Repair Cafe

​Toss it? No way! This was Green Summit's third Repair Café!  

Repair Café of Summit is a neighborhood initiative that promotes repair as an alternative to throwing items in the trash.  Bring your broken but beloved items for free repair by experts, who are also your neighbors.  Services available: Sewing/Textiles, Wood/Furniture, Plants/Gardening, Bicycles, Jewelry and Knife (limit one blade, up to 6” per household) repair.

Green Summit @ The Farmers Market

The Summit Farmers Market starts up again on Sunday, April 28! And join us at our Green Summit table on May 5. The Farmers Market and Summit Downtown Inc. are working hard to reduce plastic pollution - starting this year, vendors are not permitted to use plastic bags - only compostable or paper bags. Don't forget to bring your reusable bags!

Repair Cafe

Toss it? No way! Join Green Summit for our second Repair Café!  

Repair Café of Summit is a neighborhood initiative that promotes repair as an alternative to throwing items in the trash.  Bring your broken but beloved items for free repair by experts, who are also your neighbors.  Services available: Sewing/Textiles, Wood/Furniture, Plants/Gardening, Bicycles and Jewelry.

MLK Day Reusable Bag Drive

Green Summit NJ participated in Summit's MLK, Jr. Day of Justice, Equality and Service to Others this year by asking households to donate their extra reusable bags.  We collected bags for various food pantries and other service organizations in Summit.  Recipients will include G.R.A.C.E.'s Refrigerator, Loaves and Fishes, Meals on Wheels and SHIP.  If your household has extra reusable bags, please consider donating them. We will take any reusable bags (any size and logo will work).  If you missed the event, but would still like to donate, please contact us!

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As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,  “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one destiny, affects all indirectly.”  

All About Residential Solar

Sean Frusco, a Project Manager at Public Service Solar, spoke about solar panel options currently available to homeowners in New Jersey. This event was cosponsored by Green Summit and the Summit Area GreenFaith Circle.  Did you miss it? Contact us at greensummitnj@gmail.com for the recap. 

Green Drinks

​Curious about sustainability but don't know where to start? This event is welcoming for all. We'd love to hear what you're interested in, and are excited to share what we do and love, too. Hope that you can attend to mix and mingle with friends and neighbors. 

Postcard Power Hour

Thank you for joining us to write your representatives! We mailed nearly 200 postcards this morning to state legislators considering the NJ state plastics restriction bill. As this bill progresses through committees, we will likely host another postcard writing session. Feel free to email us at greensummitnj@gmail.com to get some postcards to write on your own, too!

"Before The Flood" Movie Day

Green Summit, Reeves-Reed Arboretum and Ciel Power have teamed up again to present this final event of the LOCAL ACTION/GLOBAL IMPACT series. Join us for a screening of the film "Before the Flood".  This is a free event but requires registration.

BAG IT The Movie

Join the Summit Film Society and Green Summit for a screening of Bag It The Movie: Is Your Life Too Plastic? The movie starts at 8pm and will be followed by a Q&A with Green Summit members. Sign up in advance for reduced price tickets! Email summitfilm@gmail.com Tickets are $12 in advance/$14 at the door

Repair Cafe

Have something beloved but broken? Toss it? No way! At the FREE Repair Cafe, local skilled repairers can help bring your loved items a new life. If you can carry it yourself, you can bring it. 

Green Summit at Community Night

Green Summit hosted a table at Summit's Community Night - learn more about volunteering with us at an upcoming event, and share our survey and this petition to reduce single-use plastics.

Style & Sustainability: A Fashion Show in the Garden

Green Summit, together with Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Ciel Power, The Regeneration Magazine and Lauren Engelke hosted a fashion show of sustainable looks from student designers, professional brands and local consignment shops. 

Recycling and Garden Talk

Summit Recycling Advisory Committee hosted a talk by recycling expert and gardener Regina Carlson. Missed it? Email recyclesummit@gmail.com for more information.

Panel: The Impact of Climate Change on NJ Water

Reeves-Reed Arboretum hosted a lovely and lively panel discussion on climate change and its impact on New Jersey's water supply and infrastructure. Panelists were Governor and former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman; Summit Council President and Partner at K&L Gates, David Naidu; senior technical lead for BASF Remediation, J. Douglas Reid-Green; Executive Director of ANJEC, Jennifer Coffey; and Melanie McDermott, Senior Researcher at Sustainable Jersey.

Vegan Cooking Lesson

Arpita Jindani led a cooking lesson followed by a delicious Indian vegan lunch of Upma, Vegetable Biryani and Chia Kheer.  

Climate Reality Project

Kick off your New Years resolutions by learning how to turn climate crisis awareness into action. Join for this presentation by the Climate Reality Project, the offspring of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, and take part in the movement.

An Inconvenient Sequel

A decade after An Inconvenient Truth (2006) brought climate change into the heart of popular culture comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes-in moments private and public, funny and poignant-as he pursues the empowering notion that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.  What started then as a profound slide show lecture has become a gorgeously cinematic excursion. Our former vice president invites us along on an inspirational journey across the globe that delivers the tools to heal our planet.

Vegan Cooking Lesson

Marzia Venturin will wow us with a vegan-cooking lesson and we can eat it too!  We will discuss the environmental consequences of eating meat and dairy (including energy, water and carbon emissions), and the impact it would make if you reduce your meat consumption. Come prepared for a tasty lunch and great information!

Carbon Footprints

Thanks for joining our discussion about carbon footprints with two of our Green Team members! Claire Cummins walked us through the City of Summit's 2016 Community Carbon Footprint and highlighted areas where we can make improvements. Melissa Spurr discussed the results of her recent home energy audit and the steps she's taking to reduce her footprint.  Ciel, a local home energy auditor, joined to describe their whole-home view of energy efficiency.

Get Into Nature with South Mountain Nature School

South Mountain Nature School guides us on a walk through the South Mountain Reservation. This walk is geared toward young children but it is sure to be a beautiful walk for all that attend! We will meet at the Glen Avenue entrance to the Reservation. Please RSVP by email here to be sure not to miss any updates!

Zero-Waste Living

Thanks for joining us for an information session with Courtney Cordaro, green lifestyle blogger and green products reviewer! We had a thorough Q&A with Courtney on various reusable items for the kitchen and bathroom. Zero Waste doesn't mean being perfect -  it is a philosophy centered on being mindful, making better choices, and aspiring a lifestyle with no or minimal impact on the environment. Come to learn more and reduce your trash by shopping better and reusing more.

Green Summit at Community Night

Thank you for visiting our table at Community Night! We love hearing from Summit residents about what environmental topics matter most to them. Always feel free to reach out to us!

Summit Recycling & Upcycling

Thanks for joining us and Marjorie Fox, chairperson of the Recycling Advisory Committee, to learn more about Summit's recycling and up-cycling projects. Summit saves over $700,000 annually by recycling through cutting down on trash collection. Here are some handy tips from our event:
1. Separate into 2 bins: paper/cardboard and plastic/metal/glass (if you must, use clear recycling bags - but bins are preferable and cut down on plastic bag use)
2. "If it rips, recycle it" junk mail, business envelops - yes, even if they have the clear plastic windows
3. Nothing soiled with food like napkins
4. Lids and caps can be recycled in your plastic/metal bin
5. Half gallon milk cartons can indeed be recycled, they go in paper bin and the cap goes in plastic bin.

The state goal is having 50% of the waste stream recycled - Summit is not there yet - let's work together to make it happen!

To give your unwanted items a second life - bring them to the Summit Free Market, 2017 fall dates are October 7 and 14. Check here for the latest.

Start your own vegetable garden

One of our members hosted an event all about how to grow a thriving vegetable garden in your own back yard. Growing your vegetables at home not only can save you money, but can result in healthier produce (you know how you grow it!) and saves energy spent on transporting vegetables grown in distant places to ports, then warehouses, then supermarkets, finally to your home. Not only that, but it's an amazing way to get the whole family involved in eating well - and feeling proud of the amazing things you can grow. Lots of great tips came out from our event - don't forget to plant marigolds to keep pests away!

Rain Gardens

Hosted by Marian Glenn and Tobiah Horton, we learned how to manage storm water run-off and plan a beautiful rain garden. The event was held at the Summit Free Public Library, where they have recently created their own rain gardens!

How to Compost

At our Composting event, we met new residents who were excited to green up their lives! We discussed what can and cannot be composted, how to store it and why we do it. The bulk of your compost will be fruits and veggie scraps and leaves. Composting is a fantastic way to shrink your family's footprint- cutting your waste by around 30%, keeping all of that out of our landfills, and instead letting nature make amazing nutrient-rich soil that you can use in your garden. If you have questions about composting in Summit, please reach out to us!