By ROBERT LINNEHAN
A local high school senior with a love of environmental science recently completed a project that made Haddonfield one of the few South Jersey towns to receive a distinction in the state’s Sustainable Jersey Municipal Certification program.
Haddonfield officially received a Bronze award in the program after Brigid Connell, an HMHS senior, worked closely with the borough these past few months to make Haddonfield a greener place to live and work. Connell urged borough commissioners to pass a resolution in June to sign up for the program and has worked closely with Borough Administration Sharon McCullough to become eligible for the award.
To become eligible for the distinction, Haddonfield had to accrue enough “points” for the award. The points were awarded for different environmental practices the borough followed or implemented, Connell said. Working closely with McCullough, Connell was able to have the borough awarded 165 total points and the bronze award in the program.
“We needed 150 points, and Sustainable Jersey offered tons of opportunities for towns to get them. For example, you could get points if your municipality started or already held a farmers market. We had to supply documentation that it had been held in the borough this past year, and we got those points,” she said. “We set up a Green Team, which was mandatory, but it counted to the points. It was a committee of 10 people throughout the town, myself included.”
Along with the prestige of the certification, municipalities are eligible to apply for certain grants and funding opportunities that are unavailable to other towns in the state. Haddonfield is just one of 67 municipalities in the state to have a bronze award.
To gain points, the borough also implemented a fleet inventory for all its municipal vehicles to examine their fuel efficiency, hosted two paper shredding events and passed a sustainable land use pledge.
Connell originally devised the idea after wanting to help construct a green roof for one of the buildings in the borough for her Gold Award — the equivalent of an Eagle Scout ranking for the Girl Scouts — but quickly found that it would be very costly and can’t be built on an existing structure.
Connell started to research the program and decided that she could work with the borough to help it receive its certification. Connell was also happy to hear that she had received her Gold Award with her project. She’ll officially be given the award in June.
“I was very happy when I found out we were a sustainable community, it made my project all the more worthwhile,” she said. “Haddonfield is now a certified sustainable community; it’s a very neat thing because I know I’ve worked very hard to get to this goal. It’s an integral part of Haddonfield.”
For more information on the Green Team, interested residents call the borough at 429–4700.
