Backed by a one-year grant, Sustainable Princeton is currently coordinating a project team whose mission is to work with Princeton residents and the landscaping community to adopt practices that protect the health of both landscape workers and the local environment. The project – called Changing the Landscape: Healthy Yards = Healthy People – goes beyond a focus on leaf blowers, aiming to encourage a variety of sustainable landscaping practices.
The project team includes co-partners Sustainable Princeton and the Princeton Environmental Commission, along with Unidad Latina en Acción NJ, the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Quiet Princeton, Rutgers School of Public Health, the Rutgers Environmental Stewards program, and several Municipality of Princeton departments and commissions, including Human Services, the Board of Health, and the Civil Rights Commission.
Princeton is one of nine cities to receive this Partners for Places grant, which focuses largely on empowering and engaging low-income neighborhoods, embedding racial equity into local decision-making, and building partnerships between government, sustainability groups, place-based foundations, and community-led frontline groups. In order to achieve this goal, the project team is utilizing the Princeton Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit.
