Meet the Mount Laurel volunteer who champions local environmental causes, mentors a high school robotics team

Give it UP for: Edward “Ed” Cohen of Mount Laurel, N.J.

Nominated by his wife, Karen.

“No bias,” said Karen, 57, “but he is an all-around giving person.”

During the day, Ed, 58, runs a software and engineering consulting business, New Vision Edge Inc. But on nights and weekends he sets up a folding table at local festivals and public gatherings, and hands out pamphlets and performs environmental-themed magic tricks in his quest to educate the public about climate change, energy use, and water conservation.

People, he said, need “to consume less, eat less meat, and reduce their carbon emissions.”

“I still live in a New Jersey suburb, and I drive a car,” he added, "so I still have things to work on myself. But the first step is to make people aware of the impact of their actions.”

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Ed’s environmental advocacy started about a decade ago when he was inspired to get involved after he began reading books about the looming environmental crisis. In 2013, he was awarded a fellowship with the Environmental Leadership Program, a national nonprofit that seeks to nurture environmental leaders. During that time, he devised a plan to combine his passion for sustainability with his desire to become more involved in his community.

Now, Ed’s either a volunteer chair or board member of five different green-minded groups. He’s also board president of nonprofit Sustainable South Jersey, which educates and connects suburbanites concerned about the environment.

“I wanted to devote half my time to things that are good for the world,” he said.

Raised in Newark, Del., Ed grew up kayaking and canoeing with his father, Richard, on the White Clay Creek and Lehigh River, fostering his love for the natural world. His love for Karen was fostered in Jersey City, where he started his first job after earning a degree in electrical engineering at Cornell University, and where Karen was living while studying at New York University. Ed later earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from the State University of New York at Buffalo before the couple settled in South Jersey, the midway point between their families.

Ed volunteers annually at the Mount Laurel Cleanup day, helping to remove litter from local parks, and he routinely delivers the keynote address at the Palmyra Cove Nature Park Water Festival.

On weekends this fall, he’ll be staffing tables for Sustainable South Jersey at the Mount Laurel Fall Festival and the Delaware River Festival in Camden, performing a “green” magic act that he uses to draw a crowd and liven up his water-conservation sales pitch:

He shows the crowd a glass of water, and then lays a piece of paper on top. He then flips the glass upside-down, pulls away the paper and — voila! — the water, magically, remains in the glass.

“I try to weave it into a story of the things they can do to save the planet," he said, “and explain how fresh water is not as abundant as people often think it is.”

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He also mentors Storm Robotics, a team of students from both Lenape and Cherokee High Schools, whose students build micro machines to compete in the FIRST Robotics international high school robotics competition. The mission, Ed says, is to involve students in developing solutions to real-world engineering challenges while having fun along the way.

In between his do-gooder work, Ed also squeezes in time with his community-focused family.

Karen helps Ed work the tables and the crowd at many of the local events. Daughter Rebecca, 28 — who helps her dad mentor the robotics team — previously worked for Congressman Andy Kim’s 2018 campaign. And son Lucas, 26, has volunteered with Paws Discovery Farm in Mount Laurel.

“Ed inspires us all,” Karen said. “He’s always trying to improve the world.”