In March 2008, Cherry Hill adopted a comprehensive 10-point Green Action Plan and created Sustainable Cherry Hill, a community outreach group designed to educate, engage and connect the community for a sustainable future.

Mayor Bernie Platt and his staff worked with a group of eco-minded residents in creating the plan, which calls for a number of energy conservation initiatives, utilizing renewable energy at municipal facilities, significantly enhancing and expanding the township's recycling program, and adopting an annual tree-planting program for carbon offsets, among other actions that are resulting in a transformative period for this heavily developed regional shopping hub.

Sustainable Cherry Hill has also made impressive strides in less than a year, building a member database that has surpassed 800 residents, holding monthly educational events on various sustainable practices, and creating a board made up of community leaders, business owners and other critical stakeholders while securing its own 501(c)(3) status.

The township received a 2008 New Jersey Governor's Environmental Excellence Award for its initiatives, and will be continuing these efforts in partnership with SCH through 2009 and beyond, backed by a very supportive, responsive community.

Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt has always maintained an open-door policy in his office. So, when a group of residents approached him in 2007 looking for environmental leadership and a roadmap for sustainability, it was the first of many meetings. By March 2008, the Township had crafted and adopted a comprehensive 10-point Green Action Plan, in addition to launching a new community outreach group called Sustainable Cherry Hill (SCH). This resident-led organization is one of the first of its kind in South Jersey and is designed to engage, educate, and, most importantly, connect Cherry Hill’s greatest resources – its people – in order to achieve a sustainable future.

While interest and membership in SCH has increased exponentially with each event and community meeting the group has hosted, so too has public support for the various initiatives outlined in the Green Action Plan. Funding has been secured for an in-depth energy audit of the township’s municipal facilities, and, in the meantime, Cherry Hill has taken conservation and carbon-emission-reduction efforts to an unprecedented level: securing funding for a 100kW solar-panel project atop Town Hall; replacing incandescent light bulbs with CFLs and LEDs in every municipal facility, and encouraging residents to do the same (e.g., the township is giving away thousands of free CFL bulbs in partnership with the New Jersey Clean Energy Program); organizing community tree-plantings on public lands; and exploring green building incentives while adding a sustainability element to the township’s Master Plan.

The most visible component of this sweeping initiative has been the uptick in recycling. After a successful pilot, Cherry Hill implemented the RecycleBank program town-wide in summer 2008, which dovetailed with a switch to single-stream processing at Camden’s FCR plant. RecycleBank now offers residents the convenience of placing all of their recyclable waste in one large cart that’s picked up weekly and weighed. Each household has an online account, where points are accrued based on the recycling weight after each collection. Since fall 2008, the township has successfully negotiated with RecycleBank to bring the school and fire districts into the program as well.

Cherry Hill also created an electronic-waste recycling drop-off site at its Department of Public Works, which takes “anything with a plug” from residents six days a week, in addition to used or broken CFLs. Plastic bags are being targeted through a recycling partnership with the local ShopRite, with bag drop-off points placed throughout town.

Complementing the conservation efforts at the municipal level are the grassroots endeavors of SCH, which has held events ranging from a panel discussion on waste management (“Trash Talk”) to hosting an outdoor screening of “The 11th Hour” to holding educational green workshops on practices such as celebrating the holidays sustainably. In November, the group held a seminar on creating sustainable businesses, with the help of Rutgers’ green purchasing officer Kevin Lyons, who has joined the township’s sustainability mission along with several other people of influence at the county and state levels. SCH has also been hosting a popular monthly “Green Drinks” event, which brings together the area’s many likeminded people to discuss green ideas and sustainability issues in a fun, unstructured social-networking environment.

Together, the township government and SCH – now its own 501(c)(3) – are guiding Cherry Hill’s 70,000 residents through a remarkable transformation that could feasibly be replicated in any of the region’s municipalities. Being honored with this award will further spread the idea that working toward sustainability from the top-down and the bottom-up, simultaneously, gets meaningful and lasting results.

Considering that the Green Action and Sustainability Plan has been in effect for less than a year, the results have been astounding. In addition to starting a significant dialogue with residents about the importance of conservation, going green is generating savings as well as revenue in a time of fiscal uncertainty.

On the recycling end, the introduction of RecycleBank has resulted in nearly 6,000 additional tons of recyclable materials eliminated from the solid-waste stream in just six months. The diversion has already saved the township significant money in tipping fees, and is projected to save $2 million in this regard over the next five years, while bringing additional money to the municipal coffer from the sale of extra commodities.

Also, in the last six months, the township has diverted more than 13 tons of electronic waste from area landfills through its E-waste site, generating money based on the amount collected each month while keeping hazardous toxins from leaching out of landfills.

Funding was aggressively sought for both the solar-panel and energy-audit projects, and despite the current economic situation, more than $550,000 has been secured from state and federal sources for the solar project while the N.J. Clean Energy Program has agreed to subsidize a comprehensive energy audit. Both initiatives are expected to be completed by the fall, in addition to the placement of several rain barrels at various points along the exterior of Town Hall, which will serve the township in its water-conservation efforts in addition to providing hands-on learning stations for residents interested in installing similar systems at their own homes.

Another conservation effort getting attention and results is the new “No-Mow” plan, which allows 12 plots of township-owned land, previously mowed throughout the spring and summer, grow into meadows, providing additional wildlife habitation and saving Cherry Hill $25,000 a year in maintenance costs and thousands of pounds in CO2 emissions.

While the township has been converting traffic lights to LEDs for years, switching traditional indoor bulbs to CFLs has already begun saving money in utility costs and has proved a popular initiative with residents, who have been on the receiving end of a CFL sample-bulb distribution campaign that has resulted in the signing of thousands of Energy Star pledges to “Change the World, One Bulb at a Time.” SCH has drawn together an impressive board of nearly 30 area professionals, including green builders and architects, lawyers, grant writers, business owners and civic leaders. They represent retailers, restaurants, schools, religious institutions, civic groups and the government, among others.

In addition to holding monthly events, SCH is planning a three-day Future Search conference for the summer, which will bring together more than 100 area stakeholders in order to plan a sustainability agenda that addresses Cherry Hill’s one-, five- and ten-year goals. In addition to an award from the state's Department of Environmental protection, the grassroots momentum of SCH meeting the township government’s aggressive implementation of the Green Action Plan – for measurable results – has garnered Cherry Hill widespread media attention. The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Courier Post, USA Today, CBS 3, CNN, even the French news channel TF1, and many others, have covered the story of Cherry Hill’s successful recycling endeavors and its other green initiatives. In turn, Mayor Platt’s office has fielded calls from throughout the country, from residents and officials alike, all wanting to know how Cherry Hill was able to launch such a far-reaching sustainability movement in such a short amount of time. The answer is pretty simple: Collaboration results in transformation.