Central Jersey Green Teams Best Practices Conference 

Sustainability efforts are expanding throughout our communities.  Many of these endeavors face similar challenges, such as coordinating community/municipal efforts, getting volunteers, or leveraging state/federal incentives.  

See event flier here.

The Central Jersey Green Teams Best Practices Conference will bring together people from Somerset, Middlesex, Hunterdon, and Mercer Counties to share their best practices and exchange ideas.  This forum is for all people interested in moving their communities toward sustainability, including members of Green Teams, Environmental Commissions, municipal employees, non-profit organizations, business people, educators or residents.

Sustainability issues do not end at town borders.  Our efforts need to bridge these borders, as we forge relationsips with others working for a greener New Jersey.

The goals for the conference are to:

• Build partnerships between participants in adjoining towns or between those who have similar projects.
• Provide participants with the tools to run similar programs to those highlighted as Best Practices. 
  • Electronic files used to run the programs will be shared
  • Several experienced teams can provide different perspectives on the same type of program e.g. Green Fairs.   

Energy, Transportation, and Recycling are the 3 main themes of the conference.  Keynote speakers are Carolyn Ehrlich, Chief of Staff for Woodbridge Township (2009 Sustainability Champion Award) and Albe Zakes, the VP of Media Relations from Terracycle to encourage participants with their sustainable efforts.  Participants will then break out into Learning Circles where they will hear Best Practices from a Green Team/Municipality and a moderator will lead the discussion on how to implement in your own town.  Learning Circles include presentations and discussions about the NJ Clean Energy program, electric cars, Walking School Bus, lighting retrofits and efficiencies, and recycling improvements.
 
Participants can download files presented during the Learning Circles so they can hit the ground running after the conference. Bring a flash drive or access the files via
www.borogreen.org 

Registrants will be eligible for a drawing to receive the following services from some of the presenters/exhibitors at the conference.  150 person maximum and we would like to close registration early in order to better organize the conference.  Prizes are:

    Rain barrel workshop in your town courtesy of Rutgers Water Resources Management Department (presentation is free of charge and participants will  pay for rain barrels and material)
    Landscape evaluation courtesy of Clare Liptak, Retired Somerset County Agricultural Agent, Master Gardener Trainer, and BoroGreen Board Member
    Walk through and free ROI for lighting efficiencies from Cooper Electric
    Sustainable landscape plan courtesy of Landscape Better, an environmentally-friendly approach

A representative from Sustainable Jersey will be on hand to answer your technical and procedural questions about the certification process. 

Sponsored by Sustainable Hillsborough, BoroGreen and Sustainable Jersey.

The mission of BoroGreen is building a sustainable community. (www.borogreen.org)

SUSTAINABLE JERSEY is a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey that want to go green, save money, and take steps to sustain their quality of life over the long term. (www.sustainablejersey.com)