New Jersey Future Blog
Three Communities Step Up To Mainstream Green Infrastructure
July 27th, 2016 by Louise Wilson
Pilot Towns Take Off
Newton’s town square, which is also Sussex County’s only park. Photo courtesy of wikimedia commons user Ekem.
New Jersey Future’s Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure program is designed to move forward on three tracks: working with developers and their design professionals; identifying and advancing demonstration projects; and working intensively with towns – specifically, three pilot towns – to help them fully embrace exemplary stormwater management practices and advance the use of green infrastructure in public and private development projects.
The program’s focus is statewide through its work with developers and ordinance recommendations, but it also has a special emphasis on smaller communities located in critical Delaware River watershed areas of northwest Jersey’s Highlands and in south Jersey’s Kirkwood Cohansey Aquifer area of coastal plain, which includes the Pinelands. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Trustee Receives NJUA Distinguished Service Award
July 13th, 2016 by New Jersey Future staff
L to R: Hon. Mary-Anna Holden, commissioner, NJ Board of Public Utilities; Robert Iacullo, NJUA’s 2016 Distinguished Service Award recipient; Mary Patricia Keefe, chairwoman, NJUA and vice president, regulatory affairs and business support, Elizabethtown Gas; Andrew Hendry, president and CEO, NJUA.
The New Jersey Utilities Association has awarded the utility industry’s highest honor, the NJUA Distinguished Service Award, to Robert J. Iacullo for his leadership and accomplishments on behalf of New Jersey’s investor-owned utilities. The award was presented during the Association’s 101st Annual Conference.
A current trustee of New Jersey Future, Mr. Iacullo retired from SUEZ North America in 2016 after 36 years, most recently as executive vice president, overseeing the support services of environmental compliance, health and safety, operations support, corporate communications, regulatory relations and external affairs for SUEZ North America’s water and wastewater businesses across the nation. In this capacity, he had overall responsibility for supporting the company’s utility and environmental services business lines. Read the rest of this entry »
Design Professionals Walk Away With Practical Green Infrastructure Insights
June 24th, 2016 by Kandyce Perry
Participants, led by Princeton Hydro’s Geoff Goll (center), gather to take a look at green infrastructure installations at NJM Insurance Group’s Hammonton campus during the May 24th workshop for design professionals.
As part of New Jersey Future’s effort to mainstream green infrastructure across the state, two workshops for design professionals were conducted, rounding out the workshop series. (See a recap on the workshop for municipal leaders here.) Attendees included municipal and consulting engineers, architects and landscape architects who design and/or review stormwater management systems. Ten firms, one municipality, one county, the New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Pinelands Commission were represented at the Pinelands region workshop and eight design firms, two municipalities, four counties, the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and the Highlands Council were represented at the workshop in northwest New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future Wins National Award for Sandy Report
June 23rd, 2016 by New Jersey Future staff
Maria DiSalvatore, left, vice chairwoman of the New Jersey Association for Floodplain Management, accepting New Jersey Future’s award at the Association of State Floodplain Managers national conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Association of State Floodplain Managers has honored New Jersey Future with its national 2016 Tom Lee State Award for Excellence in Floodplain Management. The award recognizes New Jersey Future’s report In Deep, which reviews lessons from the organization’s innovative post-Sandy local recovery planning manager program.
The pilot program involved placing experienced planners in six selected municipalities to assist with short-term recovery, help evaluate offers of post-disaster assistance, secure additional resources, and facilitate decision-making to increase long-term resiliency. These professionals were made available at no cost to the participating towns, through funding from the Merck Foundation and the New Jersey Recovery Fund. Read the rest of this entry »
New Jersey Future’s Teri Jover Named Sustainability Hero
June 2nd, 2016 by New Jersey Future staff
New Jersey Future Deputy Executive Director Teri Jover has been named Sustainable Jersey’s Sustainability Hero for June 2016! Below is an edited version of the announcement that ran in the Sustainable Jersey newsletter.
For more than 15 years, Teri Jover has worked in the nonprofit sector to champion the advancement of sustainable and healthy communities in New Jersey. Teri is the energetic chairwoman of Sustainable Highland Park, a volunteer-driven organization that achieved silver-level Sustainable Jersey certification for Highland Park Borough in 2013.
One of Teri’s biggest undertakings with Sustainable Highland Park was Highland Park’s US EPA Climate Showcase Communities Grant, which resulted in the creation of the borough’s “In Our Power Campaign,” Climate Action Plan and Home Energy Assessment Program. Under Teri’s leadership, Sustainable Highland Park has hosted three annual Earth Day celebrations, which have attracted hundreds of residents and engaged them in sustainability issues and practices as well as local music and food. Teri is the chair of Sustainable Jersey’s Land Use and Transportation Task Force and has been an invaluable supporting partner contributing to the development of the Sustainable Jersey program. Read the rest of this entry »
Jersey Water Works Delegation To Attend National Water Conference
May 26th, 2016 by Elaine Clisham
Jersey Water Works is coordinating a 13-person delegation to the U.S. Water Alliance’s One Water Summit in Atlanta June 8-10. The delegation, representative of many of the sectors that make up the core of Jersey Water Works’ committees, includes three members of the collaborative’s Steering Committee. All members of the delegation are supporting members of Jersey Water Works.
Two of the delegates — Drew Curtis and Margaret Waldock — will also appear on panels at the event, and a representative will speak at the closing plenary about Jersey Water Works’ innovative, cross-sector approach to the problem of water infrastructure in the Garden State. Read the rest of this entry »
Three New Jersey Cities Selected To Accelerate Water Infrastructure Innovation
May 25th, 2016 by Jane Rosenblatt
Gloucester City, Jersey City, and Perth Amboy will receive technical assistance and engineering support services to design innovative, financeable projects that reduce combined sewer outflows (CSOs) while also making neighborhoods and downtowns better places to live, work, and invest.
New Jersey Future today announced that three cities – Gloucester City, Jersey City, and Perth Amboy – have been selected by the Build It Green (BIG) Competition to receive technical assistance and engineering support services. The BIG Competition, launched in partnership with re:focus partners and with the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Health Initiative, will catalyze the design and implementation of integrated, creative projects that reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) while generating multiple local environmental and health benefits. For example, roads can be repaved with porous pavement when installing underground broadband infrastructure to improve the economic prospects of local residents and businesses and simultaneously reduce surface water runoff. Read the rest of this entry »
Smart Growth Award-Winner Wesmont Station Opens
May 23rd, 2016 by Elaine Clisham
Photo courtesy NJ Transit.
Ten years after New Jersey Future presented the ambitious plan for Wesmont Station with a Smart Growth Award, and at least four years after most of the associated new residential development was completed, the new transit stop intended as its anchor has finally opened.
The new stop, on NJ Transit’s Bergen line, allows riders to connect to New York either via a change in Secaucus to go into Penn Station or a change in Hoboken to the PATH network. Early riders from the station have noted their commutes, which used to take more than an hour by bus, have been shortened to approximately 35 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
Built-Out Places Account for Majority of State’s Population Growth Since 2008
May 20th, 2016 by Tim Evans
Population losses now widespread across the state’s exurban fringe, rural areas
New housing near a Hudson-Bergen Light Rail station in Jersey City. Photo courtesy of NJTPA.
New Jersey Future’s initial analysis of newly released Census data at the municipal level shows the continuation of several important demographic trends in the state. A preliminary look at the data provided the following highlights: Read the rest of this entry »
Forum Roundup: Green Bonds: Financing our Future
May 18th, 2016 by Jane Rosenblatt
New Jersey’s future infrastructure, resiliency and housing efforts will need billions of dollars of investment over the coming decades. What financing options do New Jersey and its municipalities have?
Participants in Redevelopment Forum 2016’s special roundtable on green bonds.
Green bonds are a relatively new financing vehicle specifically for projects that are intended to offer environmental benefits as well as a financial return. But green bonds are still an under-utilized tool in New Jersey. A special roundtable discussion at New Jersey Future’s 2016 Redevelopment Forum explored how green bonds can generate a substantial portion of investment needed to fund green projects, including resiliency efforts and infrastructure upgrades, in New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »