NEWSLETTER: OCTOBER 25

COMMUNITY BLOCK PARTY | 21.09.2025

Knowing me, knowing you!

It was so great to meet you all at the Block Party. It was a chance to learn from each other and start to build some momentum around environmental action.

It was fantastic to meet those of you who have a lot of experience to share, and also those of you excited to take the first steps, with support. This is the right mix - we all belong in this space and I hope the work we begin together will be meaningful and accessible to you all.

I wanted to share one story that really inspired me from that day. I was reminded how much can be gained from a short conversation when I met the niece of Wangari Maathi, the first African Nobel Peace Prize winner and Founder of the Greenbelt Movement. I’m ashamed to say, I was ignorant of Wangari’s work. However, it has been such a pleasure to change that and I hope you will all explore her story - there are so many lessons and actionable steps we can take from her example, as we learn to be “Hummingbirds”.

Thank you to all of you who came to visit our stand and please keep talking to us. Thank you to all our team who gave up their afternoon to help share their passion for the environment - it’s deeply appreciated.

LivNative and Clean Streams dates to come soon, but if you want to meet or talk before then just email!

The next LivGreen meeting is Wednesday 8th October, 7:30pm at the Community Center, our meetings are always listed on the events page.

COMMUNITY ACTION

Skip The Stuff

Please spread the word about “skip the stuff” the new ordinance to reduce single use plastic cutlery and condiments for take-out orders. For more information click on the title link above. We had an event with Marta Young, Zero Waste Specialist from Clean Water Action, and she has created this great graphic illustrating Plastic policies adopted locally and statewide and it is likely that Skip the Stuff will be adopted at the State level.

The key here is education. Education for us as consumers of take-out orders, and for Businesses in understanding what the ordinance requires. This education effort has started through LIVBID but our team wants to add to this and be more proactive in visiting Businesses. We would like help - if you have time to help visit businesses in town or talk to community groups please get in touch with us.

Drought Warning

The Murphy Administration issued a statewide Drought Watch strongly urging residents and businesses to voluntarily conserve water as a result of prolonged below-average precipitation that is stressing water supplies. The issuance of the Drought Watch comes less than three months after the lifting of a statewide Drought Warning.

Let’s do our part individually to conserve water and keep an eye on when we should step up to support community wide measures that will help protect water supply, that are also vital for wildfire prevention. I’ll be adding a section to our website but in the meantime you can also access resources from the “Every Drop Counts” campaign.

Seed Library

Thank you to all of you who saved Seed for the Library - we donated over 30 packets of seed and continue to save. You can also drop in your collected seed direct to the library any time!

Did you know there is also a Spice library? You can pick up a sample of a new spice every month, and learn about its history, culture and get recipe suggestions!

Ragini Lall, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian runs these two libraries and is a wonderful resource for our team. We look forward to continuing to support her efforts in the community.

ECEC UPCOMING EVENT | 10.14.25

Community Solar

It started as most days do, working whilst listening to Brian Lehrer (...I know i’m a tragic NPR fangirl!). I learned on the show that the climate journalism group “Covering Climate Now” are giving the Climate Journalist and Activist, Bill McKibben their first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Bill (we are on first name terms, naturally) has also just written a new book about solar energy called “Here Comes the Sun”. This happy coincidence on the radio was a great teaser to get thinking about Community Solar, the theme for the Essex County Environmental Commission roundtable on 10/14.

What more could we be doing in Livingston to take advantage of solar? Who wants to be part of finding out? Could we be taking other energy saving steps? Please reach out if this sparks your interest.

(P.S. Solar feels like one of those words that when you say it repeatedly it stops sounding like a real word, semantic satiation, - just me?)

FOR INTEREST:

Open House New York - Special events programming looks particularly interesting this month including waterworks tours and wind farms! Explore the programming and take advantage of any tours, workshops and talks. There is a lot of content and the majority is free.

This month is also the New Yorker Festival and Archtober Festival which also may have related conversations and events you find interesting.

TALK TO US - LIVGREENTEAM@GMAIL.COM