Category: Ewing’s Sustainable Future

Visioning 2 Event Set for Monday Night – Jan 12th

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Dear Ewing Neighbor,

The year 2013 marked the Ewing’s first Sustainable Jersey Bronze certification, a recognized milestone for NJ towns that are forward moving. In 2014, the Ewing Green Team (EGT), working in partnership with Township Administration, wanted to capitalize on that as well as other Township successes by gathering Ewing citizens to look ahead and prepare for coming challenges and to anticipate the many opportunities that await our town  by creating a multi-year vision and action plan for sustainability in Ewing!

On June 7th at the EGT’s first Community Conversation: Preserving Our Past, Transforming Our Future, we began a journey together to thoughtfully chart a course for our future.   That morning was lively and exhilarating and reminded us all why we chose to live in Ewing – wonderful neighbors all working hand in hand to envision the best future for our town.  Led by a pair of sustainability champions from Cherry Hill, we worked to Preserve Our Past, evaluating our township as it currently exists and identifying the aspects of our community that we most valued.  We then envisioned how to Transform Our Future, imagining where we would like our community to be in ten or twenty years.  All of this was to create a shared vision that would form the basis for developing goals and completing actions that move the community toward a more ideal, sustainable community.   As one participant stated:  “I truthfully wanted to skip it when I saw what a beautiful day it was, but I’m so glad that I went!  I think this will be a very beneficial process for Ewing, if it is communicated to and shared with the community.”

During the months following we refined and amplified the suggested actions believed most realistic for Ewing that best reflected citizen ideas.  Now on January 12, 2015 we are pulling the effort together.  Many of you contributed ideas and experiences during 2014.  Now on Monday we invite you back to continue the journey with us and help make the community vision a reality.  Monday night’s program will feature an overview of the highlights of our Sustainability Plan, a fusion of the collective values and aspirations that have been expressed by you all during the Visioning process.  This community wrap-up session will include also break-out sessions where you will be encouraged to further hone specific doable actions, suggest partnerships, additional sub-actions, individuals or businesses to contact, specific educational topics, etc.

Our Sustainability Plan can become a great resource for our town by allowing us to peer into the future and lend shape to the unknown. Together, through the Vision, we have been able to plan for the future of our town with imagination and thoughtful wisdom. We laid the foundation for what Ewing will look like 10 or 20 years in the future including perhaps a Ewing that will make it into NJ Monthly Magazine’s bi-annual Best Cities/Towns to Live, a front porch community where people no longer retreat to their backyards but commune more with their neighbors, where block parties for neighborhoods to come together are common, and a town that is more walkable and bikeable, and one that has more community plantings and more community gardens.  These visions and many more are addressed throughout the Vision Plan.

We invite you to journey with us to the Ewing of the future, as envisioned by you, our neighbors.

The Ewing Green Team

All Conversation documents are located at https://ewinggreenteam.org/conversation-documents.

You may reference the current draft plan at the bottom of the page at: https://ewinggreenteam.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/egt_strategic_plan.pdf.

IMPORTANT: We request that you please REPLY NOW if you are coming, to help us ensure sufficient seating and refreshments.

Date: this coming Monday January 12, 2015
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm.
Place: Community Room of the Ewing Senior & Community Center at 999 Lower Ferry Rd.

Community Visioning Summary

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This past June 7th a group of Ewing residents and neighbors met to have a conversation about a sustainable future for Ewing Township.   A number of key performance areas were identified by participants as being of primary interest during this first Community Conversation.  These areas included Community Engagement, Waste and Recycling, Conservation and Preservation, Development, Economy, and Community Branding.   Numerous great ideas emerged for each topic that merit refinement and development.

The Ewing Green Team plans to continue these conversations at our next three meetings.  We hope to build on the ideas generated to formulate practical actions that will advance the goals that attendees helped articulate.   All Ewing residents are welcome to join us in continuing the conversation at the coming Green Team monthly meetings at the Ewing Senior and Community Center:

  • On July 30th beginning at 6:30pm we will focus on building Community as well as Waste and Recycling issues in our town.
  • At our August 27th meeting at 7pm we will focus on Development, and on Conservation and Preservation. 
  • On September 24th  at 7pm we will focus on Community Branding and on Local Economy. 

Click on the image above for more details on the results of the day.  The initial report has been attached.

Our Conversation facilitators, Lori and Natalie will run the meeting on July 30th and return in October to help us develop a feasible set of action plans based on what is generated during these meetings.  Public participation in this process is key if we want to develop a broad, representative approach to shaping and preserving Ewing’s future.  We hope that you will be able to attend our meetings for any and all of the topics.  Please consider these meetings as opportunities to learn about and become involved in the wide range of issues the Green Team and Ewing residents are working on.  The Green Team also has additional actions underway or under study that were not discussed in June.

July Meeting Information

Date: June 30th
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Ewing Senior and Community Center, 999 Upper Ferry Road, Ewing
Topics: Community Engagement and Waste/Recycling

Community Conversation Initiates Discussion on Sustainability Issues in Ewing

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Just over two weeks ago over 50 concerned Ewing residents, township staff and elected officials  met to have a discussion about a sustainable future for Ewing Township.   It was a gorgeous day and in fact according to one attendee ” I truthfully wanted to skip it when I saw what a beautiful day it was, but I’m so glad that I went!  I think this will be a very beneficial process for Ewing, if it is communicated to and shared with the community.”

In fall of 2013, Ewing Township obtained its first bronze-level of Sustainable Jersey certification.  Using the funds made possible from  a $10,000 Sustainable Jersey Small Grant funded by PSEG Foundation, the team is using a community visioning process to plan for the next 3 year certification.   By consulting the community on what is important to them, the Ewing Green Team plans to respond with a coordinated strategy plan that is specific to what the people of Ewing value and want.  The  Community Conversation on June 7th was the first step in the process. The Green Team will now take the input gathered from the participants and work to develop and prioritize specific goals.  Look for development of specific topics developed at the visioning to be further refined at the summer Green Team meetings.  A second visioning workshop is targeted for fall 2014. The community be invited to come together again to review the sustainability goals that were developed.

Zero Waste Report

Our first conversation was a low-waste effort.  We saw many travel mugs and personal beverage containers.  We were pleased to obtain about ½ of a bag of compostable materials which were taken to the compost bins at the Community Gardens on Whitehead Road Extension.  There was about ¼ of a bag of actual “garbage” that will end up in a landfill.  And the rest of the trash was recyclable.  We kept the badges – the plastic containers are reusable (we hope see community members again during our meetings as we brainstorm for a plan and at the Fall review) and the paper insert was recyclable.

It required a little bit more effort to plan for a low waste event, but for a gathering of our size we felt that the results justified our efforts.  From the cloth napkins to the absence of extraneous handouts and paper, to the lack of individual sized containers (e.g. sugar packets, individual creamers and tubs and jars of condiments, etc.) and even to the double sided badge with the agenda, we tried to reduce our use of unnecessary packaging, plastic and garbage in general.

The public is invited to attend the next Ewing Green Team meeting on June 30 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ewing Senior and Community Center where the members will begin to brainstorm on some of the initial themes developed from the visioning session.

Community Conversation Less than One Week Away

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The countdown to the Ewing Green Team’s Community Conversation is in full swing.  On Saturday, June 7th, only 6 days from today, the Ewing Green Team will gather along with  other citizen activists for a morning of planning to begin a process of creating a comprehensive community sustainability plan.  Led by a team of facilitators from Maga Sustainability, Lori Braunstein and Natalie Barney, sustainability champions from Cherry Hill, we will endeavor to Preserve Our Past, recognizing where we have come from, evaluate our township as it currently exits and  identify what is it about our community that we most value.  With our strengths identified, we will then endeavor to discern how to Transform Our Future, imagining where we would like our community to be in ten or twenty years and to create a shared vision that will form the basis for developing goals and completing actions that move the community toward a more ideal, sustainable community

We are extremely excited to have this unique opportunity to formulate a sustainable future for our town in a more planned way based on the input of concerned citizens.  It will be the first time a global community focus on sustainability will have been addressed in an in-depth way in Ewing.  The process is being funded by a PSE&G grant through Sustainable Jersey.

Regarding the process, all ideas will be welcome.  Can you imagine a Ewing that will make it into NJ Monthly Magazine’s bi-annual Best Places to Live article?   One vision for a perfect future might also include more of a front porch community where people no longer retreat to their backyards but commune more with their neighbors. Where block parties for neighborhoods to come together are common.  One that is more walkable and bikable.  One that is prettier, with more  community plantings and more community gardens.  What would you like to see in our town?   We look forward to joining with other participants to each bring our unique visions for Ewing’s future.

Date: Saturday, June 7th
Time: 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Location: TCNJ, Education Building, Room 212

For more information email ewinggreenteam@gmail.com

Grant Helps Ewing Green Team Chart Its Course

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Ewing Township was just awarded a $10,000 grant from Sustainable Jersey through their small grants program.  The grant, funded by PSE&G, will fund a professional strategic planning team to facilitate the group and citizens of Ewing to create a multi-year vision and action plan for sustainability.  Ewing Green Team leadership worked with Township officials through a detailed selection process to choose a facilitating team from among 3 candidates.   MaGa Consulting, LLC from Cherry Hill was ultimately chosen.  Lori Braunstein and Natalie Barney of MaGa have experience organizing several New Jersey municipalities and were instrumental to Cherry Hill’s success in implementing an extensive sustainability plan.

The process begins now and will continue throughout 2014.   There will be two or three visioning sessions, for which invited participants from a broad range of constituencies, neighborhoods and municipal, civic and business leadership will lend their time and talent to create a vision and plan.  This strategic planning is the first step toward growing the organization and the community’s interest and coordinated effort to be able to make a strategic, positive impact for the future.  “We want to engage the citizens of Ewing in creating a vision for a very livable, prosperous Ewing that sustains itself for future generations” said Joanne Mullowney, communications officer for the Green Team.

While the vision for Ewing will be unique, actions will likely include aspects of the Sustainable Jersey framework.  Currently, the Green Team works in several sustainability areas, often in conjunction with partners such as the Ewing Environmental Commission and TCNJ.  These areas include community gardening and local food; municipal, business and home energy improvements; walking, biking and trails; recycling through the Shred Day events, and others.  In fall 2013, Ewing obtained Bronze certification and is endeavoring to achieve points for actions sufficient to achieve the Silver certification in the future.