Hoboken Green Drinks is once again trying something new! This month, we’re joining hMAG to put on a mixer. We expect this to be a great networking opportunity and a fun time! We’re raffling off some great items. Proceeds from the raffle will be donated to the Hoboken Quality of Life Coalition. There will also be drink specials and complimentary snacks.

When: Thursday June 17th from 7 – 9 pm
Where: The Shannon on 1st Street between Washington and Bloomfield Streets

Raffle items:
- 2 Handbags from Elliot Lucca
-Gift Basket from Rebellations Hair & Makeup Studio
-Gift from SXE Fitness Apparel
-$25 Gift Card, T-shirt & Hat from The Taco Truck
-1 Free Exercise Class & Kleen Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottle from Local Barre

Whether you’re interested in networking, mingling, or a fun way to start your Thursday night, join us for what’s sure to be a good time!

Go to the hMAG website and read the article. To learn more about the strides being made by our green buildings sub-committee, click on “Contact” and send us an email.

Recycling at this festival was a huge improvement over the attempt to recycle at the fall 2009 festival. At that event, all of the recyclables collected had too many contaminants to bring to the recycler. Sadly, it all went into the trash. Learning from these past mistakes, Jason Tecza (pictured) and JD Capuano came up with a new plan to get festival-goers to recycle and reached out for help to make it happen.

Our success is attributable to collaboration with the City of Hoboken – both Environmental Services and Cultural Affairs, help from Greener Corners, cooperation from the food vendors, and volunteers! The city was very excited about doing this and was a good partner in getting the special bins set up and in collecting the materials. Check out the administration’s excitement on the City’s website. Greener Corners is looking to bring recycling to the streets of Hoboken everyday and one of their co-founders, Aaron Klein, brought us special temporary recycling bins with clear bags just for the festival.

What really helped make this happen was volunteers wearing bright green shirts displaying “Hoboken Recycles” on the front walking around monitoring the recycling containers for contaminants. They adorned latex gloves and picked out plastics that aren’t yet recycled in Hoboken (with a 5 or 6 stamped on them) and any trash that mixed in. The volunteers also picked recyclables out of the garbage. Aaron helped with this effort. The volunteers were happy to see festival-goers largely putting items in the right receptacles – recycling vs. landfill waste.

One other ingredient added to the success. We would like to thank the food vendors who almost unanimously allowed us to tape signs instructing festival-goers to recycle on their booths.

Look for more great things we’re pushing to improve recycling in Hoboken!

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Fixing Leaks Across the Nation
Help make Fix a Leak Week a flowing success! Visit the WaterSense website and click on Flow to learn about events and programs taking place near you. Also find step-by-step instructions on how to fix a leak and much more!

Old Business:

Municipal Energy Audit: Concord Engineering (contractor conducting municipal audit) is almost done with energy audit; the auditor told JD that the company will send it off next week for evaluation. The City has applied to the state for a share of the federal “Stimulus Bill” funds to help carry out some of the recommendations for energy savings.

QLC website overhaul: JD reported on the progress of transitioning QLC and CGH material to a new, improved design that will allow (and require) regular updates.

Green Drinks: Jason Tecza reminded all that the next Green Drinks event will take place at Maxwell’s on Tuesday the 18th, 6 – 8 pm

Outreach – OLG Funfest: JD reported on the QLC & CGH booth at the Our Lady of Grace Funfest in June. We signed up a lot of people for raffle for $50 gift certificates, but the first three names we pulled never responded to emails, so next time we’ll ask for phone numbers. Certificates will be reused.

New Business:

LEED ordinance: Subcommittee was recently resurrected after going on hiatus prior to during election cycle. Goal is to research and propose environmental requirements for redevelopment zones & new development. Rich Hofbauer is now heading subcommittee. Looking into some other sources for LEED ideas – Neighborhood program just introduced by USGBC – might be a good fit for Hoboken.
• John Branciforte reported on Zoning Board of Adjustment – might be a good idea to ask City Council to pass an ordinance to encourage ZBA to use LEED Certification Silver/Gold as a “positive criteria” in evaluating variance requests. John says ZBA has no guidance from Council re: the wishes of the community.
• Another attendee (Tom) reported on a program in NYC: Battery Park City Authority is a good model; they wrote their own guidelines for developers –part of the requirements for getting a plan approved. One incentive could be waiving planning/zoning application fees if building meets LEED criteria – that might even be a good incentive for home remodeling & smaller developments.
• Jason Tecza raised question of passing a law requiring developers to meet the criteria of a privately operated entity (USGBC) – makes it vulnerable to being overturned in court. Jason also mentioned that city needs a zoning watchdog. Jason and Joel Gephart volunteered to watchdog the board. Jason also asked if perhaps a resolution better than an ordinance (nonbinding)?
• Rich Hofbauer: wants to incorporate LEED guidelines into Master Plan, ideally, but may be too late. There will be legal & consensus challenges (developers’ complaints about the cost burden of LEED are a smokescreen). For state or city-owned land, LEED can be required. Need to build a strong plan that can’t be undone by future mayors and councils. We as a committee need to better understand how ZBA and building codes work here in Hoboken. LEED criteria for residential development still have a long way to go – still a little vague & will evolve. Should yield benefits for owners & residents. Mentioned an affordable housing project in the Bronx that is already winning accolades for green aspects.
• Jesse Halliburton raised issue about people who are upside down on their mortgages – can they be given some sort of incentive, like property tax abatement, for energy-saving home improvement? Rich H (background in mortgage industry) mentioned that NY State is offering financing incentives for reducing energy consumption through home improvements – involving the energy utility by reducing utility rates over the life of the loan (stays with the home through ownership changes). JD asked him to take on responsibility for researching this as a future forum topic. And contact PSE&G to see what programs they offer for funding replacement with energy efficient furnaces, boilers, etc.
• Eduardo Gonzales – Could the city bond for money for a program like that, with a credit on property taxes or participating banks with low-cost loans for anyone who takes advantage of the program. Helen said that’s what they used in the 1970s for home improvement loans (at the state level).
• JD asked Rich what else the subcommittee needs. Rich: help with research, for example, into the LEED neighborhood development pilot program – Helen says that SW Parks group already looked into this & might have some information to share. We should encourage people to contact CGH if they’re interested in helping.
• John Branciforte: mentioned another resource for researching the issues. The Citizen Action Group – nonpartisan group that sponsors voter training sessions in how to get involved & get things done through local government channels – could use LEED ordinances and zoning as a topic for training citizens in how to navigate public information channels. John is planning one on the redevelopment process.

Hoboken Housing Authority & Save The Youth: HHA is responsible for overseeing public housing buildings & residents who qualify for HUD section 8 housing vouchers. Carmelo Garcia, head of commission, is already making some green changes: Showerheads, light fixtures, etc. He is also involved in the Save the Youth Academy program (because lots of kids in HHA are in the STY program), an after-school program that focuses on giving the kids life skills & activities. Also seniors in the HHA senior buildings. Garcia and the board are looking for help creating an education program for green issues: recycling, basic energy conservation, creating videos for PSAs, etc. Need to find volunteer video producers to help teach skills. They’re open to suggestion, need a curriculum. Maybe field trips to farms that supply the green market. Age groups: 5 – 9, 10 – 13, 14 – 18, seniors. Helen is applying to PSE&G for a grant to help develop this program.

Another attendee asked if we’ve done much research into available grant monies for educational outreach programs. Helen said a lot of money has dried up. “TEACH” program from NJ DOE (Helen said we tried to get a program started in the schools through this program, but school administration wasn’t interested. Synagogue did a program last year teaching the kids how to perform a home energy audit.)

JD suggested that CGH form a subcommittee on Community/Youth Outreach. JD volunteered to serve as chair, Pat Samperi, John Branciforte. Jason suggested expanding it to include local schools – maybe Youth Outreach? With new schools superintendent, Carmelo Garcia relationship, new majority on the board of education…there’s a better chance this year at getting a program started with the schools. Jesse suggested maybe even ask property owners who aren’t going to develop land soon if they would donate it for youth farming program for short-term. However, Amy (environmental engineer) said we might need to test for toxins in that kind of land.

Fall Arts & Music Festival – an opportunity to raise awareness of our efforts. JD proposed doing another raffle, a white board for collecting ideas for reducing Hoboken’s carbon footprint, recycle bin? We can ask Stevens students to help (and kids from the STY program?). From 11 am – 6 pm. Contact JD if you can volunteer, or offer ideas. He’ll send out an email looking for volunteers. Helen got the email from Gerri for vendors (Carly also has one).

Other business:

After some lively discussion about the need for the city to improve its labeling for recycling, cans for collection, composting center, etc., the committee agreed to form a Recycling Subcommittee. Education doesn’t help until you make it easy to separate refuse for collection. Carly mentioned that in Japan, there were collection cans with four different slots. JD – you need to tie it to finances – how much can city save on garbage collection? Rich – we need to find out how the city is currently collecting garbage…there are programs in the city. Jason, Melissa, Carly volunteered to work on this subcommittee. Helen said she’d bring someone from the city to meet with us.

Steve Fahmie proposed a subcommittee for “Street Tree” audit & replacement. Could get the kids involved in that. Or set up a page where people can report distressed trees in their neighborhood.

JD spoke with an entrepreneur in JC about a program to teach small businesses how to be more environmentally conscious. We could play a role in engaging local business owners. Will put on the agenda for next meeting.

Helen announced that QLC is hosting a meeting next Wed. Aug. 19th @ St. Matthews rec center on Beth Mason’s proposed plan for upper NW corner neighborhood. Also looking to schedule something for Western Edge group, and Hudson rail yards development.

Lots of people stopped by to write ideas on our white board on how to make Hoboken Greener. There were some great ideas! Find them on our “Greenlight On” page.

Find out more about Coalition to Preserve the Palisades Cliffs and their effort to protect this natural resource and push for smart development by visiting the group’s facebook page.