Omar Freilla founded Green Worker Cooperatives with the desire "to create a more democratic economy rooted in racial and gender equity." The South Bronx-based organization serves immigrants and communities of color. Freilla, who has been an environmentalist for over a decade, has emphasized the importance of building worker-owned, green businesses in communities instead of letting out-of-state business owners or gentrifiers, who don't care about the well-being of Black communities, take over.

“When you have owners who are workers, then that means the owners are living closer to where their facility actually is, which means that those owners are less likely to make decisions that are detrimental to the health of the neighborhood because of their ties to the neighborhood,” Freilla told Citizen Weekly. “You don’t gas your own neighborhood because you don’t gas your neighbors and you don’t want people talking bad about you at the supermarket.”

The organization created a Co-op Academy, which is an intensive five-month "business boot camp" for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to better their environment through their startups. The academy is comprised of classes and the assistance of business coaches and services that will prepare participants to launch their businesses at the conclusion of the course.

Learn more about Green Worker Cooperatives here. To apply to the Co-op Academy, click here.

It’s more important now than ever that the Black community takes environmental matters into their own hands to not just maintain comfort and health on the planet today, but to plant new seeds that can secure a future for the communities of tomorrow communities for the hope of our future.

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