Hillsborough Township was recognized this year as one of Somerset County’s most sustainable communities.
As part of Sustainable Jersey, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that aims to provide tools, training and financial incentives to support communities as they pursue sustainability programs, officials from the group announced on Nov. 19 that Hillsborough Township has once again met the requirements to achieve its eighth Sustainable Jersey certification in 10 years.
Hillsborough Township is also the most certified town in Somerset County; the second most certified town in New Jersey; and also earned a top-three finish in the medium population category (5,000 – 39,000). Hillsborough is one of 27 New Jersey municipalities to have attained certification at the silver-level this year.
The first three certifications for Hillsborough have been at the bronze-level. This is the fifth year in a row that Hillsborough has been certified at the silver-level. Silver certification means a municipality has made significant progress in a number of categories toward sustainability and is a state-wide and national leader.
“Hillsborough began sustainable initiatives in 2006 and was one of the first 34 ‘pioneer towns’ to enter into the Sustainable Jersey program in 2009,” Hillsborough Township Deputy Mayor Doug Tomson said in a statement. “To date, Hillsborough is one of just 14 towns to continuously maintain certification and call itself a 10-year certified municipality.”
To become Sustainable Jersey certified at the silver-level, officials said Hillsborough was approved for 46 actions for a total of 525 points, exceeding the 350 points minimum from 46 actions. In addition to reaching 350 points, each community had to create a green team and select at least three out of twelve priority action options.
Officials said Hillsborough did four of the 12 priority actions, where a minimum of three were required, by completing Municipal Facilities Energy Efficiency; Natural Resource Inventory; Prescription Drug Safety and Disposal; and Sustainable Land Use Pledge.
Additional notable actions the township received credits toward this year’s recertification included: Buy Fresh, Buy Local (Hillsborough Harvest); commercial energy efficiency outreach; green infrastructure planning; community forestry management plan; tree maintenance and planting programs; municipal communications strategy; improve public engagement in municipal government and in planning and zoning; and municipal building waste audit.
Previous actions taken by the township in recent years include support of local businesses; a buy local campaign (Shop Hillsborough); municipal complex rain garden; emergency communications planning; a green living and wellness fair; building a healthier community (Mayor’s Wellness Campaign); recycled paper purchasing; municipal on-site solar system; hunting and wildlife management; smoke-free parks; tree protection ordinance; and NJ Smart Workplaces.
“Thank you to the efforts of our Business Advocate and Sustainability Director, David Kois, who once again, spearheaded the submission along with the volunteers of the Sustainable Hillsborough Steering Committee and employees from our municipal departments,” Hillsborough Township Mayor Frank DelCore said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of the municipal employees’ involvement and expanding sustainable initiatives throughout the community.
“Sustainability and planning has been ongoing with the focus being to plan for the future to ensure our community has balanced economic, environmental and social objectives, developed with public input,” DelCore said.
The Hillsborough mayor also thanked Chris Obropta, chairman of the Sustainable Hillsborough Steering Committee and its members for “their dedication to Hillsborough Township.”
Sustainable Jersey has currently 80% or 450 of New Jersey’s 565 municipalities engaged in the municipal certification program and 339 school districts and 884 schools are participating in the Sustainable Jersey for schools certification program.
