The organization was founded in March 1988 to mobilize community opposition to the city's operation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant, and the siting of the sixth bus depot in Northern Manhattan.

The organization focuses on urban quality of life issues such as climate justice, clean air, access to good jobs, public health, pollution, and sustainable and equitable land use.

It is also renovating an abandoned brownstone for conversion into the WE ACT Environmental Justice Center, which will house office and program space as well as serve as a demonstration of various green building technologies.

[1] Soon after its opening, local residents from the predominantly African American and Latino neighborhood complained of noxious odors emitting from the plant and increased exposures to health hazards.

[3] The study found that the fumes may cause respiratory problems at high levels of exposure, triggering public backlash from West Harlem residents, demanding repairs be made on the facility.

[2] During this period, the attention and discontent surrounding the operation of the North River Sewage Treatment Plant and the construction of a second bus depot in West Harlem, presented the need for a unified movement to address the unequal impact of environmental hazards on the minority community.

[1] Due to a lawsuit filed by We ACT in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council, and resistance from West Harlem residents, city officials began to address the plant's operating issues in 1991, and identified that the lack of any odor control systems as a fundamental design flaw that was causing the excess air pollution.

[5] After a prolonged court battle with the city and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), WE ACT came to a legal settlement regarding the poor operations of the sewage plant in December 1993 with the administration of Mayor David Dinkins.

[7] WE ACT deemed the high concentration of bus depots had negative impacts on air quality and the subsequent health of Northern Manhattan community members.

The organization associated the high rates of asthma in Northern Manhattan with concentrated levels of particulate matter (PM), an air pollutant released during diesel fuel combustion, emanating from the bus depots, major transportation routes, and heavy traffic throughout West Harlem.

[13][12] The USDOT found that the MTA violated Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and failed to meet the federal environmental impact analysis involving the construction, rehabilitation, and operation of bus depots and other facilities.

This campaign led to the MTA's modification of bus depots and investment in clean-fuel buses, as well as increased public awareness pertaining to the dangers of fuel fumes and poor air quality.

[13][14] WE ACT states its mission is "to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices.

[20] The organization highlights the connection between environmental risks in the predominantly Latino and African-American neighborhoods, such as the disproportionate exposure to diesel exhaust and the ubiquitous odors from municipal facilities, and the highest asthma mortality and morbidity rates in New York.

The project targets the unequal exposure of environmental hazards faced by children in minority or low-income communities and works to educate families on a number of known risk factors such as "cigarettes, lead poisoning, drugs and alcohol, air pollution, garbage, pesticides, and poor nutrition".