About Us

Inner City Green Team is a nonprofit environmental organization focused on poverty alleviation and community development.

Mission

Our mission is to protect the environment and help transform the lives of residents living in New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments through recycling outreach/education, job training, and paid work that can lead to a lifetime of employment and civic engagement.

What we do and why

Navigating the challenges of today requires problem-solvers with different perspectives and are willing to take risks. Inner City Green Team emerged out of a pursuit to inspire and support the community,while raising environmental awareness.

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The Problem

NYCHA generates approximately 114 million pounds of recyclables each year. Currently, their recycling rate is only 1.5% because it is inconvenient.

In 2015, NYCHA Recycles! was launched which included the installation of communal recycling bins in all 328 developments. The bins are inconveniently located, and residents must make a special trip in order to recycle. As a consequence, residents are more apt to use the trash chute on their floor than to utilize the bins outside. To date, they have not been successful at increasing their recycling participation.

Our Solution

Our innovative solution makes recycling convenient for residents with a door-to-door pick up service.

This accessible approach empowers individuals to take small, but cumulative action to address the on-going and destructive effects of climate change.

It employs a multifaceted component of an easy environmental call to action, provides the education needed for participants to be accountable in their actions, and ignites socio-economic motivation via job creation.

Building community engagement

Inner City Green Team 101

Earth Day 2023 with NYC Mayor Eric Adams

Recycling Collection Day

Recycling Team

Recycle with us

Residential engagement

Earth Day 2022

Contaminant free recycling

Meet the Founder

Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty

A life-long Bronx native and the founder of Inner City Green Team for Economic & Environmental Development (ICGT). For over a decade, Brigitte led the fight for herself and fellow residents in her "Right to Recycle" initiative at the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA).

She developed ICGT after discovering that NYCHA's recycling program was nonexistent. She envisioned a convenient way for residents to recycle while creating jobs in communities with some of the highest unemployment rates and increasing civic engagement.

As a teen, Brigitte observed her mother’s passion for caring about her community and witnessed the effects it had on others-until this day. Brigitte calls this work a “green ministry” and want others to develop an utmost respect for our planet's life-giving power.

In 2018, she won an international competition for solutions to improve recycling in NYC public housing (NYCx Co-Lab Challenge) to increase recycling rates at a NYCHA development. Having won the NYCx Co-Lab Challenge: Zero Waste in Shared Space, the pilot project was launched and Vicenty was honored at the Zero Waste in Shared Space recognition ceremony. Her work has been featured in a multitude of journalistic and media platforms.

Awards:

2023 NERC (Northeast NYCx Co-Lab Challenge; Zero Waste in Shared Space)

Fellowships:

2020 Echoing Green

2021 Claneil Foundation (Emerging Leaders Fund)

2022 Justice 40 Accelerator

2023 City Fellowship at Company Ventures