This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Sustainable Jersey Certification for Borough Looks Promising After Pre-Evaluation

Feedback from Sustainable Jersey Wednesday leaves Green Initiatives Committee confident in bronze certification.

After receiving pre-evaluation from Sustainable Jersey regarding its application, the committee was informed Wednesday that it is either approved or guaranteed points credit for 12 qualifying action items.

Chatham Borough currently has 125 points and looks to surpass the 150 points necessary to qualify for bronze level Sustainable Jersey certification, according to Green Initiatives Committee Chairwoman Cindy Steffens.

Programs which will bolster the application include holding a farmers market, an anti-idling program and maintaining a community garden.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Saturday's Green Fair will guarantee another 10 points, Steffens said, increasing the borough's points subtotal to 135.

In addition to culminating 150 points, qualifying municipalities need to show they have taken at least two "priority actions," which the borough has done by reducing its municipal carbon footprint and fulfilling an energy audit for one building.

Find out what's happening in Chathamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"The priority actions are almost like an ante," committee member Carl Cappabianca said. "If you don't put at least two of those in place, you're not going to be in the game."

To meet the points requirement, the committee is targeting three action items to fix and upload to the Sustainable Jersey website by the Sept. 15 deadline. One will be finished and uploaded after the Green Fair. Documentation for the other two items, updates to the Open Resource Plan and Environmental Resource Inventory . The updated information for these two documents is worth a combined total of 30 points.

"Those documents had to go through the Planning Board, and the Planning Board has adopted them into the Borough's Master Plan," Steffens said.

This is the second year in a row Chatham Borough, which is one of 296 municipalities across the state applying for certification, has applied for bronze level certification. The borough fell short of the required 100 points last year.

This year municipalities need 150 points for bronze certification, and the borough is taking care to meet the criteria.

"What is significantly different from last year is that we have guideposts now," Cappabianca said. "We know which ones we've already cleared, whereas this time last year we really had no idea how close we were."

However, even if the borough obtains bronze level certification this year, Councilman and Green Initiatives member Len Resto said this will not be the end of pursuing green initiatives in the municipality.

"The Sustainable Jersey program really is looking more towards making sure there are living documents that are updated continually, as opposed to putting it up on a shelf and forgetting about it," Borough Councilman and Green Initiatives member Len Resto said.

Currently, 34 municipalities statewide have bronze certification. Silver certification, a new level this year, requires 350 points and three priority actions. By obtaining bronze level certification, Chatham Borough would be eligible for grants to improve its environmental and energy initiatives.

Municipalities will find out whether they qualified for certification at a luncheon in November.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?