Environmentally sustainable strategies seek to eliminate pollution and other cultural by-products that adversely affect communities. As such, sustainability is viewed by many as an approach that advances the cause of social justice, and it is often touted as an important long-term objective. However, in most instances where sustainable strategies are implemented to improve the impacts of unsustainable cultural systems, the underlying social conditions that contributed to inequity and injustice persist.The result is that while sustainability may alleviate some of the negative impacts on marginalized communities, the majority of benefits continue to serve primarily those in control of existing social structures. Continued inequities within society may serve to undermine the long-term viability of sustainable solutions, as other social concerns overwhelm the community, unless conscious efforts are made by designers to challenge these social conditions and explore the potential of sustainability as an all-embracing strategy for empowering marginalized communities.

This holistic approach to sharing environmental and social resources with justice is being developed as an educational framework at the AJUST Wiki.