Environment Blogs & Reports
Report Release: 15-Minute Neighborhoods: A Pathway to Creating Healthier, More Just, Resilient, & Sustainable Communities in New Jersey
By Jon Carnegie, June Greeman, and Jacob Thompson Read Report Over the past several years, several policy threads have gained prominence in New Jersey. These include adapting to climate change, advancing social justice, [...]
Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study
By Sania Murtuza, Vibha Venkataraman, Tai Vu, & Yao Sun, Ph.D. Guided by the theoretical and practical frameworks from the literature, the research team led efforts to specify neighborhoods in New Jersey [...]
Report Release: Resilience Through Functionality: Outcome-Driven Quantification Approach with Stakeholders-Based Calibration
By Michel C. Boufadel, Ph.D., P.E., Firas Gerges, Ph.D., Hani Nassif, Ph.D., P.E. In the face of escalating challenges posed by climate change and rapid urbanization, community resilience is of paramount importance. Quantifying resilience is a crucial step in identifying vulnerabilities and enhancing the capacity of communities to withstand [...]
Delivering the Benefits of Offshore Wind to Communities: How New Jersey is Making Progress
By Jessica Parineet. In support of the state’s goals, Governor Murphy’s administration has set an ambitious target of 11,000 megawatts (MW) of installed offshore wind capacity in New Jersey by 2040 [...]
Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study
By Yao Sun, Ph.D., Avanish Kulkarni, & Sania Murtuza. As the global emphasis on sustainability grows everyday— it is crucial to assess different alternatives for energy that does not require the burning of fossil fuels and nonrenewable energies in general [...]
Climate Education Initiatives in New Jersey
By Josephine O’Grady. According to the 2020 New Jersey Scientific Report on Climate Change, New Jersey is warming more quickly than the rest of the Northeast region. The state is experiencing a myriad of climate-related challenges [...]
Gathering Insights for a Resilient New Jersey
By Firas Gerges (Princeton), Michel Boufadel (NJIT), Hani Nassif (Rutgers). Resilience is a critical aspect of building sustainable and thriving communities, especially in the face of increasing climate change impacts. As part of ongoing efforts to enhance community resilience [...]
50 Years of Protecting the Shore: What’s Next for CAFRA?
By Will Parker. For fifty years, New Jersey’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) has been protecting coastal resources and guiding development patterns along the shoreline. To commemorate that anniversary, this project sought to understand [...]
Partnerships, Targeted Goals, and Impacts: A Revised Implementation Strategy for the Great American Outdoors Act
By Josephine O’Grady. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) of 2020 promised the investment in national parks that the United States desperately needed. Since 1980, the number of visitors to national parks [...]
Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-based Crowdsourcing Study
By Yao Sun. The 2019 New Jersey Energy Master Plan: Pathway to 2050 mentioned that the state’s Clean Energy Act commitments include, “Developing a community solar program that allows more state residents to benefit from solar energy [...]
Report Release: Access to Nature for People with Disabilities: Barriers, Challenges, and Opportunities
By Josephine O’Grady. In New Jersey, 24% of the population has a disability. People with disabilities suffer from a wide range of health disparities, including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Through the Inclusive Healthy Communities (IHC) Grant Program, initiatives in New Jersey are underway [...]
Forever Chemicals: A Hidden Health Hazard
By Heather O’Donnell. Have you ever stopped to think about the hidden health and environmental hazards lurking in everyday products, such as non-stick pans, clothing, fast food wrappers, and microwave popcorn bags? Our society has been so focused on consumerism and industrialization that we have completely disregarded the harmful effects [...]
Roadside Tree Removal: The Need for Collaborative Decision-Making
By Ellen Oettinger White and Robert B. Noland. Many state highway agencies approach transportation safety from the perspective of maintaining fast and free-flowing traffic. As such, highway design guidelines specify a “clear zone” along highways [...]
Energy Equity Evaluation Metrics
By Tarun Reddy Arasu. Energy efficiency programs that focus on equity acknowledge and address past injustices by involving marginalized communities in decision-making and proactively ensuring that all residents have equal access to benefits [...]
Community and Climate Dynamics: Projections for Water Assistance in New Jersey and Beyond
By Josephine O’Grady. Due to a diverse range of water needs among communities, implementing water assistance programs continues to be a challenge in the United States. In 2016, an estimated 15 million Americans experienced water shutoffs [...]
Report Release: One Million More Acres: We’re One-Third of the Way There…
By Thomas G. Dallessio. As the nation’s most densely populated state, New Jersey has a reputation for suburban sprawl development that belies its nickname, “The Garden State.” “You’re from Jersey? What Exit?” is both a joke and a truism for many [...]
Developing, Validating, and Deploying the ARez Resilience Framework in New Jersey
By Michel Boufadel. In the wake of the increasing impacts of climate change, governments and businesses are assessing how climate-related risks may manifest and differ from historical experience, and how resilience can be integrated within decision-making and planning processes [...]
One Million Acres or Bust: Initial Findings
By Eric Harris. Although the most densely-populated state in the nation, New Jersey has a strong legacy of preserving open space. But how are we doing lately?
Ensuring Access to Nature and Outdoor Recreation: Advancing Health Equity for People with Disabilities
By Jeanne Herb. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 21% of New Jersey adults have some type of disability. CDC reports that people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by chronic diseases [...]
Addressing Energy Inequity in New Jersey: Recommendations for Effective Policy Implementation
By Tarun Reddy Arasu The United States, in general, and New Jersey specifically, are undergoing significant changes in energy production, with a focus on transitioning away from carbon-intensive sources and towards clean energy. In an [...]
Aspects of Energy Inequity in New Jersey
By Tarun Reddy Arasu New Jersey is the fourth smallest state in terms of land area and is the most densely populated state in the United States. Over the past few decades, compounded by rapid [...]
15-Minute Neighborhoods: Lessons from Outside New Jersey
By Jon Carnegie, James Kenah, and Maarten Roose. Fifteen-minute neighborhoods provide residents with access to frequent and reliable public transit, parks, schools, gathering places, social services, places to buy healthy fresh food, and other amenities within a comfortable walk or bike ride [...]
Report Release: Enhancing the Resilience of New Jersey Communities Using ARez
By Michel C. Boufadel, Ph.D., New Jersey Institute of Technology; Firas Gerges, Ph.D., Princeton University; and Hani Nassif, Ph.D., Rutgers University – New Brunswick. The New Jersey State Policy Lab has released a new report in collaboration with researchers [...]
Heat or Eat? The Low-Income Home Energy Distribution Program (LIHEAP) and Its Implications for New Jersey
By Josephine O'Grady. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP) is a federal block grant program that assists low-income families with the cost of paying their utility bills in areas including extreme heat and cold, household revisions to improve energy efficiency [...]
Report Release: Equitable Property Acquisitions to Enhance Climate Resilience
With support from the New Jersey State Policy Lab, the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center Climate Corps conducted research to better understand how flood buyback and managed retreat programs [...]
2022 New Jersey Climate Survey – Rutgers-Eagleton Poll Results
As we mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, and more than a year since Hurricane Ida, the vast majority of New Jerseyans (78 percent) believe the Earth’s climate is changing and consider changing climate [...]
Advancing Municipal Environmental Justice in New Jersey
By Jeanne Herb. Over the past year, the New Jersey State Policy Lab has provided support to a collaborative effort of the Rutgers University Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the New Jersey Department of Environmental protection [...]
Using the Community Intrinsic Resilience Index to Tackle Energy Equity and Budget Deficit in New Jersey
By Firas Gerges, Michel Boufadel, and Hani Nassif. The Community Intrinsic Resilience Index (CIRI) captures the intrinsic (i.e., not relative) resilience level of critical community sectors, allowing practitioners and policymakers to make resilience-informed plans and strategies. [...]
Evaluating Risk Perception: Lessons from Hurricane Sandy
By Josephine O’Grady. As we approach the 10th anniversary since the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history hit the New Jersey coastline, the lessons have increasingly pointed to conversations about the relationship between awareness, education, and risk perception [...]
Can 15-Minute Neighborhoods Reshape New Jersey’s Landscape?
By Jon Carnegie Over the past several years, a number of policy threads have gained prominence in New Jersey. These include adapting to climate change, advancing social justice, and addressing the needs of overburdened communities [...]
Retreat in the 21st Century, Adapting to a New Era of Climate Change
By Kathyrn Balitsos and Garin Bulger Managed or planned retreat is a climate change adaptation strategy that allows the shoreline to advance inward unimpeded, necessitating the removal of buildings and other built infrastructure. To facilitate [...]
One Million More Acres, But Who’s Counting?
By Thomas G. Dallessio. Almost twenty-five years ago, the Governor’s Council on New Jersey Outdoors identified the need to preserve a million more acres of open space, farmland, and historic sites in New Jersey. The Chair of that Council, Former Assemblywoman Maureen Ogden recently passed away [...]
Coastal Adaptation in New Jersey
by Josephine O’Grady New Jersey was among the states hit hardest by Superstorm Sandy, resulting in 37 billion dollars in community restoration, and severely affecting 40,500 primary residences and 15,600 rental properties. As coastal hazards [...]
Stepping away from the Edge: Blue Acres, Buyouts, and Managed Retreat
by Kathyrn Balitsos and Garin Bulger As sea levels and flood waters rise, the necessity of a managed retreat in an increasing number of areas becomes ever more evident. Managed retreat is the process of [...]
One Million Acres or Bust: A Quarter Century of Open Space, Farmland and Historic Preservation
By Thomas G. Dallessio Twenty-four years ago, the Governor’s Council on New Jersey Outdoors released a report that determined, “…the open space needs of our present and future generations greatly outweigh the resources we have [...]
Social Media and Individuals’ Environment-Friendly Actions
by Vishal Trehan Climate change is one of the wicked problems of our times. It is well established that human activity is the primary cause for drastic changes in the climate over the last seventy [...]
Report on Food Security and Organic Waste Reduction
By Jeanne Herb. The New Jersey State Policy Lab and the Organics Workgroup of the NJ Climate Change Alliance have partnered to inform the development of statewide public policy aimed at reducing food waste, contributing to food security, and reducing landfill organic wastes [...]
Organic Waste Management in New Jersey: Reducing Food Waste and Improving Food Equity
Tracy Youngster is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Rutgers University Ecology & Evolution Graduate Program. Organic Waste Management background When organic waste, like food, enters a landfill, it releases methane which is a potent [...]
Organics Waste Team Update and History of Food Waste in New Jersey
Abigail Brown Abigail Brown is a Master of Public Policy Student at the Rutgers University Bloustein School. She is a member of the New Jersey Climate Change Resource Center Climate Corps and, with support [...]
Organic Waste Management: An opportunity for New Jersey policy leadership
Anna Heckler Organic waste, which includes food scraps, yard trimmings, and other biodegradable materials, contributes to 30% of United States (US) municipal solid waste and 14% of US methane emissions (EPA, 2021; Gunders, 2017). Food [...]