By Allison Perrine
Rumson has reached the highest level in the Sustainable Jersey program for its environmental advances and will now focus on earning gold stars for ecological practices.
RUMSON – With more sustainable practices under its belt than ever, Rumson Borough has been deemed a silver-certified municipality by Sustainable Jersey.
The recent achievement was awarded to the borough just two years after it joined the certification program through Sustainable Jersey, a nonprofit that helps communities statewide pursue key sustainable practices. It’s the highest rank municipalities can earn, said Kristen Hall, chair of the Rumson Environmental Commission. “We are so proud of our town for its incredible effort to become more sustainable and, in the process, achieve the silver level certification for Sustainable Jersey. We join only three other municipalities in Monmouth County – Red Bank, Middletown and Asbury Park – to achieve this honor and we are particularly proud of our achievement given we are such a relatively small community in comparison,” said Hall. “Small but mighty.”
According to Sustainable Jersey, municipalities must follow specific criteria to reach silver certification, including the establishment of a mandatory green team, implementation of at least three of 13 identified priority actions and must complete other actions in at least eight of 18 categories provided by the nonprofit. Each accomplishment has a specific point value and to be silver, the town must garner a total of at least 350. In 2020, the borough received its bronze certification, which can be achieved through the establishment of a green team, implementation of at least two of 13 priority actions and completion of actions in at least six of 18 categories, totaling at least 150 points. Rumson has been aiming for silver since then and has come up with “some interesting projects” to get there, including the Rumson Green Business Seal program.
As a municipality surrounded by water on three sides, one of the Rumson Environmental Commission’s focuses in the new year will be water conservation.
According to Hall, the green seal program helps businesses learn how to become more sustainable and motivates them to make key changes to protect the borough’s natural resources. “This program is a great example of how our commissioners work creatively to find ways to ‘educate, facilitate and motivate’ members of our community to become more sustainable. There are so many ways we can adopt behaviors that help protect the natural resources in our beautiful town,” Hall told The Two River Times in September at the program kickoff. Additionally, the commission has implemented the Rumson River Friendly Challenge which promotes the adoption of river-friendly practices to keep local rivers clean.
All who participate and have achieved River Friendly status are celebrated at Rumson’s annual Rally for the Two Rivers Eco-Fest event co-hosted with Clean Ocean Action each summer. Additionally, the commission established the Rumson Junior Green Team to help provide an avenue for high school and college-age students to get involved in helping their town become more sustainable. “We would like to thank Kristen and her dedicated team of volunteers for their continued hard work to preserve our natural resources here in town,” said Mayor Joseph K. Hemphill on behalf of the Rumson Borough Council. “This certification speaks to the efforts of this incredible group and its commitment to our community. Congratulations on a great accomplishment.”
While silver certification is currently the highest level a municipality can achieve, Sustainable Jersey offers gold stars to communities that reach high levels of sustainability in energy, health or water quality, Hall said. For Rumson, the focus will be on water – “an important part of our way of life.” The commission will be publishing a draft version of a Natural Resource Inventory for its website in the coming days which will possibly be something the town can adopt in the next year, Hall said. It is “one of the core requisites” for a gold star in water.
The borough is also launching a series of work- shops on green infrastructure practices that residents can use to help prevent stormwater runoff “and the pollutants that come with it” from entering the borough’s waterways. The first was held Dec. 1 in collaboration with American Littoral Society and taught homeowners how to install rain gardens on their properties. The commission will plan four more in the winter and spring of 2022, Hall said. For more information, visit rumsonnj.gov.
The article originally appeared in the December 2nd – 9th, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
