To the Editor:

I am excited to learn that Sustainable Princeton (SP) has received a grant of $100,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to achieve zero waste and offset the dangers of climate change and global warming. Our thanks to Molly Jones and Christine Symington of SP and to Matt Wasserman and other members of SP’s Board of Directors for conceiving and assembling the application.

The grant, if you think of it as a vetting operation, shows how much SP deserves our financial support. Donations (in any amount) will help SP achieve its ambitious goals, including its important sharing of its achievements at the Sustainable Jersey summit gathering in 2019. But SP also needs greater funding than it has yet had from the Princeton community. SP is a 501(c)3 organization; all contributions are tax-deductible. We may contribute online (save paper!) or by snail-mail to SP at 1 Monument Drive, Princeton.

When you visit the SP site (www.sustainableprinceton.org), you will find multitudinous information about how to help us live more sustainably: how to reduce or eliminate waste in our homes or businesses, how to speak to restaurant owners who may be using “dirty” plastics, non-organic foods, or non-postconsumer paper take-out bags (bring your own cloth bag to McCaffreys!). You can also see a list of gardeners/landscapers who follow sustainable practices — and of course we can all urge them to take our lawn and brush litter to a composting area on our properties (for Princetonians whose lots are large enough). And you will get this kind of information: “At the current rate the town of Princeton produces waste, the landfill will be full by approximately 2030: after which we’d have to send our waste to another landfill that could be several hundred miles away [think of the waste of gas!]. Sustainable Princeton aims to alleviate this problem with our goal of reducing waste by 50 percent by 2016” — with a list of ways we can all help.

And (what some people know) you can plant trees, which store carbon monoxide (which if released contributes to global warming). Asphalt driveways continue to be a major problem: they contribute to polluted storm-water run-off, thus endangering the health of individuals and the capabilities of communities to withstand the realities of global warming and climate change.

As, indeed, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have just shown (not to mention Superstorm Sandy).

The RWJ grant will help Sustainable Princeton to act responsibly and sustainably as we witness with incredulity the federal onslaught against the science-based Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association — all by Pruitts and tweets.

Locally and regionally, SP is attempting to slow the pace of global warming so that the next generations have a greater chance of adaptation.

Please sign on to the SP newsletter list; support SP with your online eyes and your credit cards or checks.

Daniel A. Harris

Dodds Lane