Stone Harbor Attains Sustainable NJ Certification

STONE HARBOR – At the May 19 Borough Council meeting Council member Karen Lane presented a plaque to Mayor Suzanne Walters. The plaque commemorated a hard-won bronze certification for the borough from the Sustainable Jersey organization.
In addition, Stone Harbor was only one of three municipalities in the county to receive a Sustainable Jersey grant to help further efforts to make Stone Harbor an environmentally-friendly community.
Sustainable Jersey is a non-profit organization with ties to the state Department of Environmental Protection. Since 2009, Sustainable Jersey has offered a voluntary sustainability certification program.
Beginning its life as a partnership with three other organizations – The College of New Jersey, DEP, and the New Jersey League of Municipalities – Sustainable Jersey evolved into its current non-profit organization with its own board of trustees. Cape May City Mayor Edward Mahaney is a member of that board.
Lane spoke of the “incredible amount of detail” the borough had to submit as part of the certification process. The pay-off was an award that has cache in the state and is increasingly motivating other communities to seek certification.
According to the organization’s website, 423 municipalities across the state have registered with Sustainable Jersey and 177 have achieved initial certification. A certification expires in five years.
The concept behind the effort is straightforward. By supporting individual municipalities and providing a rigorous certification program, Sustainable Jersey is helping to build a sustainable state one municipality at a time.
The organization offers training and a variety of webinars to aid communities in the process of gaining certification. There is even a state-wide summit, this year on June 10, where the evolving set of sustainability dimensions are previewed and discussed.
In Cape May County, 11 of the 16 municipalities have registered and sought certification. Of that group, five have received a Bronze Award which is the initial certification level.
Those communities are Stone Harbor, Avalon, Middle Township, Lower Township, and Upper Township. There is a higher Silver level of certification, , and one county municipality, Cape May City, has accomplished that feat.
Lane indicated that Stone Harbor has no desire to rest with its Bronze and will be seeking Silver even before the Bronze five-year period expires. Even Cape May will have a new mountain to climb as the organization this year will introduce a new and higher level of certification – Gold.
The Sustainable Jersey list of participating municipalities indicates that other county municipalities that have registered but not yet achieved certification are Cape May Point, West Cape May, Dennis Township, Ocean City and Woodbine. Those that have received grants to further sustainability efforts in the county are Stone Harbor, Ocean City and Cape May City.
Sustainable Jersey organization makes very clear that they are not certifying effort, only results.