Op-Ed | Bronx set to lead nation in green jobs with groundbreaking new center

Climate Week brought world leaders to NYC to solve problems, propose solutions, and help those most vulnerable to climate change. While those leaders have gone home, when they return next September the Bronx will be emerging as the nation’s leader in green workforce development and small business entrepreneurship.

The countdown is on to the Boogie Down opening doors to the Bronx Green Jobs Center, the country’s first-of-its-kind workforce development and entrepreneurship hub, transforming a dilapidated building into a state-of-the-art facility. Inside, the Center will prepare green economy workers through job training, employment services, small business innovation, and community events that bridge our borough’s talent with a rapidly expanding world of economic opportunity.

In addition to modern work- and event space for hands-on training, it will be a beacon for green entrepreneurs. New Yorkers can walk in off the street with direct access to specialized expertise, guiding them through every step of the process in creating business plans, establishing a corporate entity, accessing financial resources, and more.

This project takes the values of U.N. Climate Week, moves beyond the words and promises that have too often left New Yorkers feeling forgotten, and boldly acts as only New York can.

That work begins by leaning into our strengths – the Bronx is home to more colleges and universities, and more green space than anywhere else in NYC – to tackle concerns which have plagued residents for decades, like high asthma rates, unemployment, and respiratory illness.

All while creating a career pipeline that New York needs to meet its own nation-leading climate laws.

The existential threat of global warming, and the possibilities that the sustainability movement holds, urgently demands more than academic and diplomatic discourse. No borough has felt the impact of environmental injustice and climate change more-so than the Bronx. Action requires dirt under the nails, hard hats with shovels, and tangible demonstrations of action, creation, and innovation to recruit, prepare, and build a green workforce and small business pipeline.

Through the pioneering leadership of Fordham University President Tania Tetlow, this project convenes higher education, industry, and community-based organizations in practical ways. Like helping colleges and universities expand programs in solar panel repair, electric vehicle charging installation, and urban agriculture. Like partnering with industry of all kinds to ensure trainees from the community meet hiring specifications that companies and nonprofits want job applicants to have upon completion of their microcredential. Like helping an exceptional network of social service and community organizations to expand their work so trainees have the support they need to complete their program and can get down to work.

Even the renovation of the century-old site serves as a blueprint for how historic buildings can be sustainably modernized for emerging needs. Once complete, it will be LEED Gold-certified, making it a landmark architecturally and operationally, with a low-carbon footprint, a solar paneled roof powering programs inside, and the artistic reuse of recycled materials such as a new facade with tiles sourced from a City-funded Brooklyn project that turns waste otherwise destined for the dump into new construction materials.

The Bronx Green Jobs Center will be a one-stop shop for prospective employers, workers and community members, and a living, breathing, inspiring testament to the types of economic upward mobility, clean technology, and architectural stewardship that New Yorkers deserve.

The city’s green economy is seeing tremendous growth in fields like electric vehicles, solar energy, energy efficiency and urban farming – good government is about more than watching these opportunities emerge from the sidelines. It is about leadership that connects the dots – the Bronx Green Jobs Center is part of a broader redevelopment happening in the Bronx that includes Hunts Point, Kingsbridge Armory, South Bronx waterfront, and Downtown Redevelopment in Morris Park. It is about strategic investment in innovation like the $4 million that I secured with the City Council and NYC Economic Development Corporation to create a pipeline into good-paying jobs.

Projects this visionary and meaningful are rare. The Bronx is eager and ready to take the lead. I am excited to welcome global leaders back to NYC for Climate Week 2026 – bringing them to the Bronx – to celebrate another Yankees pennant and to witness how our big, bold vision became a reality that can serve as a roadmap for creating green jobs anywhere.

Vanessa L. Gibson was elected Bronx Borough President in November 2021. Prior to that she served in the NYS Assembly and NYC Council since 2009. During her years of dedicated public service, Gibson has earned a reputation as a leading voice for her community on education, public housing and social justice reforms. As Bronx BP, she spearheaded a campaign to combat hunger and improve nutrition, working in partnership with local farmers’ markets. Recognizing the importance of bridging the digital divide, she also secured over $50 million in capital funding to enhance technology in Bronx schools, ensuring students have access to modern learning tools.