Regional Collaboration

logocircularThe Mercer County Sustainability Coalition

The Ewing Green Team is a founding member of the Mercer County Sustainability Coalition (MCSC), a partnership of green teams and sustainability organizations in Mercer County.  A number of these organizations exist throughout the state and are called regional hubs by Sustainable Jersey.

The MCSC was formed in 2013 to better coordinate the various green teams and sustainability organizations around Mercer County. The Coalition has worked to promote a regional and collaborative approach to sustainability initiatives. Environmental issues know no regional boundaries.    From our air and water quality, to transportation, to trash and recycling, these issues are common to all of the municipalities within a region.   It makes sense to promote sustainability regionally and to tackle issues together.  By uniting together coalition members can become greater than the sum of their individual parts.

Mission

The mission of the MCSC is to create a countywide partnership that allows partner members to work collaboratively, share resources and best practices, enhance our individual goals, and work together on sustainability initiatives that could not be achieved alone.

Goals

  • Identify countywide projects and initiatives where collaboration among the partner members is critical to their success
  • Reduce the GHG emissions of Mercer County
  • Increase adoption of the curbside organic waste program throughout Mercer County.

Meetings

The Coalition meets regularly to promote sustainability initiatives in the region.  Meetings are generally held on the 2nd Friday of each month at noon at the Dempster Fire Academy in Lawrence.   However, moving forward in 2017, that schedule will be mixed up a bit to include some evening meetings in order to allow for greater participation.  Check out the MCSC calendar to find the next meeting date and other scheduled events.

Activities

A number of Ewing Green Team members attend the monthly meetings and an EGT member created and administers the new website, http://mercersustainabilitycoalition.org. In addition, members participated in organizing the annual Farm to Table events promoting locally sourced food and area chefs at Terhune Orchards each July and the annual “green fair” called the Living Local Expo.

Events currently in the pipeline include:

  •  2017 Mercer Green Fest (renamed Living Local Expo) on March 18th
  • Solar Energy Information Session
    A 2017 planned winter presentation on the EnergySage Marketplace, new online solar marketplace developed by the firm EnergySage with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy. The EnergySage web-based interface offers consumers online comparison-shopping, providing an experience similar to buying an auto online. Because the online solar marketplace is open to all solar vendors who meet the EnergySage vetting criteria, consumers have access to multiple high quality contractors.