Cape May City Achieves Sustainable Jersey’s Highest Honor

CAPE MAY – Cape May City will be awarded the Champion Award from Sustainable Jersey in the small municipal category at the annual Sustainable Jersey Awards Luncheon on Nov. 13 at the League of Municipalities Conference.
Mayor Ed Mahaney stated, “Cape May City has a long history of making the right decisions to be a sustainable community, due in large part by our very active Environmental Commission. Being a sustainable City is just good government and good business. Cape May has already seen savings as result of this effort and we expect to see more in the future.”
Cape May City scored the most points of any small community in New Jersey and is one of only four communities in 2012 to have achieved the highly regarded Silver Certification. Each of these achievements requires that the City comply with dozens of innovative actions.
In 2011 City Council established the Cape May City Green Team and retained a local planning firm, Rutala Associates, to assist the City to become more sustainable. The Green Team meet monthly and worked establish new efforts to save on energy costs, market the City as a Green Community and adopted new purchasing and building guidelines.
Currently, 62 percent of New Jersey’s towns and cities – 378 communities across all 21 counties – have registered to become Sustainable Jersey certified. The Sustainable Jersey Program has distributed over half a million dollars to New Jersey communities to support an estimated 1,400 actions taken to make communities more livable, environmentally friendly and prosperous. Cape May City recently was awarded a $10,000 Sustainable Jersey grant to erect a small wind turbine at the Cape May Elementary School.
Cape May City has seen real financial impacts from its sustainability efforts. The City was awarded over $100,000 in grant funds for energy efficiency upgrades to City Hall, the Public Works Complex, the Fire Station and the Franklin Street School. These improvements are projected to shave $25,000 off the City’s electric bill annually. In addition, the City received a $26,000 grant to complete an energy audit of a dozen City owned buildings. Recently, the City participated in a seminar at the Convention Hall to help local businesses learn how they can also take advantage of these energy savings programs.
To further save on electric costs the City has solar panels on the Public Works Building, the Life Guard Headquarters and the new Convention Hall. The Green Team has also worked to reduce idling emissions, encourage recycling, and revise the City’s web site to include many of its green initiative.
Sustainable Jersey is a certification program for municipalities in New Jersey. Launched in 2009, Sustainable Jersey is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that supports community efforts to reduce waste, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and improve environmental equity. Sustainable Jersey is empowering New Jersey towns to build a better world for future generations. It provides tools, training and financial incentives to support and reward communities as they pursue sustainability programs. New Jersey is the first state in the nation to have a comprehensive sustainability program for communities that links certification with strong state and private financial incentives, and a fully resourced program of technical support and training. Sustainable Jersey is 100 percent voluntary and each town can choose whether it wants to get certified and the actions it wants to do in order to achieve enough points to get certified.
Learn more about the City of Cape May’s Champion Award from Sustainable Jersey please contact City of Cape May Mayor, Dr. Edward Mahaney Jr. at (609) 884-9532 or by e-mail at emahaney@capemaycity.com. Those seeking info can also contact City of Cape May Manager, Bruce MacLeod at (609) 884-9536 or by e-mail at brucem@capemaycity.com .