Residents Urge Further Environmental Action Within Parsippany

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Parsippany is recognized for its commitment to community forestry and environmental practices, but two members of the Parsippany Green Team want to see more action.

During the Township Council meeting on July 11, two representatives from the Parsippany Green Team, along with a small group of supporters, spoke up, asking the town council for additional support and commitments to environmental practices.

For 47 years, Parsippany has been awarded the Tree City USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation. Parsippany also has 31 parks spread out across the township. From the .32-acre Lake Hiawatha Park to the 352-acre Knoll Park, the park system has preserved over 800 acres.

This total exceeds the nationally recognized standard of one acre of parkland per 100 residents.

Matt Kavanagh of the township's Green Team spoke first, saying that the organization is looking to achieve the silver certification from the Sustainable Jersey Program, which requires more work from the council.

Silver certification from Sustainable Jersey indicates that a municipality has made significant progress toward sustainability in a number of categories and is a statewide and national leader.

"In 2024, we are seeking continued support for the Sustainable Jersey program so that we can get silver certification. That would put us in one of the top bins of towns in New Jersey. We have about 25 open actions that we are working on," Kavanagh said.

The Green Team hopes to collaborate with the mayor and council to help them continue their initiatives, some of which are large-scale, such as installing solar panels at the sewer plant.

"There's a grant that I wrote where we received $20,000 in grant money for a feasibility study that could lead to a lot of savings on electric bills at the sewer plant. Additionally, we qualified for an energy savings improvement program, which allows us to upgrade all of our facilities with energy conservation measures to save on utility costs across all municipal buildings," Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh explained that the Green Team worked hard to achieve those options, which he calls "low-hanging fruits" that the township can take.

That point was furthered by resident Judy Hernandez, who spoke up about how the township could be taking more opportunities to enact sustainable planning and environmentally conscious decisions.

"The state and federal governments understand this urgency too, and opportunities to take advantage of credits and grants are available to local governments," Hernandez said. "The Parsippany Green team has initiated actions that will provide cost-saving improvements for the town, but these are falling by the wayside in what seems to be an unwillingness of the town to seriously engage with the team."

Hernandez emphasized that it had been two years since the Green Team first asked the township to continue their volunteer work, but it had been continuously stalled.

"We are leaving money on the table. A minimum of maybe $100,000, but it could be more, yearly. Dollars that could be benefiting residents. How is it that the largest municipality in Morris County can be lagging in embracing sustainable opportunities and not adjusting to the times?" Hernandez said.

In response to various public speakers, Councilman Michael dePierro stated that the township had previously looked into installing solar panels for the sewer plant but that the cost did not make sense for the amount of money saved on the township's electric bill.

Instead, at that time, the council decided it would be more efficient to instead upgrade the whole sewer plant rather than install solar panels.

Mayor James Barberio concluded by saying that he was going to have a conversation with the township's Environmental Advisory Committee.