Climate Week NYC: Spotlighting Resident-Led Climate Action at NYCHA 

During Climate Week in New York City – celebrated this year from September 22-29 – environmental sustainability and activism become the talk of the town.  

Climate Week NYC is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together hundreds of events and activities across the city in person as well as online. Each year, business leaders, political change makers, and civil society representatives from all over the world gather to promote climate action, speed up progress, and champion change in our communities.  

Across NYCHA, residents and employees have been working throughout the year on an array of projects, programs, and initiatives to help make their neighborhoods more sustainable and protect them against climate change. From spearheading community cleanups and supporting youth environmental activism to expanding recycling and composting programs and managing community gardens, resident climate action continues to thrive at the Authority. 

Here are some ways that residents are doing their part:  

At Bushwick Houses in Brooklyn, longtime resident Christine Peralta has been applying her experience in environmental activism at school and work to help make a difference within her own community. This past Earth Day, the graduate school student partnered with the Bushwick Houses Resident Association (RA) to organize a community cleanup of shared areas at the development, including the softball field, playgrounds, and green spaces.  

Following the cleanup effort with approximately two dozen community members involved, Ms. Peralta spearheaded an interactive event at the local community center, where children planted seeds for pollinator-friendly plants and decorated window planter pots, reusable metal water bottles, and canvas tote bags.     

“Art is a great unifier, and art activities are a really good way to introduce topics to people,” said Ms. Peralta, referring to the event’s goal of reducing single-use plastics.  

Ms. Peralta, who serves as Manager of Education at the Prospect Park Zoo, also worked with the nearby YMCA to lead another group of volunteers in a cleanup of streets outside Bushwick Houses in July. The NYC Department of Sanitation lent supplies and equipment for youth and counselors to pick up trash from local streets. Such efforts, she noted, help protect the urban environment and demonstrate how residents can contribute to environmental causes in the places where they live.    

“Because I’ve always been interested in the environment and helping teach children about the importance of taking care of the environment, it really feels like I’m able to not only talk the talk but walk the walk exactly where I live,” she said.  

Bushwick Houses RA President Lohoma Shipman commended Ms. Peralta’s enthusiasm for improving her community and willingness to not just participate but also serve a leadership role when it comes to taking care of the local environment. 

“It’s been a pleasure working with her,” Ms. Shipman said. “Her passion is contagious, it’s welcomed, and it’s definitely what Bushwick needs.”    

Longtime Bushwick Houses resident Christine Peralta (left), Manager of Education at the Prospect Park Zoo, has helped spread environmental awareness in her community by organizing a community cleanup on Earth Day and youth art activities to decorate reusable water bottles and tote bags.

The Inner City Green Team (ICGT) has created a culture of sustainability and environmental consciousness at East Harlem’s Wagner Houses with its “Right to Recycle Collection Initiative,” helping to divert nearly 150 tons of recyclable materials from landfills since 2021. The ICGT, which was awarded a 2024 Resident Climate Action Grant in the spring, continues to be hard at work with a number of activities surrounding Climate Week. 

According to ICGT co-founder Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty, a Mott Haven Houses resident, the green team is working with Staples to distribute boxes at Wagner Houses for residents to recycle old batteries and divert them from landfills. Hoping to expand its recycling program to include food scrap collections, ICGT is also partnering with the Food Cycle Science corporation to supply 16 in-home food recycling devices. The in-home composters can convert food waste into nutrient-rich soil amendment in hours, while reducing food waste volume by up to 90 percent on average. The ICGT will hold upcoming workshops for participating residents to learn about the food recycling pilot program.   

“Our model is easy access and convenience,” Ms. Charlton-Vicenty said. “It creates this responsibility and sustainability in communities that need it the most.” 

Other activities this month include a “Reusable-Palooza-Thon” textile collection event with NYCHA volunteers and ongoing work to reclaim and process plastic materials from the Right to Recycle Collection Initiative for use in sustainable art projects.  

“This is our planet; this is our only home. The onus is on us to make sure that we leave it better than we found it,” Ms. Charlton-Vicenty stated.    

Led by founder Brigitte Charlton-Vicenty (third from left), the Inner City Green Team’s Right to Recycle Collection Initiative at Wagner Houses allows residents to safely dispose of their recyclable materials.

On September 14 at South Jamaica Houses, the Resident Green Committee and community members came together to honor Marion Dolphus, a longtime resident and award-winning gardener who has been gardening and beautifying the Queens development for the past 50 years. 

“I am always happy to help my community, because they have always been there to help me,” said Ms. Dolphus, who was presented an honorary citation from the office of City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. 

Barbara Williams is another longtime NYCHA resident who established a thriving garden space in her community at Manhattan’s Polo Grounds Towers. For more than seven years, the former Resident Association President has maintained the Polo Grounds Family Garden, where participating residents grow an assortment of fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs.  

Since starting with eight raised beds, the green space has expanded to 16 total beds, where everything is grown sustainably and without the use of pesticides. The garden also hosts a three-bin compost system managed by the nonprofit Compost Power, allowing residents to turn food and vegetable scraps into soil for the crops.   

In addition to her work with the family garden, Ms. Williams has been active with resident outreach for the development’s pneumatic waste collection system currently under construction. The project will fully modernize the property’s trash collection and disposal methods, by retrofitting the existing garbage chute in each building to enable vacuum-based depositing of refuse and recyclables through an underground pipe system. 

“I always felt that I wanted to give back to my community, no matter where that would be,” Ms. Williams explained of her activism. “I see that there are a lot of things that are needed and if I can use my knowledge and skills to make that possible, that’s my job. I want where I live to be one of the best places there is.”  

Longtime resident Barbara Williams, who wanted to provide access to fresh produce in her community, established the Polo Grounds Family Garden, a green space with 16 raised beds that also hosts a three-bin compost system.

Looking to garden in a green space at your development? NYCHA’s Garden Registry Application is a one-page form that must be completed and submitted to your property management office for approval. Download the application in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese (traditional), Chinese (simplified), or pick up a paper copy at your property management office. Want to sign up for gardening updates? Email gardens@nycha.nyc.gov or call (212) 306-8282 and leave a message.