.png)
Inner City Green Team
About Us
Mission
ICGT is focused on cultivating climate awareness and waste equality in NYC public housing (NYCHA) communities. Our approach is to empower residents through environmental education, green job opportunities, and civic engagement.
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
ICGT Awarded Grant
Recycling Team
Earth Day 2023 with NYC Mayor Eric Adams
B. Vicenty on Street Talk
ICGT Community Champion on PIX11
Recycling Collection Day
Residential engagement
Recycle with us
Contaminant free recycling
Earth Day 2022
Meet the Founder
Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty
For over a decade, Brigitte led the fight for herself and fellow residents in her Right to Recycle Collection Initiative within her NYC public housing community. She founded ICGT after discovering that NYCHA's recycling program was nonexistent. She envisioned a convenient way for residents to recycle, create green jobs in communities with some of the highest unemployment rates, and increase civic engagement.
As a teen, Brigitte observed her mother’s passion for caring about her community and witnessed its effects on others—to this day. Brigitte calls this work a “green ministry” and wants others to develop the utmost respect for our only home and its 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 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. 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)
Photo gallery
Get in Touch
Reach out to learn more about our program and ask any questions you may have.
(802) 331-0454