Category Archives: Community

Join us at the NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference June 14-16, 2022


The 2022 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference will be held virtually on June 14-15 and in-person on June 16 at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick.

The conference will feature 36 sessions, a virtual and in-person exhibit area, and ways to connect with fellow attendees as it brings together bold ideas, innovative solutions, proven concepts, and best practices for creating better, more inclusive, and equitable places where people live, work and play.

The conference format will feature a mix of concurrent sessions that are pre-recorded, live-streamed, and in-person. The virtual sessions will be available via Pheedloop, the conference platform, with Zoom integration.

We look forward to gathering in person on the final day of the conference at the Hyatt in New Brunswick.


How can we reimagine and redevelop more equitable cities?

Answers to these and other questions, along with many innovative ideas, will be presented through 36 sessions, a virtual and in-person exhibit area, and opportunities to connect with fellow attendees at the 2022 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference hosted by @NewJerseyFuture and the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association @njapa.

See you on June 14-16! Register today! #NJPRC22

Scroll down for more information or click to register: https://pheedloop.com/njprc22/site/home/

We know that many New Jersey communities are struggling with a multitude of economic, social, and environmental challenges. How can we create more equitable areas to live, work, and play?

Connect with New Jersey elected officials, professionals, and community leaders to discuss bold ideas, innovative solutions, proven concepts, and best practices for creating better, more inclusive places at the 2022 NJ Planning and Redevelopment Conference.

Join us virtually on June 14-15 and in person at the Hyatt in New Brunswick on June 16. New Jersey is at a turning point, and the only way we can propel our state toward a more sustainable, resilient, and prosperous future is together!

Hundreds of visionary New Jersey professionals, elected officials, and community activists will be discussing how to restart, recover, and reimagine land use in a rapidly changing environment. The three-day conference features 36 sessions, a virtual and in-person exhibit area, and opportunities to connect with fellow attendees. Register today!

https://pheedloop.com/njprc22/site/home/

Registration Rates

  • Member: $300
  • Non-Member: $350
  • Elected Official: $250
  • Speaker: $250
  • Student: $200


Registration includes a full access pass to all conference programming including:

June 14-15: Convening virtually from 9:00am – 1:00pm each day

  • Eighteen (18) virtual sessions, including 2 plenaries
  • Virtual exhibit floor and networking
  • Virtual session videos will be available to all registered attendees for three months following the conference.

June 16: Convening in person at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick from 9:00am-5:00pm
The in-person offerings will follow safety guidance provided by the CDC and NJDOH.

  • Eighteen (18) in-person sessions, including 2 plenaries.
  • Exhibit floor and various networking opportunities.
  • Breakfast, lunch, and reception in the exhibit atrium.
  • Note: In-person sessions will not be recorded.

 

Possible Rochester C-PACE Initiative Launched

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new initiative to support the introduction of C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy) in the City of Rochester.

As part of this, we are seeking to conduct a national demonstration project for what we call Community PACE and, at the hyperlocal level, “Neighborhood PACE,” as a way to scale up the adoption of C-PACE across the country. Some of this is further described at our new Rochester-focused websites, PossibleRochester.com (for business) and PossibleRochester.org, our community site (which is currently under construction).

The purpose of the demonstration project is to develop a replicable model for leveraging C-PACE for local economic development, climate action, and community regeneration.

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Executive Director’s Year-End Letter

The Climate Crisis and What We’re Doing About It

Financing the Transition to a Regenerative Economy
With the Aim of Restoring the Climate and the Earth

Download PDF version of our year-end letter here

Executive Director’s Year-End Letter 2019

“Being alive right now means rethinking boundaries, pushing on the walls of your imagination. It means feeling around in this world for another one.” (Dan Zak, “Everything is Not Going to Be Okay: How to Live with Constant Reminders that the Earth Is in Trouble,” Washington Post)

Dear Friends and Supporters,

2019 has been a pretty tumultuous year for us, including both substantial achievements and disappointing setbacks. The good news is that Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) legislation is on its way in New Jersey, with both the Legislature and the Governor endorsing some version of this long-awaited financing tool. We expect PACE to be operational in 2020, and it could be as early as first quarter.

The first version of PACE legislation was introduced and passed into law in 2011; unfortunately it was flawed, and the Christie Administration took advantage of these flaws to block any meaningful action. Our organization, operating as New Jersey PACE, has been seeking to amend this law for more than seven years, during which time we co-authored at least three prior versions that were rejected. While in retrospect it seems unreal, there were good reasons to believe that PACE could be implemented in each of these years, despite the resistance of the banking industry and of the Governor’s staff at the time.

Evolving and Expanding the PACE Model

But since PACE is still not available in New Jersey (and many other jurisdictions), we continue to seek demonstration projects for the two alternative clean energy financing approaches that we have developed in partnership with structured finance experts, including a major NJ social impact investment fund. Once successfully piloted, these “PACE/Alternatives,”* as we’ve called them, including our New InterCreditor Clean Energy (NICCE, pronounced “nice”) and Deed-registered Renewables & Energy Efficiency Measures (DREEM), will provide commercial property owners anywhere in the US with access to PACE-like financing, regardless of whether PACE is allowed in their jurisdiction.

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CRCS and Possible Planet

CRCS (our full legal name is Center for Regenerative Community Solutions, a NJ Nonprofit Corporation) is now also Possible Planet, and the larger part of our work is maintained and updated at www.PossiblePlanet.org. Apologies to several who have left feedback here but have not received an answer. (I have just discovered these entries, and plan to respond to them.)

Much of what is retained here is of archival interest only. But everything we’re now working on has grown out of the thinking and action, reflected here, about the development of solutions that help to strengthen the regenerative capacity of communities. We have principally focused on innovative financing methods for the transition to a clean economy, an economy that is sustainable over the long term, restores rather than damages the Earth, and provides a better living environment for everyone. This led us to initially concentrate on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), and create New Jersey PACE as an alternate identity, and subsequently on the development of “PACE Alternatives” that don’t require state legislation or municipal approval but can be done within existing contract law.

Along the way, we acquired three other projects as a “fiscal sponsor,” projects that represent further approaches to creating a more livable, healthful, and self-sustaining future. Two are related to the development of cohousing and ecovillage neighborhoods, Ecovillage New Jersey, and the Ecovillagers Alliance. The third is a global monetary policy proposal, to address the risk of a catastrophic shock to financial and economic systems (and the concurrent damage to the planet’s life support systems), called Global 4C (which stands for “complementary currencies for climate change”). The basic proposal is to issue a monetary reward for carbon sequestered or abated anywhere in the world, to anyone able to demonstrate that they are reducing emissions or withdrawing carbon from the atmosphere. Issuing such a reward requires only a very modest expansion of the money supply, accompanied by the creation of a greatly expanded economic sector devoted to cleaning up the mess we’ve already created. Currently we’re working on a case study to demonstrate how this can be done in the field of regenerative agriculture, working with various combinations of rock dust, biochar, and compost, to develop the most effective ways of sequestering CO2 in the soil where it supports the natural growth of the crops and livestock we need to survive.

What this leads to more broadly is an examination of what’s needed, ecologically, and how to invest what we need to get there. Financing ecosystem restoration, clean energy, and sustainable human habitation are all aspects of this that offer almost unlimited opportunity for a new generation of businesses, cooperatives, and community financial institutions to create sustainable growth, i.e., economic growth that restores, strengthens, and maintains natural systems instead of trashing them. So follow us, and join us, at PossiblePlanet.org.

This Saturday at Cooper Union: Voices of the Millennial Generation on Climate Change


This Saturday, February 24, 2018 we’re participating in a panel discussion on Mitigation and emerging solutions for addressing the climate change issue, along with a number of other speakers.

The event is from 1 to 6 p.m. in the Great Hall at Cooper Union (30 Cooper Sq, New York, NY 10003), with limited seating, so please RSVP or sign up for the live stream link at MillennialsWorld.org.

Here’s the current program  and list of speakers for the event:

Voices of a Generation – February 24, Event Speakers

Welcome: Joyce Freeling, President Millennials World

Keynote Panel: The World Millennials, Their Children, & Grandchildren Could Live In

  • Sophie Kivlehan, Granddaughter, Dr. James Hansen, Climate Scientist
  • James Hansen (Video) on the Science of Warming
  • Nicole Crescimanno, Columbia University, Rising Sea Level
  • Andrew Herrera, Ramapo College, Harsher Weather
  • Annaisabele DeJesus, Heat Waves & Health
  • Ariana Freitag, The Cooper Union, Deforestation, Species Extinctions, Ocean Acidification
  • Sophie Schneider, The Cooper Union, Food Insecurity
  • Anastasia Caulfield, Ramapo College, Climate Refugees

Actions: Fee & Dividend (Citizens’ Climate Lobby) – Children’s Trust Federal Law Suit
(Polling) 

Mitigation & Solutions Underway – Developed World/Developing World

  • Miriam Horn, Environmental Defense Fund, Author & Film Maker
  • Jonathan Cloud, Director, NJPACE, Financing Renewable Energy for Communities
  • Toby Cumberbatch, Founder, Center for Sustainable Engineering, Art and Architecture – Materials, Manufacturing and Minimalism (SEA2M3)

(Polling)

Pathways to Sustainability – Promise for the Future – The World Millennials Can Change

Students from Columbia University, Earth Institute:

  • Sarah Ann Burns, Harnessing Natural Sources of Energy
  • Megan Ross, Urban Sustainability
  • Andrea Christina Ruiz, Regenerating Forests, Sustainable Food Production
  • Miriam Nielsen, Communicating the Value of Sustainability to Society
  • Jesse Thorson, The Need for New Narratives

(Polling)

A New Social Compact – Shift to Long-Term Thinking & Responsibility to Successor Generations

  • Joyce Freeling

Art & Design Charrette – Transforming Statements in Graphics (Millennial Visions)

  • Mike Ryan
  • Patrick Schlitzer
  • Danny Castillo

Announcement of Step-into-the-Future Social Media Competition

 

A Possible Planet?

We’re in the processing of “re-branding” ourselves as Possible Planet (www.possibleplanet.org, of course). So what does this re-branding mean, and why are we doing it?

By “we” we mean here the Center for Regenerative Community Solutions, our 501(c)(3) umbrella entity under which we house a number of our own and others’ projects. These include not only global and local projects, but pretty much also every level in between. So not only are we concerned with what’s needed for “A Possible Planet” (the title of our forthcoming book), but we’re also working on Possible New Jersey (www.possiblenj.org) and Possible Bound Brook (www.possibleboundbrook.org) as examples of the application of what is really the paradigm-shifting model behind Possible Planet.

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New Directions for 2017

CRCS will be moving in several new directions this year, which we think will be of interest to a wider audience than just those of us interested in financing clean energy. We’ve been focusing more on communities in the past year, and on the values and vision that led to our mission, to assist local communities and neighborhoods to become more resilient in the face of the widening impacts of a changing climate.

We are proposing to work with one or two towns in New Jersey on their revitalization and self-renewal. Culture actually holds the key to greater local resilience, alongside the physical transformation of communities into eco-communities. And organization is what’s needed to transform culture. We are planning to create “civic cooperatives” that will lead these communities into a positive self-generating future. Many communities are today experiencing decline, or struggling to ignite a self-renewal, within the broader context of the need for a world for a world that shifts carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil. The cooperative model has proven itself to be more enduring, more beneficial, and often more valuable to communities than the conventional marketplace business model.

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An Opportunity to Invest in a New Economy

We make a difference in the world, by how we choose to invest our philanthropic dollars and/or investment funds.

We know that you know that we face planetary catastrophe if we don’t change the way our economy works today — we need to divest from those activities that are causing harm to the earth, and invest in ones that are restorative and regenerative. Whether you’re talking about large amounts, such as endowment funds of Ivy League universities, or the charitable donations you make at the end of the year, you know that moving from unsustainable practices to restorative and regenerative ones is what’s needed to reduce carbon in the atmosphere and put it back into the soil where it literally sustains life.

Our nonprofit, the Center for Regenerative Community Solutions (CRCS), is at the forefront of the effort to transform our economy into one that creates sustainable prosperity for everyone. Buckminster Fuller was amongst the first to recognize that we are technologically capable of producing a world that sustains everyone, and that gives us the opportunity to heal our planet, our psyche, and our civilization.

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Our Work and Its Value to You and Your Community


How would you like the members of your community to work together as part of a thriving and resilient ecosystem, providing for the basic needs of all citizens?

With your financial support, we intend to pilot a scalable, self-financing business model for communities to fulfill on their potential, with the capacity to regenerate themselves, indefinitely.

Starting with the formation of a “Civic Cooperative,” our approach includes award-winning regenerative processes from the Story of Place Institute and REconomy as well as other successful local, national and global methodologies.

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NJPACE Launching a Coalition for PACE in New Jersey

C4Plogo2In the wake of Governor Christie’s conditional veto of A2579/S1510, New Jersey PACE is initiating a coalition of key players to:

(a) resolve any issues standing in the way of a new, comprehensive, and workable bill — acceptable to all constituencies, insofar as possible — that initiates the development of a robust and secure PACE industry, and

(b) develop an industry alliance that helps expand the program to all sectors and all corners of the state.

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