Sustainable Jersey Program Could Go Nationwide

Last Thursday, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez announced that he was introducing a bill in the U.S. Senate to replicate the homegrown Sustainable Jersey nationwide.

"It was a big day for sustainability," said Maplewood Deputy Mayor for the Environment Fred Profeta, founder of Sustainable Jersey.

Menendez made the announcement at a press conference in Cherry Hill. Profeta, Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt, and Lori Braunstein, Director of Sustainable Cherry Hill, were also in attendance. The conference was held at the LEED certified Camden County Parks Building.

Menendez said he will soon introduce his Sustainable States Act of 2011, which builds on the success of Sustainable Jersey's award-winning municipal sustainability certification program. 

"Sustainability is the foundation for enduring economic prosperity. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to make sustainability a national aspiration," said Menendez. "The beauty of Sustainable Jersey is that it fosters the local government leadership that is critical to producing cost effective, environmentally sound solutions to municipal challenges, including energy consumption, water management, and waste management. The Sustainable States Act of 2011 will build on Sustainable Jersey's success and extend New Jersey's leadership in municipal sustainability across the nation."

Sustainable Jersey helps "municipalities that want to go green, save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term," said Profeta. "It provides a list of actions that promote sustainability." Profeta noted how Sustainable Jersey had "gone viral" across New Jersey, with 348 of 566 municipalities registered and working on the Sustainable Jersey actions. "That's 61% of the state.  That's huge," said Profeta.

Further, Profeta said, Sustainable Jersey was "as bipartisan as it gets" with the participating towns about evenly divided between Republican and Democratic mayors. He said the broad appeal was due to the fact that Sustainable Jersey "saves money" and "creates jobs."

Conceived in 2006, Sustainable Jersey is a collaboration of New Jersey institutions including the New Jersey League of Municipalities, New Jersey Sustainable State Institute at Rutgers University and the Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey. The program was launched in February 2009 with the establishment of thirteen task forces. Local municipalities must meet local greening and sustainable development criteria in order to be awarded Sustainable Jersey certification — which can leading to grants.

The Sustainable States Act of 2011 would make available U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants of up to $600,000 over three years for consortia to build municipal sustainability certification programs modeled after Sustainable Jersey but tailored to regional needs.  

The legislation would also instruct the EPA to recognize "top performers" among municipalities that are certified as sustainable by their state program and make project grants of up to $100,000 over three years available to them.

"I have been working with the Menendez staff on this for about one and a half years. This might just be huge for the country!" said Profeta.