We are excited about this opportunity from NASA to partner with PCCC on engaging students in hands-on learning and research with ����vlog faculty. This will expand our ability to prepare a diverse workforce that is ready to work on issues related to climate change and sustainability, two critical issues facing our society today.

Through its partnership with NASA, PCCC students will receive paid internships that will allow them—many of whom must work due to personal circumstances—to devote more time to their studies and remain competitive with other STEM students; have access to NASA resources for elite learning tools such as atmospheric sampling equipment and sensors; meet with NASA scientists through videoconferencing; and participate in the Environmental Science Club, to be co-sponsored by PCCC and MSU, where they can experience field trips, guest speakers, and STEM competitions.

I am looking forward to working with faculty from both institutions to incorporate climate change into PCCC courses and help prepare PCCC students for future STEM careers.

USGBC New Jersey’s prestigious awards celebrate the building projects that exemplify excellence in high-performance,  design and building; environmental stewardship; and community impact. They also serve to highlight the green building initiatives of the USGBC New Jersey community.

-certified buildings are critical to addressing climate change and meeting  goals, enhancing  and supporting more  communities. LEED is a holistic system that doesn’t simply focus on one building element, such as energy, water or health. Instead, it looks at the big picture, factoring in all critical elements that work together to create the best building possible.

Attendees heard from speakers, toasted the award winners and celebrated New Jersey’s collective sustainability accomplishments together.

Luckily there’s plenty to go around. The garden at ����vlog is flourishing. Zucchinis, corn, carrots and beets. Tomatoes, cucumbers, okra and squash – most of the harvest is donated to the Red Hawk Pantry. “There are so many different fun options in the garden right now,” Portes says.

Portes is the lead gardener of the community plots, a green space tucked behind the Student Center and run by the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies (PSEG ISS). A plastic owl stands guard to scare away birds, and sunflowers stand 10 feet tall. It’s a labor of love for about 100 Montclair staff, faculty and students, and over summer break, campers from inner-cities who pitched in planting, tending and harvesting.

Read the full article on the University News site.

Still, she was surprised by what she saw in Newark’s Ironbound and the proximity of polluters to children playing in the streets. “It was startling to me because of the health risks,” she says.

The industrial neighborhood – a concentration of factories and warehouses, a power plant, chemical refineries, the state’s largest garbage incinerator and a Superfund site – has long been the focus of protests and activists dedicated to uplifting this overburdened community of color, continuing a fight for clean air and land.

“The stories we heard of the activism – what’s been, what’s in the works, what’s going on – that aspect gave us hope,” adds Leanna Sanchez ’22, who joined Polius and other students in a ����vlog Anthropology class for a tour around the Ironbound.

Read the Full Story on the University Press Room

With support for sustainability initiatives from the PSEG Foundation to the University dating back to 2009, the most recent $425,000 grant addresses 2050 climate and energy initiatives through the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies (PSEG ISS) and the Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center (CESAC) at ����vlog. The work focuses on increasing sustainability in communities across the state – and enabling undergraduate and graduate students to expand and apply their STEM skills as they prepare for science-related careers.

“PSEG and the PSEG Foundation are proud of our longstanding partnership with ����vlog,” said PSEG Chief Operating Officer Ralph LaRossa, who also serves on the University’s board of trustees. “Our association with ����vlog is an exceptional example of a public-private partnership that works to benefit New Jersey and the communities we both serve.”

“����vlog’s partnership with PSEG is the perfect example of how we can work together to serve the public and solve the most vexing problems we face in society. Students are able to gain invaluable hands-on learning experiences and play an important role crafting sustainability solutions for the future; we are thrilled to empower them to be the difference makers in the world,” said ����vlog President Jonathan Koppell.

“The PSEG Foundation values our partnership with ����vlog and we’re incredibly proud of the collective impact that PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, the Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center and the Green Teams program have on the diverse communities we serve,” PSEG Foundation President Calvin Ledford said. “Through the collaboration of multi-sector partnerships, we aim to support complex local problem-solving that addresses climate change and positions young people to be innovative in their research to help improve lives.”

STEM Internships Solve Sustainability Challenges

PSEG Foundation support fuels the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies and makes possible the PSEG ISS Green Teams internship program based at Montclair State, which has been a platform for launching students into internships, green jobs and graduate and professional study since 2016. The program matches teams of students from multiple institutions and various disciplines with host corporations, organizations and municipalities to tackle the sustainability issues confronting our planet.

“The level of sophistication of Green Teams projects continues to increase as does the urgency to develop the kinds of solutions they are creating to address climate change and other sustainability needs,” said PSEG ISS Director Amy Tuininga. “The Green Teams program helps students develop skills that make them highly desirable job candidates, and their work as diverse, transdisciplinary teams provides actionable recommendations for organizations to improve sustainability. We believe for equity that we need to offer paid internships, and we are very grateful for the funding that makes this competitive internship opportunity possible.”

For the 10-week summer session that concluded in August, 60 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds and 33 colleges and universities served 12 hosting organizations to address sustainability challenges related to energy efficiency, food security, life cycle assessment, environmental justice, climate risk assessment, clean and renewable energies,stormwater management and more.

The six students on the PSEG Green Team worked on three deliverables: formulating waste reduction strategies for PSE&G; exploring environmental justice by performing a climate vulnerability assessment for New Jersey’s overburdened communities; and examining criteria of the European Union Taxonomy.

Matthew Murray, a junior at Montclair State studying Psychology and Justice Studies, appreciated the range of backgrounds on the team and the opportunity to delve into the professional world. “This experience pushed me to think differently. … It showed me how to work in a business and become comfortable with the language and day-to-day of corporate life. It was an amazing learning curve, and I am grateful for the insight I gained and the opportunity to apply my passion for sustainability.”

For Jennifer Poroye, an Environmental Geoscience major from SUNY New Paltz, serving on the Newark Community Food System Green Team enabled her to realize the scope of environmental science career options. “I want to work in a community-oriented role that is sustainability related, and through this internship I learned aspects of environmental justice and agriculture. Now I can see myself working along these lines.”

�ճ����Newark Community Food System Green Team assessed food security in Newark communities and developed tool kits distributed to 25 community gardens to help them quantify and value their food production with the goal of improving the local food system to provide affordable and healthy food.

Other projects delivering solutions for the sponsoring organizations included: The City of Newark Green Team to track the city’s progress on its sustainability action plan goals; NJ Transit Green Team to explore life cycle information on electric vehicle bus batteries; The Trust for Public Land Green Team to study stormwater management of parks and playgrounds in Newark and the region; as well as a Green Team working with ����vlog Professor Glen O’Neil on cutting-edge technology for producing hydrogen to store energy using 3D printers.

Public Research Center Supports Sustainable Energy Economy

Since the launch of the Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center as a public research and assistance center in 2018 with initial funding from the PSEG Foundation, the Center has researched and provided support for clean energy policies, technology and practices through research and education programs. It works closely with partners in government, including the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, as well as industry, academia, national labs and the nonprofit community. It also contributes toward clean energy analysis, providing long-term environmental and economic solutions for New Jersey and beyond, in order to build a sustainable energy economy.

“CESAC is contributing to the collective effort to build a sustainable energy economy in New Jersey. Our partnerships and projects demonstrate the value of collaboration between the academic community and private industry in identifying environmental and economic solutions related to clean energy,” said Pankaj Lal, PhD, founding director of the Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center and professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies at ����vlog.

Pralhad Burli, PhD, who earned his doctorate in Environmental Management from Montclair State in 2018 and worked at CESAC in its formative years, is now an economist at Idaho National Laboratory, specializing in applying economic analysis to decision-making in bioenergy and integrated energy systems. He is one of the more than 24 graduate and undergraduate students trained at CESAC in the last three years.

“Interacting with government agencies to understand the research questions they wanted to answer and presenting research to stakeholders were valuable experiences for me at CESAC … researchers gain important life skills to take with them in their careers,” said Burli.

Intrigued by the workings of wind turbines as a child, Nawal Shoaib, a graduate student researcher at CESAC, is now exploring the life cycle analysis of offshore wind farms and the value of offshore wind farms as tourist attractions, as she pursues a master’s degree in Earth and Environmental Science at Montclair State.

“You learn about teamwork at CESAC … there’s a circle of mentorship where I receive support from advisors and colleagues, and I share support with undergraduate students,” said Shoaib.

“My experiences with PSEG ISS and CESAC helped prepare me for my current job because I learned how to grasp different aspects across many fields and apply them,” said Mary Kenny, project engineer at EnergyCAP, LLC, completing a master’s degree in Sustainability Science. Kenny’s research focuses on providing suitability analysis for potential community solar site locations in New Jersey and life cycle analysis of onshore wind energy production. “Learning with people from all different backgrounds, majors and interests gives you the opportunity to grow and think differently.”

“Learning about sustainability made me more passionate to act more responsibly … by becoming more environmentally aware, we can reduce waste and improve the way we are living.”

Nearly 80 consultants, attorneys, accountants, engineers, licensed site remediation professionals and others, who work in the environmental sector, gathered at The Grand in Totowa for CIANJ’s first in-person event in more than a year. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Acting Commissioner Shawn LaTourette gave the keynote speech. CIANJ President Anthony Russo said the second annual event was held to showcase the extraordinary environmental work done throughout New Jersey.

We felt it was important to honor those who are committed to improving the environment. These award recipients are not only doing the work
but are doing so as leaders so that others can follow in their footsteps.

Awardees were chosen by an independent panel of judges from nominations submitted to the magazine by CIANJ members and the business community at-large. The panel of judges included Richard Lawton, Executive Director, New Jersey Sustainable Business Council, Amy Greene, Founder, Former President & Expert Advisor, Amy S. Greene Environmental, a Davey Company and Bob Martin, Former NJDEP Commissioner and Managing Director, Christie 55 Solutions. The environmental awards were the cover story of the .

In that issue the University’s project was detailed; in 2019, the MSU Facilities Green Team randomly selected sinks and showers throughout the buildings and measured the flow rates of the original aerators and showers as well as three alternative treatments, analyzed the data, made recommendations, and calculated a return on investment of approximately 63 days for 0.5 gpm aerators and 1.0 gpm showerheads. The Green Team calculated an expected savings of $313,334 and 39.2 million gallons of water over five years by switching to more efficient showerheads and faucet aerators. Facilities is replacing the fixtures now and implementing resident education. They will be analyzing water usage data for the spring and fall 2020 to determine actual savings compared to the previous year’s usage

The honorees, who all received awards made from recycled materials, included:

Waste Minimization

Holy Name Medical Center

Riker Danzig

Valley Health System

Reducing Water Usage

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Remington & Vernick Engineers

Cleaning Up Contaminated Sites

Envision Environmental, Inc.

Matrix New World Engineering

Brownfield Redevelopment

SESI Consulting Engineers

Whitestone Associates, Inc.

Recycling

JCP&L

The Steve Rich Group

Reducing Energy Usage/Green Building Design

Donnelly Energy

St. Peter’s Healthcare System

Ecological Restoration

Matrix New World Engineering

T&M Associates

Cleaning Up Local Communities/Environmental Education

NJEDA Brownfields Program

NJIT – NJ Brownfields Assistance Center

Sustainable Manufacturing Processes

New Jersey American Water

Remington & Vernick Engineers

Special Environmental Leadership Award

Emily Lamond, Member, Cole Schotz P.C.

Speakers

•  (Speaker) President and CEO, VentureWell (formerly NCIIA – Nat’l Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance)
•  (Speaker) Senior Program Officer, VentureWell
•  (Speaker) Director, PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, ����vlog
•  (Speaker) Instructor at Techlab Climate Change, University of Michigan
•  (Speaker) Director – Institute for Entrepreneurship, Colorado State University College of Business

If you live, work, study, or own a business or property in Jersey City, the city wants to know what you think about that statement.

The statement comes from a survey developed by the Jersey City Office of Sustainability. Last August, in a collaboration with ����vlog’s PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, the city agency completed a study estimating the mass of Jersey City’s greenhouse gas emissions. Now, as the city prepares to draft a climate action plan — a blueprint for decreasing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions — it is looking to its residents for feedback.

According to the Office of Sustainability’s study, Jersey City emitted nearly 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent gases in 2016. That’s a catch-all metric for determining the harmfulness of various greenhouse gas emissions.

That figure is slightly higher than other cities of the same size, said Amy Tuininga, the director of the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, who worked on the study to map the city’s greenhouse emissions. Because many people pass through the city on their way to other places, this means it must contend with increased emissions.

A lot of cities are either where people live or where people work. (Jersey City’s) not the beginning or the ending of peoples’ commutes.

Read the .

The PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies is an exemplification of what Public Service founder Thomas McCarter wrote early in the 20th century that would become our company’s mission: “To help make New Jersey a better place to live.” That’s a guiding principle for our company that still holds true today – to build thriving communities.

Today, we work toward this goal by helping people to use less energy, to ensure that the energy they do use is generated in a way that is clean, green and climate-friendly, and to do these things while ensuring that delivery of that energy is as reliable and resilient as ever.

We call this our “Powering Progress” vision – and it’s that vision that brings us together with organizations like ����vlog.

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