The Democratic Socialists of America on Sustainability

With the midterms and various state and local elections on Tuesday, and the focus on the 2028 federal election ramping up on Wednesday, this post takes a nonpartisan look at what the Democratic Socialists of America have to say about sustainability-related topics. The DSA platform has received increasing attention over the last year – including in sustainability legal and compliance circles – as more progressive Democratic politicians identify as DSA members and/or democratic socialists or align themselves with various democratic socialist positions, and with speculation that the Democratic Party may tilt further to the left after the midterms. 

Before getting into the substance of this post, a few caveats and qualifications bear mentioning:

• The positions of individual elected officials and candidates often differ in at least some respects from national platforms (and sometimes substantially), and some have expressly indicated that they do not align with all aspects of the national DSA platform. The platforms may not represent constituent views or align with individual politicians’ values or pragmatic choices they make to achieve priorities. In addition, local DSA chapter campaigns may not reflect or align with national DSA priorities or positions.
• This post has been compiled largely from public statements by the DSA that are on the DSA’s website and in various DSA publications. 
• This post is limited to those aspects of the DSA platform that relate to sustainability topics. The platform is broader and covers many other topics, as further described here. Given the limited focus of this post, we also do not delve into the DSA’s general political philosophy, which is discussed here. 

The DSA Program

The DSA’s Workers Deserve More program is organized under three broad political commitment headings: (1) “Thriving Working-Class Communities”; (2) “Working-Class Foreign Policy”; and (3) “Working-Class Democracy.” The sustainability-related priorities under these commitment areas are further discussed below. The DSA notes that the section names reflect a deliberate decision not to impose an artificial distinction between workers’ rights and other priorities, with labor rights threaded throughout “because we are going for a working-class democracy.”

The current program was drafted between April and June 2026 by a committee of DSA members, elected through a process established by the DSA’s 2025 National Convention. The program committee included members of the DSA’s National Political Committee, leaders of national committees and rank-and-file members. 

The program is both a near-term policy agenda for DSA-endorsed candidates and a statement of longer-term objectives. Democratic Left, the DSA’s official member magazine, indicated that the convention resolution calling for the new program provides that candidates seeking the DSA’s national endorsement will “be expected to accept and promote DSA’s program, and align their own campaign platforms with its contents to the best of their ability.”

Environment

• “Green New Deal”: implement massive investment in sustainable, publicly owned energy and transit infrastructure. Phase out the use of fossil fuels. Reclaim and repair the earth's resources for all.

The Green New Deal is one of the DSA’s national campaign priorities. This aspect of the DSA agenda has four focus areas (as further discussed here and here): (1) publicly owned clean energy generation, storage and transmission; (2) organize with the building trades for retrofits and social housing; (3) expanded and fully funded public transit as a right; and (4) green public spaces and facilities such as parks and schools.

As reflected in these priorities, the DSA’s Green New Deal program is pursuing sustainability through public ownership and public investment, rather than through corporate sustainability commitments, of which the DSA is skeptical. The Green New Deal campaign materials indicate that the European Green Deal and the US Inflation Reduction Act do not go far enough, characterizing them as attempts “to consolidate the prevailing capitalist order.” Other DSA materials (1) list private energy developers, auto companies, NIMBY groups, conservative business alliances, private housing developers, small construction companies and neoliberal groups that promote privatization/free markets as “typical non-labor coalition enemies” of various portions of the Green New Deal and (2) include nonprofits aligned with business groups as groups to be skeptical of.

The DSA’s Green New Deal strategy is oriented toward state and municipal reforms and local pressure campaigns. Among other things, the DSA provides training, coaching and other resources for chapters to advocate for state and municipal Green New Deal-style reforms. More specifically, the campaign site indicates that, given “the hostile federal terrain,” local pressure campaigns and bargaining for the common good in union contracts are the most viable pathways for winning a socialist Green New Deal.

An Ecosocialism Transition Committee is overseeing a transition from the Green New Deal Campaign Commission to a new Ecosocialist Commission as the home of the DSA’s environmental campaigns. 

Data Centers 

Although data centers are only a small part of the DSA’s Green New Deal program, they have been a focal point of the DSA’s environmental organizing in 2026, commensurate with the level of attention they have been receiving from Democrats and Republicans across the political spectrum.

For example, in June, the DSA’s Ecosocialism Transition Committee hosted a mass call at which organizers from chapters working against data centers discussed their campaigns. One local politician (in Pierce County, Washington) noted that, “[n]ationally, the Democratic Socialists of America has made opposition to data-center expansion part of its ecosocialism organizing.”

DSA-aligned politicians and chapters in several states and localities have taken or endorsed action to slow down new data centers. For example, a May NYC-DSA Tech Action statement characterizes hyperscale data centers as “one of the biggest environmental and social threats of our generation” and, together with NYC-DSA’s EcoSoc group, Tech Action set out ten demands relating to data centers. Additionally, New York State Senator Kristen Gonzalez – a Democrat affiliated with the New York City Democratic Socialists of America and the New York State Socialists in Office – sponsored the Responsible Data Center Development Act (S.10642/A.11560), which passed the state Senate on June 4 in its Assembly version, although the bill ultimately did not become law (the Governor instead signed an Executive Order that placed a temporary moratorium on new data centers in New York).

Workers and the Workplace

• “Freedom to Flourish”: paid family leave for all workers, a 32-hour work week with full pay and benefits and a living minimum wage. 
• “Democracy at Work”: protect, expand and enforce the rights of all workers to form, join and strike with their unions, regardless of industry. Support union members who organize reform caucuses, democratize their unions and take political action. The DSA’s home page includes a strong labor movement as a national priority, indicating that “workplaces are fundamentally authoritarian unless workers can self-organize and build collective power.” 
• “Finish Reconstruction”: reinforce anti-discrimination laws and invest in good jobs in neglected minority communities.
• “Feminism for All”: ban sex discrimination and ensure fair compensation and support for all forms of labor, including care work. 
• “Green New Deal”: pass a federal jobs guarantee.

Corporate Ownership

• “Economic Democracy”: establish public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries.
• “Housing for All”: strictly regulate investment properties.

Lobbying and Political Expenditures

• “A Real Democracy”: get rid of lobbyists, dark money and Citizens United.

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