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Politics & Government

Haddonfield Green Team 'Visioning' Silver in 2013

The Haddonfield Green Team met this week to engage the community in the call for a more sustainable community.

The Haddonfield Green Team held a public “Visioning meeting” this week at borough hall with the intent “to create a collective vision to guide the Haddonfield community in regards to sustainability.”

Co-chairs of the committee, Julie Beddingfield and Neal Rochford said the group’s purpose is to increase Haddonfield’s level of environmental sustainability, which may qualify the borough for private funding, grants and state dollars for energy audits.

Additionally, Rochford cited “saving tax dollars” as one of the ‘why’s’ of The Green Team’s purpose to improve sustainability in the borough.

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The meeting was run by Green Team member Mike Nuckols, who kept the group focused on creating a purpose for the Haddonfield Green Team. Nuckols was upbeat and instituted a "no soapbox" rule in order to keep the group focused on the broad vision of what the community wants from the Green Team.

“We are here to talk about the ‘why’s’ not the ‘what’s,’” Nuckols said.

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In September 2010, Haddonfield was awarded a bronze level sustainable community certification from the a private state organization called Sustainable Jersey, along with a $1,000 grant for outreach efforts. The Haddonfield Green Team’s current goal is to qualify for the next level of certification, silver, by September 2013.

Julie Beddingfield is a borough resident and has been involved with the Green Team since its inception in September 2010 when Haddonfield’s first application to the Sustainable Jersey was awarded the bronze certification as a sustainable community.

An environmental lawyer by trade, Beddingfield says her qualifications are “not a requirement for a committee member, just a coincidence,” but notes that the committee includes a diverse group of community stakeholders.

“We really tried to get civic leaders, faith-based organizations, economic and small business interests and the high school involved,” she said.

At the same time, “No expertise is required. Just an interest and a willingness to take the time to do it,” Beddingfield added.

Green Team Haddonfield has no budget from the borough, but exists as a ten-member volunteer organization with residents and business owners who are committed to making sustainability a priority.

“We’re just blood, sweat, tears, and a thousand bucks,” laughed Beddingfield.

She explained that the first application to become Sustainable Certified involved a lot of action items the town already had in place like a recycling program, a shade tree commission, an environmental commission, and open-space ordinances for example.

“We decided that we should do some of the things that aren’t the low hanging fruit and bump it up,” said Beddingfield about the goal to go for silver.

The Sustainable Communities program in New Jersey consists of a list of about 150 Actions, broken down into categories like prosperity, people, planet and on another level, energy efficiency, food, community partnership and outreach.

In order to achieve the silver level of certification, the committee is required to implement three out of six priority actions and earn a total of 350 points based on actions taken and documented. Actions must be spread over half the available categories.

Andrew Holtz is a Haddonfield Memorial High School senior who has also been involved with the Green Team since its inception. He acts as a liaison to the Green Team and the high school Environmental Club, where many activities may qualify as actions toward the silver certification.

Holtz noted that it was Brigid Connell, HMHS class of 2011, who suggested the Sustainable Community program to borough commissioners in 2010. She was instrumental in involving him on the committee when he was a sophomore.

Holtz would like to see improvements in Haddonfield’s downtown use of recycling and composting programs.

“Recycling should be more systematic throughout downtown to set an example for other towns,” said Holtz. He noted that recycling bins in the business part of town are not used to capacity yet.

Moving forward the committee will be focused on a variety of actions.

“It is little things and it is big things,” said Beddingfield.

Future actions like a Green Fair, rain garden and composting seminars, and continued programs like last summer’s sold-out rain barrel workshop are being considered. The group hopes to identify actions that the community supports like a school garden task force and water-conservation ordinances.

The Haddonfield Green Team has a Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HaddonfieldGreenTeam and is listed on the borough website under boards, commissions and committees. For more information about the Sustainable New Jersey Program, visit sustainablejersey.com .

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