“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.

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.

Patrons at a McDonald’s in Chicago, which was environmentally redesigned with tables made from recycled material.

In the Business section of the Saturday, Nov. 8, New York Times, an article entitled “Green Plans in Blueprints of Retailers” describes how stores and fast-food restaurants are building green to win customers and lower operating costs.

“You get energy savings, and you can tell customers you are greener. That’s a win-win.” 
- Neil Z. Stern, a retail consultant

This shows that our efforts to include green building guidelines in the Bloomfield Center Redevelopment Plan are being matched by retailers, and it shouldn’t be so difficult to get companies to build green in Bloomfield, since it directly benefits their bottom line. The article mentions Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Subway, Target, Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, Kohl’s, and Pizza Fusion as stores going green.

The article goes on to say, “The green building boom is partly being driven by retailers’ desire to capture the attention of consumers who have become fascinated by hybrid cars, energy-saving light bulbs and wind turbines. But more important for the companies, it is a way to shave long-term operating costs at stores and restaurants, which consume copious amounts of energy and water for ovens and fryers, heaters and air conditioners, sinks and toilets.”

Wal-Mart’s “high efficiency” stores save 25-40% in energy costs. A Subway store saves 20% in electricity while selling 43% more than a store down the street. A McDonald’s uses permeable pavement to collect rainwater for irrigation, and has a green roof, skylights, LED lights, non-toxic finishes and cleaners, and low-flow toilets and waterless urinals, saving water, energy, money, and maintenance. A pizza outlet uses draft from its ovens to heat water. Wouldn’t it be great to see Bloomfield go green with some of these ideas?

We’ll feature additional posts about the details behind the town’s Paperless Council project, which was implemented by Greener Bloomfield organizer John Palomaki. We’ll also highlight Greener Bloomfield’s work in getting green building and other sustainability details into the Redevelopment Plan, which is being sent to the Planning Board for approval. Greener Bloomfield organizer Meredith Nole, an energy efficient lighting expert with Warshauer Electric and President of the Illuminating Engineers Society of New Jersey, will be working on a lighting assessment for the town’s light bulb replacements.