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Community Corner

Toms River's 'Sustainable" Future

Toms River ready to move on in the certification process toward becoming "Sustainable Jersey"

Toms River is moving forward on a multi-step process of being a "Sustainable Jersey" certified town, although a deadline for the second step on the certification passed.

One of the application deadlines just passed on June 30. As of today, Sustainable Jersey has not received the necessary information to move on to Step 2, which involves a management plan as to how Toms River will approach becoming certified.

Township Administrator Paul Shives said that although the deadline passed the towns is still seeking the certification.

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"We believe that becoming a Sustainable community is the proper way to go and are moving forward with the process to become a Certified Community; however, I cannot give you a time frame since there are many “moving parts” to this process.  We are working through the NJ League of Municipalities and following the guidelines they have forwarded to us," Shives said.

Sustainable Jersey, an environmental friendly organization, is dedicated to working with towns in New Jersey to help them become more efficient in the green department. In a recent interview the group Sustainable Jersey spoke about what it takes to be considered a sustainable municipality.

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"Sustainable Jersey is a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey aimed to help them go green and save them money," said a representative for the group. "(Towns) they are overwhelmed by the number of options they have to become more sustainable and they just don’t know what to purse and in what ways. So this certification program gives them the concrete guidance of where to infest those resources…in the most efficient way."

The group, which first launched in 2009, has certain criteria for each municipality that applies to be certified. A community that applies for certification can complete various environmental programs to achieve sustainable status. The more energy saving programs in place, the more money and environmental benefits become available to your town. Depending on how many programs are setup, a town or municipality can reach full certification and can in turn be allowed access to a wide variety of money saving awards.

"Once a community decides they want to participate they have to first pass a resolution stating their intent to be certified. They basically have to establish that they want to participate in the program, something stating 'we want to have access to the technical resources and financial incentives that the program offers and we want to appoint someone to lead the effort in the town'," said the group. "Sustainable Jersey then looks at that resolution, to review the contact information and so forth, and once we approve that the community is now considered a registered community in Sustainable Jersey."

That is where our community stands at the moment. For Toms River, a resolution was passed in 2010 which allows the members who registered for the program now have access to all the resources needed to become certified. Things like access to resources, training sessions and have an online account to build a certification application.

After applying to become a sustainable community the process to become certified really gets rolling. Setting up a business model of sorts would be the next step to becoming a Sustainable Jersey town.

"There are 120 basic actions that a town can complete to earn points. Towns who apply must gather documentation to upload an application. On our end it's not clear whether Toms River will apply for certification this year."

Towns and municipalities that apply for certification must have a list of criteria in place before being considered a sustainable community. Things like: creating a Green Team, Energy and Education Outreach Programs and creating a Climate Action Plan are among the many items on the list that must be met before a town can become certified. Sustainable Jersey also has different tiers of sustainability with a focus on energy usage, land management and educational programs in the community.

The main benefits for a town who applies for to the program are very rewarding. "Of course your town or municipality will have a PR value; you can talk to your community about what the town is doing and how your residents and businesses can get involved. It’s the networking between communities with a lot of corroboration between neighboring towns. They are helping each other and they are all working on the same projects so that regional aspect is what is beneficial to everyone in the community. In today's climate, sharing services and cutting costs by working together benefits everyone involved."

Sustainable Jersey provides training courses and technical support for all townships and municipalities who apply for certification.  In addition, the website for Sustainable Jersey (www.sustainablejersey.com) offers a tremendous amount of information as to which towns are already certified, who is in process of certification and what your town can do to become more efficient.

"We do provide technical training and guidance so again we do try to help them find the best practice for whatever activates they chose to do."

Among the benefits for becoming certified the top incentives involve money from state programs; including a program where the Board of Public Utilities offers money to their Clean Energy Program and being in the Sustainable Jersey program can help a municipality gain more money in the long run. It's linking financial incentives to energy saving actions, as the group explained in their interview.

For more information about Sustainable Jersey please visit their website (www.sustainablejersey.com).

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