MISSION

The Greater New Haven Green Fund promotes environmental quality, public health  and equity in our community by providing grants and other incentives to support initiatives that contribute to a more environmentally sustainable future and reduce air, water and land pollution.

THE CHALLENGE

New Haven faces a number of environmental challenges that make its air, water and soil contaminated and unhealthy for residents. The City has more than its fair share of polluting facilities and high diesel traffic, including: multiple power plants, a confluence of major interstate highways, a regional train depot, a deep-water port facility and associated pipelines that pump oil throughout New England, as well as a sewage treatment plant that imports sludge from around the state to incinerate in New Haven.

Compounding the impact of New Haven’s pre-regulation industrial history, local zoning laws have allowed the city to accumulate a high proportion of waste transfer stations and other polluting industries. The result: a plethora of brownfield properties, making it all the more difficult for New Haven to generate new (greener) business opportunities.

The public health consequences of New Haven’s environmental issues are significant. Poor air quality alone accounts for increased asthma hospitalization (highest in the state of CT), increases in respiratory illness, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, premature death, and stunted lung growth in children in our population. Polluted environments have many other health implications, impacting people’s ability to grow their own food, fish, or even enjoy the outside. 

Despite these pervasive problems, many residents of affected communities are unaware of the issues and their own power to act and address them. 

The New Haven Green Fund increases environmental awareness and action by supporting the efforts of environmental and grassroots organizations to advance environmental justice, community sustainability, and restoration of the natural environment.

VISION

The Greater New Haven Green Fund engages and empowers citizens and organizations to help create clean, healthy, and environmentally sustainable communities.

VALUES

Our Community Deserves
  • The right to a clean environment
  • Equality
  • Control over environmental outcomes
  • The right to improved public health

Our Community Expects From Us
  • Transparency
  • Integrity
  • Independence
  • Objectivity
  • Community-based leadership
  • Data-driven decisions
  • Sustainability of the Green Fund

our background and purpose

The New Haven Green Fund, Inc., a 501c(3) non-profit corporation, was incorporated in 2006. (We do business as the "Greater New Haven Green Fund.") The constituent municipalities of the Greater New Haven Regional Water Pollution Control Authority (GNHWPCA) agreed to establish an environmental fund of $1,000,000 when they purchased the Water Pollution Control Authority from the City of New Haven. The creation of the New Haven Green Fund, Inc. fulfills this requirement.

The Fund was created to support environmental and public health initiatives in overburdened areas of the municipalities that make up the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (East Haven, Hamden, New Haven and Woodbridge) and is governed by the Greater New Haven Green Fund through a board of directors.

The Greater New Haven Green Fund will also receive funds on behalf of the community from Community Benefit Agreements that result from Connecticut’s Environmental Justice Law. These funds will come back to the community in the form of small grants to support environmental and public health initiatives with an environmental focus.

BOARD POLICIES

Statement Regarding Conflicts of Interest, Duty of Care, and Duty of Loyalty
Adopted by Resolution of the Board of Directors on December 5, 2011

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lynne Bonnett, President
Martha Smith, Vice President
Joseph Jolly, Esq., Treasurer
Andrew Danzig, PE, Secretary
Ratan Koneru, Grants Chair
Lianne Audette
Aaron Goode
Marian Evans, MD, MPH
Robert Sheiman
Kevin Dahms
Annie Adams
​Robert Hoppenstedt