ENVIRONMENTAL

SOCIAL WORK
History of Environmental SW

• Began to emerge in mid to late 1990s in

the United States, North America, and
other countries around the world.

• Its attempt is to expand and strengthen

the social work’s historic commitment in
the “Person-In-Environment” perspective.
• But the increasing recognition on the part of
many social work practitioners that the
environmental crisis that is the crisis of
nature was having a profound impact upon
the clients.

• Prompted many social workers to suggest

that social work’s idea of environment
needed to be expanded to include issues of
nature and environmental degradation.
What is ENVIRONMENTAL
SOCIAL WORK?
• Green Social Work is a branch of social
work that deals with the impact of the
faltering environmental stability upon
human populations. It is essentially a
broadening of the definition of
environment, sociologically speaking, from
referring exclusively to someone’s
immediate surroundings to referring to the
planet that we all share.
• Green Social Work is the reframing of how we
talk about social issues, the planet, and the
intersection between the two. (Katie Kapro’s
“What is green social work?”)

• Environmental Social Work assists humanity

to create and sustain a bio diverse planetary
ecosystem and does this by adapting existing
social work methods to promote societal
change. (Sylvia Ramsay and Jennifer Boddy’s
Environmental Social Work: A Concept
Analysis)
• Eco social work – also referred to as ‘green social
work’ or ‘environmental social work’ – is
concerned with how environmental issues, such
as extreme weather events and climate change,
affect people and communities. (Australian
Association of Social Workers’ “Eco social work:
where people and environment intersect)
• Environmental social work sometimes
referred to as ecosocial work is different from
‘regular’ social work in that it takes an
‘ecocentric’ instead of a people-centric view.
The ecosystem is at the core of practice rather
than the person. (Claudia Dewane’s
“Environmental Social Work: A Call to Action”)
FOUR (4) KEY ATTRIBUTES OF
ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIAL WORK
(Concept analysis of the literature published in the British Journal of Social Work)

1. CREATIVE APPLICATION OF SOCIAL

WORK SKILLS TO ENVIRONMENTAL
CONCEPTS

2. OPENNESS TO DIFFERENT VALUES AND

WAYS OF BEING OR DOING

3. ADOPT A RENEWED CHANGE

ORIENTATION

4. WORK ACROSS BOUNDARIES AND IN

MULTIPLE SPACES
1) CREATIVE APPLICATION
OF SOCIAL WORK SKILLS TO
ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS
• Social work skills are useful in addressing effects
and mitigating environmental degradation. Skills
include empowerment, team building,
community development, management,
culturally competent and anti-oppressive
practice, multi-level assessments, holistic
interventions and relational practices.

• Social workers must be political, showing

leadership in development of public values and
policy, and advocating for rights and justice.
• Using an ethical framework, being congruent,
reflective and reflexive in practice are central.
Thus, environmental social work requires
creative application of existing social work skills
to environmental issues.
2) OPENNESS TO
DIFFERENT VALUES AND
WAYS OF BEING OR DOING
Shift practice, theory and values to
incorporate the natural environment
• Theoretical focus of social work must change to
include the natural environment. There must
be awareness amongst practitioners of
humans’ interrelationship within nature and
humanity’s ability to disrupt natural systems 
• This shift implies a move to ecocentrism with
the core value being that all beings have equal
access to safe and clean environments.
• Pursuit of equality and justice necessitates
environmental equality, meaning all animals
including people have equal access to safe
and clean environments, respect and
dignity
Learn from spirituality and indigenous cultures
• Appreciating cultural diversity is a given
principle in social work practice and in
ecocentric social work valuing and using
the wisdom of native and tribal cultures is
prioritized.
• Acknowledging the interconnectedness of
all life is paramount. How can people live
in harmony with the environment?
• How can social workers ensure sustainable
environments for the physical and
emotional well-being of inhabitants?
Incorporate the natural environment in
social work education
• The increasing literature suggests that
social workers have a base from which to
study the subject.

• Some schools of social work have adopted

concentrations in community sustainability
and environmental justice.
Appreciate the instrumental and innate
value of non-human life
• The concept of biosphere and biofilia are
emphasized in ecosocial work.

• Looking to the natural environment for

restorative and transcendent experiences
are emphasized.

• The premise of adventure-based programs

and animal-assisted therapy are certainly
reflective of this concept.
2) ADOPT A RENEWED
CHANGE ORIENTATION
Change society
• Societal change, from the micro to the
macro level, must be initiated to ensure
environmentally destructive practices are
viewed as immoral.
• Social workers should call on government to
enact and enforce environmental safe
guards, argue for limits on human
population growth, promote incentives for
environmental activity and advocate for a
system that shifts from continual industrial
growth to a sustainable economy.
Critique hegemony
• Challenging the social construction of
dominance by a particular class calls for radical
thinking and action.

• Anti-oppressive practice demands we examine

the political architecture that maintains power
and control over people and environment
instead of protecting people and
environment. Social work input on pending
regulations.
3) WORK ACROSS
BOUNDARIES AND IN
MULTIPLES SPACES
Work in multidisciplinary teams
• Expanding our usual scope of practice to
educate, mobilize, and support community
activism is at the core of this theme.
• The development and maintenance of
inter-disciplinary collaborations with
cultural leaders, activists, community
leaders, other professionals and spiritual
advisers demonstrates work across
boundaries.
Work with communities
• This type of work is our profession’s biggest
opportunity in the ecosocial work movement.
Working to develop and support
communities, sharing local knowledge and
resources can develop strength, resilience
and overcome environmental problems.
• Interventions need to educate, mobilise
and support community activism, establish
alliances and help build capacity for
community initiatives.
Work with individuals
• The practice of working with individuals,
helping individuals gain skills that enable
them to reduce their environmental
footprint and care for themselves and the
environment.
• Individuals need assistance to accept and
reclaim their interconnection and
dependence on the natural world and
language to describe environmental
concepts.
SEVERAL ROLES OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN
ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND
DEVELOPMENT
• ENABLER • EDUCATOR
• BROKER • COORDINATOR
• ADVOCATE • RESEARCHER
• INITIATOR • GROUP FACILITATOR
• MEDIATOR • SPEAKER
• ACTIVIST
ENABLER
• An enabler assists clients with coping with difficult
circumstances and engages clients in becoming
active participants in the problem solving process.

BROKER
 In the role of a broker, a social worker is
responsible for identifying, locating, and
linking clients to needed resources in a timely
manner.
ADVOCATE
•  In the advocate role, the social worker fights for the
rights of those disempowered by society with the
goal of empowering the client and speaks on behalf
of clients when others will not listen or when clients
are unable to do so.

INITIATOR
In the Initiator role, social workers call
attention to a need/problem – or even to
a potential problem.
MEDIATOR
• In the mediator role, the social worker intervenes
in disputes between parties to help them find
compromises, reconcile differences, and reach
mutually satisfying agreements and takes a neutral
stance among the involved parties. 

ACTIVIST
An activist seeks institutional change; often the
objective involves a shift in power and resources
to a disadvantaged group.
Activists are concerned about social injustice,
inequity, and deprivation, and their strategies
include conflict, confrontation, and negotiation.
EDUCATOR
• In the Educator role, social workers are
involved in teaching people about resources
and how to develop particular skills such as
budgeting, the caring discipline of children,
effective communication, the meaning of a
medical diagnosis, and the prevention of
violence.
COORDINATOR

• Coordinators bring components together in

some kind of organized manner.

• Coordinating services from the different

agencies to avoid duplication and prevent
the diverse services from having conflicting
objectives.
RESEARCHER
• In the researcher role, a social worker
evaluates practice interventions and with
others evaluates program outcomes.
• The researcher critically analyze the
literature on relevant topics of interest and
uses this information to inform practice.
• A researcher extends and disseminates
knowledge, and seeks to enhance the
effectiveness of social work practice. 
GROUP FACILITATOR
• In this role, social workers are involved in
gathering groups of people together for a
variety of purposes including community
development, self advocacy, political
organization, and policy change.

• Social workers are involved as group

therapists and task group leaders. 
SPEAKER
• Social workers occasionally are recruited to
talk to various groups to inform them of
available services or to advocate for new
services.
• Social workers who have public-speaking
skills can explain services to groups of
potential clients.
References:
• What is Green Social Work? by Katie Kapro. October
13, 2016.
https://www.socialworkhelper.com/2016/10/13/green
-social-work/
• Environmental Social Work: A Concept Analysis. Sylvia
Ramsay, Jennifer Boddy. The British Journal of Social
Work. June 22, 2016.
https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/47/1/68/2622
336
• Role of Social Worker in Environmental Development
and Improvement by Arul Actovin. April 23, 2015.
https://www.slideshare.net/arulactovin/role-of-social-
worker-in-environmental-development-and
• Environmental Social Work: A Call to Action. Claudia
Dewane. October 9, 2017.
https://www.socialworkhelper.com/2017/10/09/environme
ntal-social-work-call-action/
• Eco Social Work: Where People and Environment Intersect.
Australian Association of Social Workers. March 19, 2018.
https://www.aasw.asn.au/news-media/2018/eco-social-
work-where-people-and-environment-intersect
• What is Ecological Social Work?
https://www.socialworkdegreeguide.com/faq/what-is-
ecological-social-work/
• Ecological Social Work: An Interview with Fr. Fred
Besthorn. http://www.mswguide.org/blog/ecological-
social-work/
• Generalist Social Work Practice. Google Books.
https://books.google.com.ph/books?
id=D89nSQMCBdoC&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=initiator
+role+in+social+work&source=bl&ots=ba1z6WEzHf&si
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QAQ#v=onepage&q=initiator%20role%20in%20social
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“It is our collective and
individual responsibility… To
preserve and tend to the
world in which we all live.”
-Dalai Lama

Prepared by: Kimberly D. Pavilando, RSW Gamsahabnida! ♥