In Brooklyn, Walter recycles electronics and broken lives

Founded in 2022, the company WALTER – for Working and Learning Together Environmental Recycling – does far more than collect “office waste.”

Based in Brownsville, a neighborhood with the highest crime rate in New York within the borough of Brooklyn, the company recruits for its warehouse exclusively people living in extreme precarity. “Our mission is clear: to offer access to the job market to those who have never had the chance and who deserve it, while actively contributing to CO₂ reduction,” emphasizes Sabine Picard Hillenmeyer (H.88), who joined in January 2025 with the mission of doubling the size of WALTER, a company specialized in IT recycling and any other waste generated by businesses in offices, factories, and warehouses.

“Every time you entrust us with 220,000 pounds of obsolete electronics from your offices or other waste, we recruit one person from foster care or local social housing. If any of you, HEC alumni, are anywhere in the world in a company that has an office in New York, contact me to take part in our sustainability and inclusion efforts!” declares Sabine, who seizes every opportunity.

The idea was born with Guillaume Charvon, former director of ATD Quart Monde, after thirty years in the humanitarian sector. Upon arriving in New York, he understood that without a job, reintegration is impossible. He therefore decided to create a social enterprise combining professional standards with human support. The project quickly appealed to Philippe Vigneron (HEC and Harvard), a French entrepreneur behind the social enterprise Cèdre, specialized in IT recycling and other waste generated by businesses in offices. He injected one million dollars to launch Walter. “It’s an American Cèdre,” he says, in reference to his French model.

Since early 2025, WALTER has been collecting electronic waste from many clients such as Bouygues, Veolia, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Beiersdorf, and many other American companies, all attracted by a model combining social impact and environmental performance. The company is R2 certified, the highest American standard for traceability and security in electronic recycling.

WALTER embodies another vision of the economy: circular, inclusive, grounded in reality, and its revenue is increasing significantly despite the major political upheaval currently underway!