Reduce Solid Waste In Your Town

Sustainable CT’s Community Match Fund “1+ Sale” Boosts Projects

Sustainable CT, a statewide program that supports municipal initiatives to protect the environment and improve the quality of life for Connecticut residents, has announced a “1+ sale” in its Community Match Fund program for the summer. For a limited time, Sustainable CT is boosting its Match Fund grants for all food waste diversion and composting projects. For every dollar raised to promote food waste diversion and composting, Sustainable CT will match it, not just dollar-for-dollar, but with a dollar-and-a-half – up to a total project budget of $15,000.

It’s meant a lot to the Tri-Town Sustainable Committees Food Scrap Composting and Education Campaign – a collaboration between volunteers and committee members of Sustainable Essex, Deep River, and Chester to bring composting to the entire Region 4 school system. “The tri-town composting project is a great example of towns working together to address Connecticut’s waste challenges,” explained Joseph Dickerson, Sustainable CT’s Community Partnership Manager. “Each dollar from municipal contributions and donations from local residents and businesses will be matched by $1.50 from Sustainable CT, enabling Essex, Deep River, and Chester to amplify the education, collection, and composting of food waste from all five Region 4 schools for the next two school years.”

“Separating food waste is something we are all becoming more aware of and how it can make such a positive impact on our environment,” said Kalyn D’Occhio with Sustainable Essex. “It is a very easy thing to teach children and it gives them instant gratification that they can make a daily choice to be good stewards of our fragile planet. We are thrilled with the success we are having at Essex Elementary, and we are so grateful for our towns support to bring composting to the rest of the Region 4 school system next year.”

Norman Needleman, Essex First Selectman, expanded on the value that volunteers working in sustainability bring to the community: “I’m so grateful to the volunteers on the Sustainable Essex committee, and the committees in Deep River and Chester, for their tireless efforts as they continue to seek ways to make our towns more sustainable,” Needleman said. “The voluntary food scrap program, their sustained messaging to the public, siting and adding EV charging stations, and their efforts at increasing renewable energy are just a few of the areas where they commit their efforts. Volunteers are the backbone of our towns, be they members of boards or commissions, study groups, or folks actively engaged in making our communities better places to live.”

Sustainable CT has surpassed the $3 million mark in investment in local projects. Its Community Match Fund leverages institutional funding alongside community investment in the form of individual, small-dollar donations to local projects. Each project runs a public crowdfunding campaign to engage the community and secure half the funding needed to complete its work. Sustainable CT then matches every dollar raised. To date, Sustainable CT has committed $1.4 million as a match to more than $1.6 million collected from over fourteen thousand individual donations.

Since its inception in September of 2019, the Sustainable CT Community Match Fund has invested in over 250 local projects throughout the state of Connecticut.

“Connecticut’s communities are leading the way in sustainability, and the Community Match Fund is an integral part of that progress,” said Lynn Stoddard, Executive Director of Sustainable CT. According to Stoddard, the unique method of funding demonstrates important grass- roots support for a project. “When neighbors vote with their dollars in support of these projects, they are literally buying in, which creates a sense of community ownership that wouldn’t otherwise exist.”

Across the state, Community Match Fund projects are making towns and cities more inclusive, resilient, and vibrant for all residents. Community members are working together to bring main streets to life with pocket parks, murals, and tree plantings; create green jobs for residents; recycle bikes to provide people with safe, affordable transportation; revive underused land to grow food for the community; educate neighbors on climate solutions; clean up rivers and protect habitats; and create vibrant spaces for everyone to enjoy.

Unlike most traditional grant programs, the Community Match Fund is open to anyone in a Sustainable CT-registered town, which currently includes 131 of Connecticut’s 169 municipalities. Project leaders don’t need the backing of a formal organization, there is no application to submit, no deadlines, and no subjective review and scoring process. Anyone who has an idea for a public project is welcome to reach out to Sustainable CT at any time, and if their work aligns with that of Sustainable CT, they will quickly be approved and moved forward.

The Community Match Fund continues to accept and support new projects on a rolling basis. Anyone with an idea for a public, sustainability-related initiative is encouraged to contact Joseph Dickerson at Sustainable CT.

Sustainable CT is independently funded, and the Community Match Fund is generously supported by the Hampshire Foundation, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the Connecticut Green Bank, and Supporting Organizing Work CT.