Vineland earns Sustainable Jersey certification after meeting Bronze threshold

Vineland’s new Sustainable Jersey certification gives city hall a state-recognized benchmark that could shape future work on energy costs, recycling, transportation, land use and public health. The city earned the Bronze level by establishing a Green Team and collecting 150 action points, turning what can sound like a green slogan into a measurable municipal score.

Sustainable Jersey describes certification as free, voluntary and open to New Jersey municipal governments. Once a town is certified, the designation lasts for three program years before recertification is required. Bronze requires a mandatory Green Team and 150 points across six of 17 categories, while Silver requires 350 points across eight categories, a higher bar that demands broader documented action across local government.

Vineland’s required priority actions included a diversity survey of the city’s boards and commissions and the creation of a prescription drug safety and disposal program. That pairing matters because it ties the certification not just to environmental housekeeping but to governance and public health. Sustainable Jersey lists prescription drug safety and disposal as one of its approved waste-related actions, placing Vineland’s work inside an established statewide framework.

The city said its optional actions reached across community partnership and outreach, municipal energy efficiency, health and wellness, land use and transportation, buy-local programs, natural resource protection, tree and woodlands management, access to municipal public information, waste management and recycling. Taken together, those categories show that the certification touched multiple departments and policy areas, from how Vineland manages buildings and roads to how it shares information with the public.

Mayor Anthony Fanucci is in his third term after wins in 2020 and 2024, giving the certification added continuity across administrations. Vineland first received Sustainable Jersey certification in 2017, the same year its Green Team was established, and a 2022 SNJ Today item said the city was one of only three in Cumberland County to have earned the designation at that point.

The work has also stayed visible beyond city hall. In 2025, SNJ Today reported that Vineland’s Green Team partnered with the Greater Vineland Chamber of Commerce on a green and wellness fair, with partial funding from a PSEG Sustainable Jersey Grant. That kind of event suggests the certification is not just an internal administrative tally but part of an ongoing public campaign around sustainability and civic engagement.

Sustainable Jersey currently says 180 municipalities are certified and 19,637 actions have been approved overall. For Vineland, the real test now is whether that Bronze threshold becomes a springboard for visible changes residents can feel in their bills, neighborhoods and local services.