustainable Economy Is A Win for All
We all have a responsibility to care for one another. Businesses in the B Corp community have a long history of advocating and sponsoring sustainability development initiatives that cater to the most vulnerable members of our communities.
Hundreds of B Corps are leading national and global collective actions to address climate change, green manufacturing, and fair compensation from their local communities.
Even on a limited budget, you can promote a regenerative economy. For instance, Gemini Energy Solutions has developed software to democratize energy audits, so smaller businesses can implement clean energy policies at an affordable rate.
If you’re ready to start where you are, check out our free B Impact Assessment tool.
Copyright B Lab U.S. & Canada
Sign Up for our B The Change Newsletter
Read stories on the B Corp Movement and people using business as a force for good. The B The Change Newsletter is sent weekly.