The Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) was founded in 1993 to address specific environmental issues of concern to Asian Pacific Islanders in and around California’s Bay Area.  Since that time, APEN has developed innovative vehicles for community participation and environmental justice education, conducted research on environmental issues of concern to the API community, waged successful environmental justice organizing campaigns, and advocated for environmental justice on a national level. Most recenty APEN scored a landmark victory for environmental justice. APEN was able to get an EJ advisory committee to  incorporate the Alliance’s environmental justice agenda into their own recommendations to Cal EPA.

In 2002, APEN began work with the ESC's Leadership and Enhanced Assistance Program (LEAP).  Through LEAP the organization developed a fundraising plan that would help involve a multitude of board and staff members reaching new goals.  In 2003 the organization undertook work and planning to prepare for an Executive Director transition and by 2004 APEN emerged from the LEAP program having successfully evolved through two major changes.

APEN came to ESC again in September 2006 to secure funding for a series of group trainings for grassroots organizations in the Bay Area. Persevering through an office fire, APEN organized the Organizing Strategies and Models in Southeast Asian Refugee Communities sessions to share advocacy and outreach strategies with participants. The training highlighted the need for community organizers to pool more resources, address cultural differences and create a forum where Asian immigrant and refugee community organizers could share best practices.  APEN made it a point to invite organizers who did not have explicit environmental concerns.

“Of the close to 800 community organizations we scanned less that 8 percent identified themselves as “base-building [organizations]” noted APEN executive directo Vivian Chang.  Even fewer focused on issues of environmental justice or specifically in southeast Asian refugee communities”. After the training one participant commented, “We learned that we have so much in common in terms of challenges …The information and sharing of knowledge about our community’s toxic pollution and our rights to environmental justice is very important to [us] and our community.”

Most recently, APEN was featured in the PBS series Unnatural Causes, a documentary about the impact of race and poverty on health disparities. In the segment “Place Matters,” an APEN member and organizer describe their experiences of living in Richmond, California, one of the most toxic places in the country with more than 350 toxic facilities.

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