Wendy Wright
For New Jersey's General Assembly
Blog
Sustainability and Going Green
One of my favorite parts about politics and 'the campaign trail' is the opportunity to research local issues in a way that I wouldn't otherwise have much of an opportunity to do (I generally spend most of my time researching, but these days it's mostly all dissertation work!).
Today I've been reading up on a variety of organizations in Morris County and the rest of New Jersey.
One thing that I think is so interesting about these organizations are the ways that they seek to identify stakeholders and the different methods they push forth to realize their missions.
Below are links and short summaries of what these organizations are doing and how they do it:
This is a coalition program that sets out specific actions that municipalities can take in order to become more sustainable. Examples of tasks include energy audits for municipal facilites and producing a natural resource inventory. Municipalities in the 25th District that currently participate include Mount Arlington, Denville, Randolph, Morris Twp., and Morristown. As a municipality completes tasks, they can earn points toward Sustainable Jersey certification. The organization provides tools, trainings, support, and financial incentives to help municipalities move towards sustainability. They are supported by philanthropic organizations.
This is less a full organization and is rather a "forum." Twice a year local municipal and land convservancy leaders meet to learn about and discuss issues related to open space and conservation. They have been meeting since 2000 and their next meeting is 9/30/2009. Information from past meetings is available in their archive. I found the information from the October 2008 meeting on trails particularly interesting. Trails are a "low-cost, high-use" recreational facility, and I think there's a lot of room for developing community buy-in through trail development.
New Jersey Conservation Foundation is a non-profit organization relying on a mix of public and private funding with the mission of preserving NJ's natural resources through acquisition and stewardship. Their preserved lands are open to the public. Hmm, I think I'll be hiking in the Apshawa Reserve sometime this summer!
In addition to preservation, opening up green options in our daily lives is key to sustainability.
The Morris County Department of Transportation has a list of Bicycle and Pedestrian information here: www.morrisdot.org/BikePed/bikeped-addcontacts.asp. I'd love to see more parts of the 25th District become conducive to bicycle communting. There's a strong recreational bicycle community, but it would be great if those who were cycling on weekends could ride their bikes to work too!
The Pequannock River Coalition is a grassroots organization focusing on the preservation of to Pequannock River. The Pequannock River watershed includes parts of the Northeastern section of the 25th district in Jefferson and Rockaway. They hold educational and restoration programs like river clean-ups and in-classroom workships.
There are countless more organizations, all with their own focuses. I will continue with my research, but please let me know if you think there's an organization that I really should know about!