Wyckoff Seeks to Be 'Model' of Sustainability

When it comes to environmental sustainability, Wyckoff already ranks high among New Jersey towns. But the Environmental Commission thinks the township, its businesses and residents can take it a step further.

Wyckoff earned a ‘bronze’ status in 2011 from Sustainable Jersey, an organization that certifies municipalities for a host of sustainability efforts. Over half of New Jersey municipalities have now earned the certification, and the environmental commission is now hoping to bring the township up to the organization’s silver level.

 “Achieving the bronze was a lot of accounting of what we had already done in the township,” the commission’s chair, Harriet Shugarman, said. The push for the bronze, she explained, mostly involved reporting the many efforts the town had already undertaken toward sustainability, such as education programs run through the schools.

The bronze certification is good for three years, so the township has another year to earn points toward retaining their status, but Shugarman said the commission and the township’s Green Team will work toward earning additional points to bring sustainability up a notch.

Some of those efforts, she said, include the Rain Garden already installed at the Wyckoff Library, recycling resolutions to be considered by the township committee, and a pledge program among recreation sports athletes to eschew plastic water bottles.

“All of these Sustainable Jersey things are supposed to be community based programs where you work with a lot of different groups within the community,” Shugarman said.

One of the more unique of these efforts is a Green Business Program, which certifies local businesses for sustainable efforts and is one of only a handful of such initiatives in the state.

“We’ve actually served as a model community for Sustainable Jersey with this program that we’re developing,” Shugarman said.

The program recognizes local businesses for efforts to recycle and make their business practices more environmentally sustainable.

Chamber of Commerce president Jay Vidockler, whose Chocolates, Etc. was one of the first four businesses certified under the program, said that when he received a questionnaire from the commission about his environmental habits, he found that he already incorporated many of the program’s goals into his business.

“The whole idea is to make businesses more aware of—with some minor changes—how easy it is to be more environmentally sustainable,” he said.

He said the chamber of commerce is planning a push during the fall to get more businesses on board.

And although the goal is to help the environment, for businesses there may be a boon.

“It wasn’t my goal at the time—I just thought it was the right thing to do—but several new customers came in that made a special trip just because they saw [the certificate],” he said.

Signing onto sustainability has its added benefits for the township as well. The certification opens the township up to grants for environmental efforts, and the town has already received $4,000 in separate grants for publicizing and educating residents on sustainability, Shugarman said.

She said that a higher certification may bring in more money for larger environmental initiatives.

“I think it puts Wyckoff on a different footing than other communities if we can attain it,” she said.

But all of this is an added bonus, officials say, and the goal remains simply to join with other municipalities around the state to give a forward push to environmental efforts.

“I think it’s been a way for members of our town to be involved in a program that helps the community,” Shugarman said. “I think it’s opened a lot of two way conversation and gives people in town the chance to be part of something they’re passionate about.”