The Green Team program marries youth development and community greening into one program that compensates youth for their contributions. Student participants are frequently from target neighborhoods for projects and are often able to leverage language skills and local relationships to reveal otherwise unknown community insights relevant to greening and infrastructure projects. 

The concept of “upstream causes and downstream effects” is a core principle of the organization. In the literal sense, the program selects towns farther up the Saw Mill River to conduct cleanups. It also explicitly focuses on fostering the next generation of environmental stewards, drawing participants from communities of color and neighborhoods likely to be most acutely affected by the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.

Work is paid and designed to teach financial literacy. This practice is a response to a growing body of research that shows the positive, long-term benefits associated with compensated youth employment programs that encourage or require the establishment of checking and savings accounts with financial institutions. Bank of America, in its role as a program partner, provides financial literacy education to participants during the first week of the program. Opening a checking account—at any financial institution—is encouraged, though not required.