The City of Lambertville Environmental Commission was awarded a $20,000 Sustainable Jersey grant funded by the PSEG Foundation. On May 7^th, four $20,000 grants, seven $10,000 grants and twenty-five $2,000 grants were distributed to municipalities in fifteen New Jersey counties.  The grant awards will fund a range of projects including green infrastructure, park restoration, single-use plastic reduction campaigns, rain gardens, environmental resource inventories, creative placemaking, green team capacity building and more. The Lambertville Environmental Commission, chaired my resident Liz Magill Peer, sought this grant to support its Ditching Disposables initiative.



From Left to Right: Randall Solomon, Executive Director, Sustainable Jersey, Rick Thigpen, Senior Vice President Corporate Citizenship PSEG and Chairman of the PSEG Foundation, Cait Shoemaker, Lambertville Resident and Research Contributor to Environmental Commission, Liz Magill Peer, Chairperson, Lambertville Environmental Commission, Cyndy Jahn, Commissioner, Lambertville Environmental Commission, Anne-Marie Peracchio, Chairperson, Sustainable Jersey Board of Trustees,


"I’m so proud of the work our Environmental Commission is doing to educate our residents and empower our businesses to move to a more sustainable future,” says Julia Fahl, Mayor of Lambertville.  "Their work has made Lambertville a standard bearer for the progress toward more sustainable municipalities.”

“From climate change, to water, waste and equity issues, so many of the big sustainability concerns are reaching a crisis point. This investment in sustainability projects will have lasting benefits to New Jersey,” said Randall Solomon, executive director for Sustainable Jersey. He extended his congratulations to all of the towns that received grants. “We're seeing exciting results from previous grant projects, and we are looking forward to similarly productive, innovative progress from the current group of awardees,” Solomon added.

The Ditching Disposables project was developed to support the implementation of the City's ordinance limiting the use of single-use plastic bags, plastic straws, polystyrene foam and Styrofoam containers by businesses in the City of Lambertville, passed in September 2018.  The goal of the Ditching Disposables initiative is to assist residents in the adoption of this ordinance via education, communication, workshops, and certifications.  The City of Lambertville also aims to celebrate those local businesses who most exemplify the goals of a greener Lambertville with the Sustainable Business Awards.

The PSEG Foundation has contributed 1.9 million dollars in funding to the Sustainable Jersey grants program for municipalities and schools. “Supporting local municipalities in their efforts to build sustainability programs puts resources where they’re needed and aren’t always available, and PSEG is proud to do so,” said Barb Short, president of the PSEG Foundation. “Sustainable Jersey helps bring real change and has a lasting impact to neighborhoods throughout New Jersey.”

Proposals were evaluated by an independent Blue-Ribbon Selection Committee. The Sustainable Jersey grants are intended to help municipalities make progress toward a sustainable future in general, and specifically toward Sustainable Jersey certification. Nearly 90 percent of the New Jersey population lives in a registered or certified Sustainable Jersey community. Currently, 450 municipalities, or 80 percent of New Jersey municipalities, are registered with Sustainable Jersey.

For more information about the Ditching Disposables Initiative, please follow the Lambertville Environmental Committee of Facebook at facebook.com/LambertvilleEnvironmentalCommission or visit the website at lambertvillenj.org/boards/environmental-commission.


The Lambertville Environmental Commission (LEC) serves the city in its efforts to protect the environment, providing innovative, cutting-edge recommendations to the Mayor and Council and educating the public about the environmental challenges facing the City.

The Environmental Commission was the driving force behind the City Third Can Recycling Program, targeted at the 15% of the waste stream that is comprised of food waste and organic material. Taken together with the City’s single-stream recycling program, more than 1,000 tons of recyclable materials are removed from the waste stream each year. The LEC was also essential to the adoption of the dedicated Open Space Fund that has enabled the City to purchase and protect its natural beauty and its environmentally-sensitive areas as well as maintain and upgrade its parks and hiking trails.

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Sustainable Jersey is a non-profit that provides tools, training and financial incentives to support communities as they pursue sustainability programs. Currently, 80 percent or 450 of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities are participating in the municipal certification program and 323 school districts and 843 schools are participating in the Sustainable Jersey for Schools certification program. In 2019, Sustainable Jersey is celebrating its 10th Anniversary with a year-long program that will include special events to educate and engage the Sustainable Jersey community and create a vision for the future.

Sustainable Jersey’s partners include the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, Sustainability Institute at The College of New Jersey, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy Program. Program underwriters include the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy Program, the Surdna Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the PSEG Foundation. The Sustainable Jersey Grants Program for municipalities is funded by PSEG Foundation and the Gardinier Environmental Fund. Platinum sponsors are South Jersey Gas (10th Anniversary Sponsor) and New Jersey Natural Gas (10th Anniversary Sponsor). Silver Sponsors are NJM Insurance Group, Bayshore Recycling (10th Anniversary Sponsor), Elizabethtown Gas (10th Anniversary Sponsor), New Jersey American Water (10th Anniversary Sponsor), Jersey Central Power and Light (10th Anniversary Sponsor) and Northfield Bank (10th Anniversary Sponsor). The Bronze Sponsors are Covanta, Greener by Design, Good Energy, Florio, Perrucci, Steinhardt & Cappelli LLC, First Environment, Roux Associates, Republic Services and Ørsted.

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