D&R Canal State Park is one of the sites on the Green Map - great for biking or walking!

We have 60 sites mapped so far on the “Princeton Green Connections” Green Map, including our parks and other “green” places, eco-information sites, special trees, biking routes, hiking trails, and more.

Where is your favorite green place in Princeton?  And why is it special?  We  invite everyone to help add more sites, comments, photos, etc. to the map. Just click on the map icons and routes, and you will see options for adding comments/photos, and even rating the site’s impacts!

Check the map to find these 300-year old "Stamp Act" trees...and other special trees!

We would like to start other Green Map themes in the future, focusing on green building technology, green/sustainable businesses, green events/tours, etc. Please contact Andrea Malcolm if you are interested in helping us expand the “Princeton Green Connections” Green Map and/or coordinating a new green map for our community.

Use the paved path at Community Park South to connect to other sites on the Green Map.

Thank you very much to these organizations that helped Sustainable Princeton staff and volunteers with the initial mapping:

• D&R Greenway
• Friends of Princeton Open Space (FOPOS)
• Princeton Borough Shade Tree Commission
• Princeton University Office of Sustainability

We also want to thank these organizations for their mapping ideas and information:

• Marquand Park Foundation
• Princeton Environmental Commission
• Princeton Joint Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Committee
• Princeton Public Library
• Princeton Recreation Department
• Princeton Regional Planning Board
• Princeton Township Engineering Department

For additional information about the “Princeton Green Connections” Green Map, Sustainable Jersey Green Map training, and the worldwide Green Map organization, see our February 7, 2012 “Green Map Coming to Princeton” post.

Here is "one way" recycling volunteers helped at Communiversity!

Beginning with a request for help from the Arts Council at Sustainable Princeton’s Great Idea Breakfast in February, many people came together to make recycling happen at Communiversity.  We would especially like to thank:

• Barbara Trelstad, Borough Council Member (who helped arrange for the recycling containers and public works staffing)
• Stephanie Chorney, Sustainable Princeton volunteer (who tirelessly made sure all the parties came together to make recycling a reality)
• Tom Janick, Sustainable Princeton Board Member and owner of Craft Cleaners (who championed the recycling team volunteers and provided them with great looking tee-shirts!)
• the 20 Sustainable Princeton Recycling Team volunteers, including local families, business people, Princeton University students and others (who helped monitor & publicize the recycling containers; and even changed some liners/removed non-recyclables when needed!)
• Princeton Borough and Princeton Township Public Works staff (who set up and took down the containers, plus replaced container liners throughout the event)
• the Mercer County Improvement Authority (who provided the recycling containers)
• the Princeton community and other visitors to Communiversity who supported this effort by using the recycling containers!

Thank you to all those who helped recycle at Communiversity!

Next year, we hope to have an even bigger and better recycling operation underway at Communiversity – with more recycling containers, better information about what to recycle, and maybe even a food & organic waste recycling option!

We also want to let everyone know about an upcoming demonstration project to improve recycling in the downtown/Hinds Plaza area, with better bins, better information and lots of publicity – stay tuned! If you would like to help with this effort, please contact Diane Landis.  (Also, see the photo below posted on a local sustainability blog, showing the need for more recycling bins in downtown Princeton.)

And don’t forget to do your own recycling at home, including recycling food and organic waste via the municipal organic waste curbside collection program!

Janet Pellichero, Twp. recycling coordinator, wearing a Recycling Team teeshirt at Sustainable Princeton's Communiversity table

Besides recycling, volunteers helped staff our table at Communiversity-thank you to all!!

A recycling bin on Nassau St. (accidentally left after Communiversity?) shows the need to do more! (Photo from local sustainability blogger Andrew Thomas.).

Use this green food & organic waste cart to send leftovers to a compost pile, not a landfill!

Every fruit peel, bone, egg shell, pizza box, paper towel and napkin we throw in the trash ends up in the landfill. In fact, food waste and other organic matter make up more than half the typical household’s weekly trash collection. Not everyone has the time or space to do backyard composting, and some waste food items just aren’t suitable for a backyard compost pile.

Keep food waste out of landfill: sign up today

Over two hundred households have already joined Princeton’s curbside food waste collection program, which launched in 2011. In just six months, these residents saved over 60 tons of waste from landfill: no wonder the program has already won an award! And that 60 tons equals $7,500 saved in municipal trash disposal costs! Now it’s time to expand the program to several hundred more households.

Please help to reduce the amount of trash Princeton buries in landfill, and join the food waste collection program today!

How to sign up

Contact Janet Pellichero at the Princeton Township Public Works Department: email jpellichero@princeton-township.nj.us or phone 609-688-2566. We need several hundred more households to join the program, so please encourage your Princeton friends and neighbors to sign up too.

How does curbside food waste collection work?

Instead of trashing food waste and other biodegradable garbage such as napkins and paper towels, you put it into a bright green container that is provided by Premier Food Waste. Once a week, you leave this container at the curbside to be emptied. That’s it!

Without all the food waste and other “organic” garbage, your ordinary trash can will take longer to fill. You can continue to use your usual trash hauler to collect ordinary trash; alternatively, if you live in Princeton Township, you can arrange for the same company that removes the food waste to collect your trash as well.

What items can I put in the collection bin?

A huge amount of stuff: not just food left-overs but also pizza boxes and other kinds of paper products, and most yard waste. You’ll get a detailed list once you sign up.

What happens to the waste once it has been collected?

It is turned into compost. Huge amounts of waste are involved, so the compost piles get very hot. This means that compost can be made using items that can’t be easily composted in a back yard, such as bones, fish skins, pizza boxes, and yard waste, including sticks and branches.

Sign up now and receive these FREE items:

• A kitchen collector: this container can sit on a countertop or in a cupboard, ready for your food waste
• Compostable food waste bags that fit inside the kitchen collector
• A wheeled “organics” container which you put at the curb once a week
• If you choose, you can pick up free compost to use in your yard

How much does it cost?

• Township residents: $20 per month for food/organic waste collection. $30 per month for food/organic waste and trash pickup
• Borough residents: $20 per month for food/organic waste collection only (trash pickup will continue to be free of charge)

What will happen when the Borough and Township consolidate next year?

If enough households sign up in Spring 2012, the program will likely continue. If over 500 households sign up, curbside food waste collection could even become part of the municipal trash collection contract. Please sign up today and help demonstrate that Princeton residents want to reduce the amount of trash going into landfills!

Thank you!

Thanks to environmentally-minded people like you, Princeton can keep huge amounts of material out of landfills. This helps our town save money and makes the planet a better place for our children.

• “Housewarming” will assist 10 households (particularly seniors) to make small home improvements to reduce energy use and costs.
• “By the Yard” will help 10 households reduce pesticide use on their lawns.

Housewarming Pilot Project

Participants in the “Housewarming“ pilot will receive on-site consultation and assistance to make the home energy improvements. Households will then share their electric bills before and after the project and report any improvements to Sustainable Princeton and the community.  Sustainable Princeton has partnered with the New Jersey Energy Corps, an AmeriCorps program housed at Princeton University on this project.

Heidi Fichtenbaum, a Sustainable Princeton board member and LEED accredited Architect with Farewell Architects, LLC says, “The Housewarming project has been a dream of mine for some time.  By sharing information about the project with the community we can teach so many individuals about the benefits of home energy improvements including saving money, fewer drafts and less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

For more information about this pilot project, please contact Diane Landis or Andrea Malcolm.

By the Yard Pilot Project

“By the Yard” will focus on households that use pesticides on their lawns and provide each with pesticide free options. Participants will be provided with a water test kit, a rain barrel and a free lawn consultation.  They will then be asked to test water run-off and provide write-ups about their findings on this website.  Sustainable Princeton will also be awarding 100 lawn ornaments to families whose lawns are already pesticide free.  Sustainable Princeton is partnering with the Whole Earth Center in Princeton on this project.

“The By the Yard project is a wonderful opportunity to look at the effects of pesticides and teach homeowners about options to pesticide free lawn care.  The Whole Earth Center looks forward to working with Sustainable Princeton to provide updated information and speakers to support the effort,” says Fran McManus, Marketing director for Whole Earth Center.

For more information about this pilot project, please contact Diane Landis or Andrea Malcolm.

What are Princeton’s green resources? And where do you find them? In public parks or woodlands? Along our tree-lined streets? At the Farmer’s Market? Or, at a school garden?

Green Maps are a great way to highlight a community's natural, cultural and sustainable resources.

Who takes care of these resources? And can you get to Princeton’s green places and resources without a car?

These are some of the questions we hope local residents and others familiar with our town can help answer by working together on the “Princeton Green Connections” green map project.  Green Connections is an interactive online map based on the Green Map System, which uses thematic icons to identify natural, cultural and sustainable resources in communities and encourages public collaboration through its open green map platform.  Currently, there are 776 green maps in 60 countries.

Green maps include photos, website links and videos and because the maps are online they are easy to access, share and update.

The “Princeton Green Connections” green map will focus on Princeton’s green space resources, and also show the bicycle, hiking and pedestrian routes that connect us to, and through, Princeton. Future green maps may focus on other sustainable resources – including green buildings and technology, green businesses, cultural/historic resources, and more.

To find out more and to get involved in the green map project, you can:

• Come to Sustainable Princeton’s “Great Ideas Breakfast” on Feb. 10, 8:30 a.m. There will be a brief presentation on the green map project and an old-fashioned paper map display.
• Sign up for the “Green Mapping on St. Patrick’s Day” workshop, Mar. 17, 1 – 3pm, where participants will learn the basics of green maps, and get started on some mapping! (Seating is limited – please contact Andrea Malcolm to reserve a spot.)
• Contact Andrea with your questions or comments, and/or send her your green space descriptions and photos!

Princeton, Lawrence, Hillsborough, and Montgomery are recipients of a Green Map training grant from Sustainable Jersey and the Dodge Foundation. We look forward to working with these neighboring towns, Sustainable Jersey, Green Map Systems, and many others as we create and develop the Princeton Green Connections green map!

It’s pretty easy to do some simple checks to make sure your home is using water and air-conditioning efficiently. And you may well be able to fix issues yourself — fixes that pay for themselves through savings on energy and water bills.

Here are some tips on how to check and improve your home’s use of water and energy.

If you want to learn more, why not come to hear local architect Heidi Fichtenbaum outline some easy actions. She’s talking at the Sustainable Princeton evening meeting on January 31, 2012.

Local author Jeanne DeVoe was so inspired by the idea of saving money and the environment at the same time that she has written about it in her “Lazy Shades of Green” blog.

2011 Sustainable Princeton Leadership Awardees

1. People for Princeton Ridge, Developer J. Robert Hillier, and Princeton Township Attorney Ed Schmierer – for their many hours of collaborative work that led to an agreement about the Princeton Ridge Development.
2. Princeton Joint Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee – for the critical role this group played in the decision to install “sharrows” on Princeton roads.
3. Friends of Princeton Open Space Trail Committee – for the untold hours of work this group has put in to mark local trails with signs, build crossings or bridges across streams, and fix muddy spots so our parks can be enjoyed year round.
4. Camila Tellez, Fair Trade Princeton, 9th Grade Student at Stuart Country Day School – for founding Fair Trade Princeton and her tireless efforts to inform others of the importance of Fair Trade.
5. Green Sanctuary Committee and Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton – for their creation of broad-based sustainability initiatives, including installation of solar panels, energy audits, a rain garden, use of Fair Trade products and more.
6. Janet Pelichero, Recycling Coordinator, Princeton Township -  for her determined, informative and innovative approach to recycling, including organizing  New Jersey’s first curbside food waste program and many other projects that aim to increase recycling in Princeton.
7. Princeton Farmer’s Market – for its support of local farms, offering fresh local produce to residents and for creating an inspired public gathering place for our town.
8. Charlie Yedlin, Yedlin Associates – for its installation of 58.4 Kw solar system on the Clock Building on Route 206 in Princeton.  As of Fall 2011, the panels had generated 50,000 kilowatt hours of silent, renewable pollution free energy.

Thank you to all of these leaders for the good work they have done for Princeton!

The Sustainable Princeton Leadership Awards are sponsored by Sustainable Princeton and the Princeton Environmental Commission. Each year a call for nominations is issued to help us identify Princeton’s best, brightest and greenest businesses, residents, teachers, school administrators, government employees, religious leaders and any others that are leading the way toward a sustainable Princeton.

See Jeanne DeVoe's fun blog about changing to LED lights for the Holidays

Lighting with LEDs

For those who enjoyed the recent “Sustainability for the Lazy” guest post by Jeanne Jackson-DeVoe on our website, check out this fun new Lazy Shades of Green blog by Jeanne about her family’s conversion to light emitting diode (LED) lighting for the Holidays.

As Jeanne points out in her blog, using LEDs can save you money in addition to saving energy.  LEDs also last much longer than traditional incandescent lighting and compact fluorescent lighting.  (See this U.S. Dept. of Energy website for more information about lighting choices.)  And there is no reason to limit their use to holiday lighting – try them year-round!

“Cash Mob” Style Local Shopping

To help promote our “Princeton Shops Sustainably” reusable bag sale fundraiser, volunteers came together in early December for some “cash mob” style shopping.  A cash mob is a shopping event where a group of people agree to spend $20 or more each at an undisclosed independently owned local business.  The aim is to support local businesses while reclaiming the fun and spontaneity of a flash mob.

Shoppers with the Princeton Shops Sustainably bags in front of jane for some "cash mob " style shopping!

Our group met at janes consignment store for a quick photo and shopping and then headed over to Kitchen Kapers, where we surprised store manager Hillary Gray.  Afterwards, Hillary thanked the group, saying “we were very happy to see you all spending cash.  Most people don’t understand the fees that the banks charge us to take cards – both credit and debit.”

In addition, she told us they “always ask people if they want a bag instead of just giving them one.  We are pleased that so many people are refusing bags these days.”  Its great to see that this bright idea promoted by the Sustainable Princeton BYOBag campaign is having an impact!

More Bright Ideas in 2012

We hope to highlight many more bright ideas for sustainability in 2012.  Here are some upcoming events where you can learn about and be inspired by what other people in Princeton are doing:

• Youth and Yogurt Eco Hour on Jan. 4
• Sustainable Princeton Leadership Awards Ceremony on Jan. 25
• Great Ideas Breakfast on Feb. 10

And don’t forget the Princeton Environmental Film Festival starting on Jan. 26!

We also hope you will tell us your bright ideas for living and working more sustainably in Princeton.  Please send Andrea Malcolm information on upcoming events, local resources, and other sustainability stories so we can post and share!

The script over the green Sustainable Princeton shopping bag image says "Princeton Shops Sustainably"

The bags fold into a small pouch for easy carrying – perfect to take with you or great to give as gifts to family members, coworkers, teachers and others on your shopping list!

The price of the bags is $8 each or two for $15, with all profits going to support Sustainable Princeton. The bags will be available for sale at the following locations:

• greendesign
• Hinkson’s Office Store
• Infini-T Cafe and Spice Souk
• jane
• Labyrinth Books
• McCaffrey’s
• Whole Earth Center

Shoppers with the Princeton Shops Sustainably bags at the jane store for some "cash mob " style shopping!

Thank you to all of these vendors for helping us raise money and awareness about sustainable shopping! We also thank Church & Dwight for providing the initial funding to support the bag sale, and Maria Bahlmann, a local graphic designer and typographer, for her wonderful design!

This side of the bag reminds people to shop local, shop fair trade, and BYOBag!

For more ideas on sustainable local shopping, please see our recent post “Turning Black Friday into Green Friday”. We also recommend a recent post by Michele Byers, Executive Director of the NJ Conservation Foundation about why we should all BYOBag this holiday season. And don’t forget to check the BYOBag Campaign page on this website regularly for updates!

A lazy approach to lawn care is sustainable!

So, for example, I have a compost pile but I do nothing to maintain it except add fruit and vegetable scraps and toss it with a pitchfork. There’s no bin, no effort to achieve just the right temperature or whatever it is you’re supposed to do with the darned thing.  It’s just a big lumpy pile.

But there’s no better example of my family’s lazy approach to the sustainable cause than our lawn. We don’t use chemicals partly because we’re against putting chemicals into the environment and partly because we simply can’t be bothered putting that much effort into our lawn. There are a dozen things we’d rather do than spend time worrying about dandelions.

My problem is only partly that I’m lazy. Sure, I dream about lying on the couch all day but I never seem to make it there.  Like most people in Princeton – I’m crazy busy keeping all those balls in the air as a teacher, a writer and a mother. My husband and I spend our days working, driving kids around, shopping, cleaning, and did I mention driving kids around? We can’t be bothered with lawn care. We can barely get the laundry done.

I think here’s room at the table for both the environmental couch potatoes – those who have the ideals but have no energy to spare and the full-fledged activists who are doing such a good job leading the cause. Even the laziest of us, myself included, can do things like bring bags to the grocery store (see Sustainable Princeton’s BYOBag Campaign) or join the food waste collection program. There are numerous other ways to get involved for those who hunger for more.

I am here to say that you can be lazy and still be an environmentalist.  I am the last person who can lecture anyone on the right way to do things but I can share my own struggles and occasionally offer advice from people who know how to do things the non-lazy way. I’m pretty sure there’s more to this composting thing than tossing the pile with a pitchfork, for example.  I’ll share what I’ve learned about ways we can all do our part and hopefully still find time for that elusive nap on the couch. Hey, we can dream, can’t we?