RISE St. James (Norman grantee 2019–2026) was founded in 2018 by Sharon Lavigne, a lifelong resident of St. James Parish in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that is home to over 150 industrial plants with toxic emissions linked to cardiovascular disease, respiratory illness, and elevated rates of cancer. St. James Parish’s historically Black 5th District has the highest concentration of petrochemical industries in the United States and was rezoned in 2014 from residential to “residential/future industrial” without informing residents, resulting in community mainstays — including stores, a youth center, a post office, and St. James High School — closing down or relocating. In 2018, Lavigne learned about a proposed $9.8B petrochemical complex by Formosa Plastics to be built a mile and a half from her home, consisting of 14 separate facilities that would require the bulldozing of three square miles of wetlands and sugarcane fields and emit toxic chemicals the equivalent of three coal-fired plants. While Formosa was required to consider five sites for its wetland permits, the company submitted only three — all in Black neighborhoods. 

In its first year of existence, RISE St. James quickly secured a significant victory against a proposed $1.25 billion plastic manufacturing plant and filed a lawsuit through the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic alleging violations of the state’s open meetings law, resulting in the company’s withdrawal of its land use application in 2019. RISE St. James’ organizing in 2021 helped stall the Formosa’s project when the Army Corps of Engineers required the company to submit a full environmental impact statement. Sharon Lavigne was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize (often called the “Green Nobel”) in 2021 for her work to stop the expansion of polluting industries in her community.

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• Video: Sharon Lavigne, winner of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America