Dear Fellow Mayors,

Maplewood invites you to be our guests on Saturday, October 6, and participate in our first annual Maplewood Green Day.  There will be lots of excitement in Memorial Park from 10 AM to 4 PM next to Town Hall. This green fair will be a community celebration with food, music and fun.  Most importantly, the event’s focus is on the sharing of great ideas, green products and positive energy so as to promote a cleaner environment and more efficient use of resources.  The League’s Mayors’ Committee for a Green Future, which I co-chair along with Mayor Meryl Frank of Highland Park, will use Maplewood Green Day as a model for fairs around New Jersey – all in furtherance of the League’s desire to promote the State’s environmental goals.

This green fair will build on a community-wide grassroots effort to further Maplewood’s Environmental Action Plan, approved by the Township Committee on September 18, 2007.  We will demonstrate simple ways to incorporate ‘green thinking’ into everyday life.  Maplewood Green Day will exemplify sound environmental practices by producing close to zero waste, showcasing vendors who sell and practice green living, and committing to be a “carbon neutral” event.

Activities will include:

• Test drives in hybrid and clean-diesel cars by Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Ford
• An opportunity to learn all about Maplewood’s new Police Building, designed to be the first LEED certified “green” municipal building in New Jersey
• Explanations of solar and other energy alternatives, with sign-up opportunities
• Exhibitions by the Department of Environmental protection and other entities providing information on sound environmental practices
• A full and graphic demonstration of Maplewood’s Environmental Action Plan and its components
• Exhibitions by “carbon offset” experts which will demonstrate how individuals can  neutralize their “carbon footprints”, and how the fair will neutralize its own
• Workshop symposiums on composting, low-impact landscaping, green home cleaning and creating an energy efficient home
• Information from the New Jersey League of Municipalities
• Children’s environmental activities and interactive educational booths on recycling, global warming, the water cycle, clean wind, water and solar power
• The demonstration of a solar trailer which will provide power for the event
• Creation of junk art community sculptures with local artist and fair attendees
• Green vendors and local merchants providing utensil-free food

Maplewood has a long tradition of leadership in environmental initiatives—from its 10-year old jitney program which removes 300 cars a day from the roads, to its new green Police

Building scheduled for completion in 2007.  The Green Day fair was inspired during the planning phase of Maplewood’s Environmental Action Plan. 

Maplewood has been selected to receive a 2007 Climate Champion Award from Clean Air-Cool Planet, a leading non-profit finding and promoting solutions to global warming in the Northeast.   Susan Tierney, chair of Clean Air-Cool Planet’s Board of Directors noted that “Maplewood is receiving this year’s Climate Champion Award because the township exemplifies the municipal commitment that we would like all communities to emulate in reducing heat-trapping gases and solving the climate change problem.”  This fair is an example of Maplewood’s environmental commitment.

Maplewood Green Day will be held opposite Town Hall at 574 Valley Street.  The rain date is October 7.  For detailed information, go to www.Maplewoodgreenday.org. Please distribute this letter to your municipal officials. 

We will see you in the park on October 6.  It will be fun!

Sincerely,

Fred Profeta
Mayor, Maplewood Township and Co-chair State
League of Municipalities Mayors’ Committee for Green Future