Summit Wins Sustainability Champion Award

Sustainable Jersey representatives announced last week that the City of Summit won a Sustainability Champion award in the medium population category.  The City of Summit is being recognized for making the most progress in the Sustainable Jersey program in its respective category.  Summit was honored at the Sustainable Jersey awards luncheon on Tuesday, November 15 with City of Summit Common Council President Dave Bomgaars accepting the award.

Award winners are the top scoring towns from the list of 28 municipalities that submitted in 2011 to become Sustainable Jersey certified.  Summit was certified with 420 Sustainable Jersey points that is well above the minimum of 150 action points that certified municipalities have to submit documentation to show that they have achieved the required actions at the Bronze level and 350 action points for the Silver level.

City of Summit Mayor Jordan Glatt said, “The City of Summit is proud to be recognized as the Sustainability Champion in the Silver category once again from Sustainable Jersey.  Year after year, the community as a whole – residents, elected officials and City staff alike – recommit themselves to the goal of making Summit more environmentally conscious and reducing the City’s carbon footprint.  Our citizens have a profound collective impact on the environment and it only benefits society to lessen the burden when possible through sustainable practices.  Summit understands that the health of the environment influences the health of the individual and respects the role that sustainability plays in all of our lives.”

Summit was able to launch three new sustainability programs using grant funding this year.  The City of Summit Think Local First campaign, funded by Sustainable Jersey Small Grants from Wal-Mart, connects businesses in Summit with the buying power of the local community.  In all communications, the message Think Local First has been reinforced for the intended audiences, emphasizing the depth and range of all the goods, services, restaurants and specialty shops that Summit has to offer.  The program gave local business owners a free toolkit with customizable marketing materials to allow for the effective and efficient marketing of Think Local First materials, and featured promotional collectible buttons and a kick-off event.  The City was also a recipient of a Summit Area Public Foundation (SAPF) grant, along with the Summit Board of Education (BOE), and was able to unveil a two-year pilot food composting program at the Summit High School.  So far, the City and the BOE have been able to divert approximately one ton of food waste each month from the municipal waste stream through the new food composting program since its inception.  Also in 2011, Summit retrofitted or replaced their lighting systems in City Hall, an initiative funded by a state energy grant.  

“The Sustainability Champion awards have brought to the forefront the amazing achievements and extraordinary commitment of Woodbridge, Summit and Cape May, and their sustainability programs.  The winners represent our best,” said Pam Mount, Chair of the Sustainable Jersey Board of Trustees.

The Sustainability Champion Award recognizes municipalities that have scored the most points in the Sustainable Jersey certification program in three population categories: small (0-4,999), medium (5,000-39,999) and large (40,000+). The 2011 Sustainability Champion award winners are:

• SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION (LARGE CATEGORY) with 625 points: Woodbridge Township (Middlesex County)
• SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION (MEDIUM CATEGORY) with 420 points: City of Summit (Union County)
• SUSTAINABILITY CHAMPION (SMALL CATEGORY) with 410 points: Cape May City (Cape May County)

Randall Solomon, Sustainable Jersey program partner and Co-Director at the Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance at The Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey applauded each of the winners. “These awards recognize the top towns that have made the most progress in the Sustainable Jersey program. They have excelled in areas such as improving energy efficiency and health and wellness, smart land use and transportation, reducing waste, sustaining local economies, protecting natural resources, and addressing diversity and equity, just to name a few.”   Sustainable Jersey program partner Donna Drewes, and Co-Director at the Institute for Sustainability Planning and Governance at The Municipal Land Use Center at The College of New Jersey, congratulated the winning towns.  “Our winners represent the pioneers that are making extraordinary contributions toward the long-term goal of a sustainable New Jersey and world.”

The award winning towns were recognized at the third annual Sustainable Jersey awards luncheon on Tuesday, November 15 at the New Jersey League of Municipalities conference.

The City of Summit is a diverse community where hundreds of its 21,000+ residents, speaking more than 35 languages, volunteer their specialized services day in and day out.  Located in the northwest corner of Union County, 30 minutes outside of New York City, Summit offers six square miles of tree-dense suburban neighborhoods which sit astride hills next to the Watchung Reservation.  Summit is a New Jersey Transit hub with direct access to Manhattan, major highways and Newark Liberty International Airport.  Summit’s pedestrian-scale central business district features a rich tapestry of specialty and gift shops, clothing stores, home furnishings, restaurants, fine food and wine outlets, various art centers and theatres, senior citizen housing, houses of worship and health and fitness centers.  Summit is also headquarters to global health care companies – one of which has the largest rooftop solar energy array in the country – and one of the nation’s nationally renowned, state-of-the-art hospitals.  The Summit public schools are among the most highly-rated school systems in New Jersey and more than 90% of its students go to college.  Summit is also home to three top-rated private schools.