“This application is the culmination of months of work from many members of Greener Bloomfield, the Bloomfield Recycling Committee, the Mayor and Council, and the Administration,” Palomaki said. “It’s been a group effort, and now our town is one of the leaders in New Jersey in sustainability.” Registration in the program provides Bloomfield with some priority in grant applications, and certification could bring additional funds for sustainability projects in the Township.

Bloomfield submitted actions worth 140 points, with only 100 required for certification. Only five towns in Essex County have applied. Bloomfield submitted documentation for the following actions: Green Team, Community Education and Outreach, Green Fair, Green Design for Buildings, Anti-Idling, Sustainable Land Use Pledge, Natural Resource Protection, Water Conservation, Recycling, Waste Reduction, and an Innovative Demonstration Project for its Paperless Council system.

“New Jersey is the first state in the nation to have a sustainability program that links certification with strong state and private financial incentives, and a fully resourced program of technical support and training,” according to the press release. “The Sustainable Jersey program is now the accepted benchmark for evaluating a municipality’s progress.”

The Sustainable Jersey Awards Luncheon is open to the public for $35 per ticket. To attend, see www.njslom.org.

Visit Greener Bloomfield

Joining us in the Quad will be the Bloomfield Recycling Committee (Saturday), the Bloomfield Open Space Committee, the Essex Green Party, and Composting demos on Sunday (Bloomfield residents can even order a compost bin for just $35).

Join our regular Greener Bloomfield meeting on Thursday, May 28, 7pm at the Bloomfield Civic Center, 84 Broad Street, where we’ll have a screening of “The Story of Stuff”, a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

Agenda: 

• “The Story of Stuff” 
• Project Porchlight CFL distribution 
• Recap of the Bloomfield Green Fest 
• Work on Sustainable Jersey actions 

Everyone is welcome to join us. To RSVP, please go to www.meetup.com/GreenerBloomfield. Join Meetup.com if you haven’t already, and let us know if you’ll be able to attend. We hope to see you Thursday evening!

What did YOU like best about the Bloomfield Green Fest?

Please join us four our regular Greener Bloomfield meeting on Thursday, April 30, at 7:00 p.m., at the Bloomfield Civic Center at 84 Broad Street (downstairs). All are welcome. Please forward to others you know who may be interested. We meet on the last Thursday of each month. On the agenda for the meeting: 

• Bloomfield Green Fest: final preparation and volunteer sign-ups (Green Fest is Saturday, May 2)
• Sustainable Jersey: update and work on action plans, grant application
• Updates from attendees on green projects in Bloomfield

As always, you’ll have a chance to meet others who are interested in making Bloomfield greener. Plan to participate actively, and bring your thoughts and ideas. Refreshments will be provided. 

Celebrate and learn about sustainable living, working, and community at the Bloomfield Green Fest on Saturday, May 2, 2009, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Brookside Park.  This event continues Earth Day festivities locally and focuses on energy conservation and respect for the environment.

• See exhibits from over 40 local businesses and organizations
• Hear guest speakers talk about green living, working, and community 
• Learn about recycling, composting, and home energy efficiency audits
• Judge the Bloomfield Schools’ “Save the Earth” poster contest

Education and fun for all!  Admission to Green Fest is free.  Delicious food and drink will be available. The Bloomfield Green Fest is co-sponsored by Greener Bloomfield and the Bloomfield Recycling Committee.

Exhibitors:

• Acorn Home Improvements
• AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassadors
• Anderson Windows/Silver Line
• Backyard Wildlife Habitat
• Barb Conover Missouri Master Composter
• Bike Montclair
• Bloomfield Recycling Committee
• Bloomfield Vocational Tech Green Academy
• Boxed Organics
• Boy Scouts of America
• Brookdale Park Conservancy
• Cornicopia Network
• Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology
• Essex County Environmental Center
• Essex County Greens
• Farm to Bistro
• Fine Green Design
• Friends of Clark’s Pond and Third River
• Gaia Gardens Landscaping
• Go R.I.S.E. Up, Inc.
• Green Handyman
• Green Harmony Now
• Greener Bloomfield
• Guy Gsell/ Darren Gage/ Bob White
• Herbolution
• Home Depot
• Home Energy Diagnostics
• ICI Paint
• Music Together of Montclair
• Muti Oils
• New Jersey Clean Energy Program
• NJ Peace Action
• Pardise Pets
• Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners
• Photographic Coffee Mugs
• Project Porch Light
• Purple Dragon Co-op
• Shaklee
• Tony’s Hot dogs 
• Unlimited – renewable energy in NJ
• Waste Management Recycle America
• Women’s International for Peace & Freedom

Join us for our monthly Greener Bloomfield meeting (the last Thursday of each month), on Thursday, March 26, at 7:00 pm at the Bloomfield Civic Center. We’ll discuss Bloomfield’s registration in the Sustainable Jersey certification program and begin strategizing how we’ll pursue the points for certification, and we’ll get an update on planning for our Earth Day Green Fest event on May 2. Everyone is welcome to join us. To RSVP, please go to www.meetup.com/GreenerBloomfield, join Meetup.com if you haven’t already (they have a great system for meeting notices, RSVPs, and connections to other groups and meetings you may be interested in), and let us know if you’ll be able to attend. We hope to see you Thursday evening! ]]> http://greenerbloomfield.org/2009/03/meeting-this-thursday-march-26-7pm/feed/ 0 http://greenerbloomfield.org/2009/02/feb-3-meeting-snow-outside-enthusiasm-inside/ http://greenerbloomfield.org/2009/02/feb-3-meeting-snow-outside-enthusiasm-inside/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 05:44:51 +0000 John http://greenerbloomfield.org/?p=223 Despite the snow and the date change, an enthusiastic group participated in the Greener Bloomfield meeting on Feb. 3. Most of the discussion centered around the Sustainable Jersey program, a certification system for municipalities going green, which officially launches on February 26. We also discussed ideas for an Earth Day event. You can also read the Independent Press article on the meeting.

Sustainable Jersey is “a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey that want to go green, control costs and save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term.” It identifies actions a town can take, provides toolkits for each action, and identifies funding and other resources available to help achieve the steps. Points can be earned in 13 categories of tasks, such as “Community Partnership and Outreach”, “Energy Efficiency”, “Sustainable Planning”, and “Waste Reduction and Recycling”.

John Palomaki outlined the program goals and the steps, and the group agreed that several of the actions could be easily achievable, and points could be earned for many other steps with some focused attention. Greener Bloomfield will work with the Township Council on a resolution to register with the program and develop a plan to gain certification.

For Earth Day 2009, officially on April 22, the group brainstormed several ideas for an event to be co-sponsored with the Bloomfield Recycling Committee somewhere around that date, hoping to avoid conflicting with the Essex County Environmental Center’s Earth Day 2009 event on Saturday, April 18. Some of the ideas include:

• Set up a “Green Fest” of tables for green non-profit organizations and local green businesses
• Sign up members and volunteers for Greener Bloomfield
• Encourage greater recycling with information from the town and Waste Management’s truck, giveaways, and robot
• Offer home composters to residents, using the DPW’s discount program
• Kick off a Project Porchlight campaign to encourage people to change to more energy-efficient lightbulbs
• Offer 20-minute discussions on the half-hour on topics such as:
  • Clean energy program – homes
  • Town Forester – tree planting
  • Bloomfield Center Redevelopment’s sustainability plans
• Sponsor a School Clean-up Day
• Use resources at StopGlobalWarming.org

Additional discussions will be held with the Bloomfield Recycling Committee on dates and venues. People wishing to volunteer for the Earth Day Committee should please post a note to this entry.

We’ll be contacting everyone shortly to arrange a meeting to find out what people would like to see the group become, how they’d like to help, and what our next steps will be.