Sustainable Jersey™ Wins National Strong Communities Competition

on Oct 12, 2010

Trenton, NJ – Amidst fierce competition, Sustainable Jersey triumphed as one of three winners of the
national Ashoka/Community Matters Changemakers competition, “Strong Communities: Engaging Citizens,
Strengthening Place, Inspiring Change.” Sustainable Jersey will receive $5,000 and recognition as a top social change
innovation in the country.

The Strong Communities competition was designed to identify innovative projects and ideas that engage citizens to
steer change and build strong communities across the United States and Canada. Sustainable Jersey was selected
from 260 entrants in the competition.

The entrants were narrowed to eight top programs by a panel of expert judges including Majora Carter, Founder of
Sustainable South Bronx and President of the Majora Carter Group; Rich Harwood, Founder and President of the
Harwood Institute for Public Innovation; Jared Duval, author and Fellow at Demos; and Bonnie Shaw, Founder and
Director of BYO Consulting.

As a finalist, Sustainable Jersey won a free trip to the national CommunityMatters’10 conference in Denver, Colorado
from October 5-8, which brought together leaders, thinkers and doers working to build stronger communities.
Sustainable Jersey program founders Randall Solomon and Donna Drewes of Municipal Land Use Center at The College
of New Jersey (MLUC@TCNJ) and Fred Profeta, Jr. of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities’ Mayors’
Committee for a Green Future (NJLM MCGF) went to Denver to make a presentation to the conference attendees.

On-line voting allowed the general public to review the entrees and vote for the finalists. Three winners were
announced in Denver on October 8: 1) Sustainable Jersey, 2) Sustain-A-Raisers, a program in the Lakes Region of
New Hampshire, and 3) the Making Connections Network, a program in Louisville Kentucky.

Sustainable Jersey launched a social media campaign to get its active network of Green Teams, municipalities,
community members, state and local agencies, academic institutions, businesses and sponsors to vote for the project on-line. Supporters and friends of the program were engaged not only across New Jersey, but nationally and even internationally. “Literally thousands of people have contributed to what Sustainable Jersey is so far. We’re excited to bring home this win to New Jersey,” said Randall Solomon of MLUC@TCNJ.

Fred Profeta, Jr., Chair of the MCGF added, “Sustainable Jersey has empowered our municipalities and citizens to work together for a more sustainable future and our network of supporters certainly rallied during the on-line voting.”
Sustainable Jersey led the voting by a significant margin, capturing approximately 52% percent of the total vote.  

Sustainable Jersey is the most successful statewide municipal sustainability certification program in the country.  Over 6,700 people in New Jersey have participated in statewide training and outreach events in 2010. The program has distributed over half a million dollars to New Jersey communities to support an estimated 1,500 actions taken "on the ground" to make communities more livable, environmentally friendly and prosperous. Sustainable Jersey now looks forward to its annual Sustainable Jersey Awards Luncheon on November 16th at the NJLM Annual Conference to recognize municipalities that have registered, achieved certification and demonstrated outstanding achievement.

About CommunityMatters

CommunityMatters is an interactive exchange for individuals and organizations working to engage citizens and build
strong, vibrant communities from the ground up. CommunityMatters fuels a growing network of leaders, thinkers and
doers in a variety of disciplines – planning, sustainability, health, democracy, education, economic development, and
the arts. CommunityMatters is a project of the Orton Family Foundation, in collaboration with other partners.
www.communitymatters.org

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