Years of struggle to save her neighbourhood from the abuses of petrochemical multinationals, combined with a sincere and all-consuming commitment to protecting a community that has for too long been the victim of unjust and dangerous decisions: this is the story of Sharon Lavigne, a 68-year-old American activist and one of six winners of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the award dedicated to civil society figures who fight for the climate.

Lavigne is from St. James Parish, an area of the US state of Louisiana known as "Cancer Alley" due to the high concentration of industrial production facilities and the elevated rates of cancer and respiratory problems prevalent among the population. In 2019, her efforts made it possible to prevent the construction of yet another enormous industrial complex by the Chinese company Wanhua, and she is now aiming to block a new $9.4 billion project being pursued by the company Formosa Plastics.

The reality of Cancer Alley

Lavigne has lived her entire life in St. James Parish, on the banks of the Mississippi River, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The area is home to nearly 150 industrial facilities, including oil refineries, plastics manufacturing plants and petrochemical installations. The homes of the approximately 20,000 local residents — the majority of whom belong to the African American community — look out onto furnaces and pipelines that saturate the air and water with harmful substances.

In Cancer Alley, residents are 50 times more exposed than the national average to the risk of developing cancer due to air pollution, caused primarily by chloroprene emissions. In the town, everyone knows someone who has died because of the factories.

Sharon Lavigne has witnessed the area's progressive transformation at the hands of multinationals. After retiring from her career as a teacher, in 2018 she founded the organisation Rise St. James to devote herself full-time to environmental activism.

Against yet another factory

It was during those very years that the Chinese company Wanhua was planning to build an enormous $1.25 billion industrial complex in St. James Parish for the production of plastics. The facility would have generated more than 450 tonnes (one million pounds) per year of hazardous waste, particularly harmful to the respiratory system.

The local administration of St. James Parish had immediately approved the plan, and not only that: Wanhua was to be granted ten years of exemptions from any property taxes, along with a promise to modify the area's zoning regulations so as to allow the facility to be built close to private residences, generally occupied by low-income communities.

Through Rise St. James, Lavigne fought to stop Wanhua's project. She attended meetings on the issue, giving testimony and questioning those responsible about the possible consequences that yet another factory would have on the environment and the health of residents, organised protests and public events, and knocked on every door in an attempt to raise citizens' awareness of what was happening around them. She wrote letters to local newspapers, consulted experts and academics, and funded advertising to block the construction of the plant.

Her efforts, and those of all the activists who followed her, paid off. In September 2019, Wanhua withdrew the project and cancelled its plans in the St. James Parish area, stating that production costs had become unsustainable.

"This is a victory for all of us," Lavigne commented shortly after the news. "We will not sit back and accept that it's open season for companies wanting to build in St. James Parish. We will fight."

The fight to stop Formosa Plastics

After the victory over Wanhua, Lavigne now has her sights set on another challenge. Formosa Plastics, a Taiwanese multinational, intends to build an enormous $9.4 billion industrial complex in St. James Parish.

Formosa converts the ethane contained in natural gas into plastics used to make bottles, shopping bags and other single-use items. According to the movement Coalition Against Death Alley (another grim nickname for Cancer Alley), to build the facility the company would pour a concrete slab over land currently occupied by sugar cane fields, eliminating an important drainage area and putting nearby homes, churches and businesses at risk. The factory would operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, emitting 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Lavigne and her organisation, together with a network of local activists and organisations, are currently lobbying to halt the construction of the complex.

Thanks to her tireless commitment to environmental activism, which has produced concrete results, Lavigne has been chosen as one of the six winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize 2021. Joining her are Kimiko Hirata (Japan), Liz Chicaje Churay (Peru), Gloria Majiga-Kamoto (Malawi), Thai Van Nguyen (Vietnam) and Maida Bilal (Bosnia and Herzegovina).