3 Essex Towns Keep Things Green: Millburn, South Orange, Maplewood

MILLBURN, NJ — If you live in Millburn, South Orange or Maplewood, you have more in common than you think.

The trio of Essex County towns recently received Sustainable Jersey’s 2016 Collaboration Award, which recognizes a municipal green team that has advanced sustainability by building strong partnerships.

According to a news release from Sustainable Jersey, the Maplewood, Millburn and South Orange Green Teams meet monthly to move collaborative projects forward. Sustainable Jersey cited two successful projects between the three towns: the “re:Yard” program, and the Essex Community Energy campaign.

The re:Yard program recognizes yards for being sustainable and provides 31 credits covering topics such as water efficiency, sustainable materials, composting and native plants for residents to complete for certification.

The Essex Community Energy campaign aims to help local residents get energy audits and use energy inefficiently.

“Millburn Township is proud to continue its work to advance sustainability through Millburn Township Green Team's partnership with the Green Teams of Maplewood and South Orange,” Millburn Business Administrator Alexander McDonald said. “We appreciate the hard work of our volunteers and thank Sustainable Jersey for this commendation.”

“Maplewood is honored to receive the Sustainable Jersey Collaboration Award with South Orange and Millburn,” Maplewood Mayor Victor DeLuca said. “Towns sharing in regional sustainable efforts result in an efficient and effective way to plan, educate residents and businesses, and carry out our goals. Regional collaborations are important in addressing sustainability issues because so many of the challenges which confront our individual municipalities do not recognize our political borders. The re:Yard and Essex Community Energy programs are two examples of the important programs the green teams are bringing to our three towns.”

“Thank you to Sustainable Jersey for honoring South Orange with bronze certification and for recognizing the efforts of our green team with the Collaboration Award,” South Orange Village President Sheena Collum said. “Most of the challenges our municipalities face neither exist in nor can be solved in isolation. Reaching out to share services, ideas, and resources is critical to every municipalities’ future and I am especially proud of our green team’s work with Millburn and Maplewood as it exemplifies how collaboration results in shared success.”

The announcement was made at the Annual Sustainable Jersey Luncheon held during the New Jersey League of Municipality Conference in Atlantic City.

“The Sustainable Jersey municipal awards recognize the outstanding work being done at the local level,” said Randall Solomon, who co-directs Sustainable Jersey with Donna Drewes. “We are extremely impressed by the innovative and effective sustainability programs and initiatives of these towns. They deserve to be commended for their accomplishments.”

Photo: Flickr Commons

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