How many events have you been to with plastic water bottles and eating utensils? Have you thought about the impact of all that trash on the environment? A growing number of event planners are becoming aware of their ability to minimize the environmental impact of these grand gatherings.

Lambertville’s “Ditching Disposables” campaign aims to clean up the plastic waste in their town, while leading the way for other NJ municipalities to do the same.

Sustainable Jersey and partners map out what it will take over the next ten years to avoid a climate catastrophe.

What happens when over 300 people take part in more than 50 different conversations about how to improve life in their communities? That’s what happened last week in Newark, when Creative New Jersey convened its largest-ever Call to Collaboration.

MSU’s PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies officially launched eight Green Teams last week, each made up of five students, and set to tackle separate areas of environmental study over the course of the summer.

You would think an organization called Creative New Jersey might be able to define what it means to be “creative”. But ask co-founder Larry Capo, and he’ll tell you they can’t - creativity defies definition. It’s too all-encompassing. That’s when Creative NJ realized it needed to include community change in ALL its forms, whether that be art or civics, collaboration or dialogue. So it comes as no surprise that Creative NJ’s 2019 Statewide Summit, held on May 20 at the Foundation for Educational Administration in Monroe Township, was actually made up of eight distinct presentations, each from one of Creative NJ’s community collaborations.

Turning trash into treasure may seem to be an illogical business proposition, but those who know the recycling industry well point out that it has been an important part of the U.S. and N.J. economies for decades, and we are constantly looking for innovative ways to dispose of the volumes of waste that we generate every day.

Plastic waste is everywhere, even when we can’t see it. A Rutgers conference convened researchers, business, policymakers and communicators to evaluate the scale of the problem and work on solutions.

Climate change will impact us all, and so it was appropriate that the panelists at the CivicStory forum on “Ecology & Economy: Resolving the Climate Crisis” should span the generations.

Equity and inclusiveness were the themes of NJ Future’s annual Forum. But it was clear from the speeches and workshops that fairness in community redevelopment can’t be accomplished without some very, very hard work. (A sense of humor helps, too.)

NJ ecologists compare notes on the changing profile of the state’s forests, and the threats to endangered plant species.

What if, as the NJDOT Commissioner suggests, we call it a “mobility system” instead of a “transportation system”? By “mobility” we don’t mean phone service. We mean moving around by any means. That was the theme of this year’s NJ Bike & Walk Summit, and it must be noted, the attendees all looked pretty fit!

The human-driven loss of species is the subject of Elizabeth Kolbert’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The 6th Extinction: An Unnatural History, and the journalist and author addressed a packed lecture hall at Princeton University last week to talk about it.

Green infrastructure experts from Philadelphia, NYC and NJ describe the challenges of re-engineering decades of urban building practices.

NJ residents will soon be able to “subscribe” to shares of solar power

Broader access to the benefits of cheaper and cleaner solar power is the goal of a new pilot Community Solar program. CivicStory has more on the plan to deploy shared solar arrays throughout the state.

Jersey’s Higher Ed Institutions to be Highly Connected

“Digital transformation” was the theme of EdgeCon2019, a three-day gathering of CIOs (chief information officers) from New Jersey higher education institutions, as well as from public school boards and healthcare organizations. NJEdge, the host organization, is prototyping a new “Research As A Service” network.

“Always uplift, never uproot.” That maxim was greeted with applause by the people who gathered in Trenton Wednesday to mark the release of “Thriving Cities: A New Urban Agenda”, a roadmap for strengthening New Jersey’s urban communities.

In a lively exchange with the audience of CivicStory’s forum on “News & Democracy,” panelists and attendees calculate their EQs (election quotients) - meaning, the total number of political representatives each of us votes for.   

We drive, ride, or fly by New Jersey’s massive port operations all the time - and yet we rarely stop to see or even think about the impact on people who live nearby. To paraphrase one of the panelists in a recent Rutgers conference on clean ports, the shipping industry is hiding in plain sight: everybody knows it’s there; everybody benefits from the trade that passes through them, but few take notice of the environmental costs.

While world leaders convene at the UN General Assembly this week, The Climate Group was making sure climate change was on the agenda of public discourse in New York. A series of climate-related events across the city included Monday’s sold-out gathering at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, focused on “Drawdown”, a massive international project comprising comprehensive strategies for reversing global warming. 

What happens when you combine computer skills, entrepreneurship, social services, youth, and a team of dedicated mentors all in one room? In Camden, you have Hopeworks, a remarkable nonprofit that mixes computer coding classes with life training. CivicStory spoke with students and staff and got a tour.