Project Porchlight Blog

The Bloomfield Harvest Fest held on September 19 & 20 in Bloomfield, New Jersey, featured plenty of vendors, carnival rides and children’s games. The event, which attracted approximately 1,000 people, was also an opportunity for the Greener Bloomfield Committee to reach out to township residents to inform them about ways of making Bloomfield more sustainable.

Greener Bloomfield invited Project Porchlight to share its table and help educate festivalgoers about the energy savings offered by compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. A total of 2,000 energy-saving CFL bulbs were distributed, part of Project Porchlight New Jersey’s campaign to distribute energy-efficient light bulbs to residents across the state. Project Porchlight is an initiative of One Change, and the campaign is made possible thanks to funding by the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program (NJCEP).

“Harvest Fest was great—we had good weather and happy crowds,” says Pat Gilleran, who serves as a Project Manager for Greener Bloomfield. “There were lots of people who were very appreciative to be getting a CFL bulb. A lot of people went away knowing more about energy savings than they had before, and there will be an awful lot of energy saving done because of the bulbs that were distributed.”

When it comes to protecting our environment, simple actions matter. Even something as simple as changing a light bulb can have a huge impact. “Project Porchlight is a great campaign that teaches people that one small action can really matter if many people join in,” says Pat.

In her own life, Pat considers the environment every single day. “I have reduced what I buy and live much more simply. I ReUse and run the Essex Freecycle group, a ReUse group with 6,700 members. I recycle everything that I can. My family composts and uses no pesticides. We put out very little garbage that goes to the landfill,” she says. “ All of these are small, simple actions. Small actions multiplied by many people can make a big difference.”