Public Lab is a community where you can learn how to investigate environmental concerns. Using inexpensive DIY techniques, we seek to change how people see the world in environmental, social, and political terms.

Public Lab is a community and non-profit democratizing science to address environmental issues that affect people. In Public Lab, we believe that generating knowledge is a powerful thing. We aim to open research from the exclusive hands of scientific experts. By doing so, communities facing environmental justice issues are able to own the science and advocate for the changes they want to see. By promoting a hands-on, do-it-yourself ethos, we support each other’s exploration, which leads to technical development and real applications in our communities.

Public Lab is an open community that anyone can join. We work online through an interactive wiki where people can pose questions, post their research and reach out to others. Research questions are focused on addressing local issues, and are driven by on-the-ground community work. This makes us stronger community organizers, technologists, scientists and activists.

The science, technology and data in Public Lab are community-created and open source. We utilize our open data to advocate for better environmental management, regulations and enforcement. These tools enable people to more easily generate knowledge and share data about community environmental health.