Live Green Accomplishments: Live Green Accomplishments

LIVE GREEN ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Conservation Easements Solar Demonstration Project

Green Building Policy Traffic Lights

Hybrids U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement

Recycling Bins

Conservation Easements
On September 24, 2007, County Executive Ken Ulman and Howard County Conservancy President Ann Holmes Jones announced a partnership to promote preservation easements on parcels of less than 50 acres. This program fights “bad infill” across the County by protecting small tracts of land from future development by encouraging land owners to place land into preservation easements.

Green Building Policy
Groundbreaking environmental legislation was passed in Howard County on July 30, 2007, which encourages both Green Buildings and Green Neighborhoods throughout the County. The Green Building legislation establishes standards for future commercial construction and includes incentives for going beyond the established standards. The unique and voluntary Green Neighborhoods program provides allocations for the design and construction of homes meeting specific environmentally-focused criteria.

Hybrids
The County now has a policy to phase in hybrid vehicles for all vehicles in the fleet that have an equivalent hybrid on the market. To date the County owns 50 hybrid vehicles used in our fleet, comprising about 15% of our fleet and giving Howard County the largest hybrid fleet of any jurisdiction in the state. We currently estimate savings from Hybrids to be $1,000 per vehicle per year in fuel costs.
The County also incorporated 2 diesel-electric hybrid buses into the Howard Transit service. The County anticipates the hybrid buses will reduce fuel consumption by about 35% and reduce maintenance and repair costs by 30% to 50% compared to similar diesel buses.

Recycling Bins
After performing a pilot recycling cart program near Elkridge, which resulted in a 25% increase in recycling tonnage collected and a 10% decrease in trash tonnage collected, the County decided to expand the recycling carts County-wide. Beginning September 2008 and running through the middle of December 2008 the County distributed 51,278 65-gallon carts, 5,859 35-gallon carts, and 12,999 18-gallon bins directly to homes with County curbside service for a total cost of $2,826,000. Thus far, with the introduction of the carts, recycling tonnage has increased by about 13% and trash has decreased by 11%. To date the recycling carts have saved about $150,000 in disposal costs and are anticipated to save more in the future with more recycling revenue and trash disposal savings. The County currently pays $33 per ton for trash disposal while the true market in this region is about $75 a ton. The more we recycle the more we save financially and environmentally.

Solar Demonstration Project
On July 3, 2008, County Executive Ken Ulman climbed to the rooftop of the Howard County Library’s East Columbia Branch to unveil the new 24 solar photovoltaic (PV) panels recently installed as part of his effort to incorporate solar power into county government operations. The system, on average, is expected to generate approximately 500 kWh a month – more in the summer and less in the winter. In the first month of operation, the solar array generated over 700 kWh (kilowatt hours) of electricity which would be enough to power 28 average-sized Howard County homes for one day. The average American home uses 920 kWh each month. An interactive computer station inside the library provides real-time data on how much power the photovoltaic cells produce. The computer also explains how the system works and help users learn more about the benefits of solar power. The information can be accessed from your own computer here.

Traffic Lights
Howard County has converted all of the traffic lights on County roads to LED (light emitting diode) lights. LED lights use dramatically less energy than do incandescent lights. Based on the first year after the conversion of all 85 intersections, the lights are using 60% less energy.

U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
On February 19, 2007 County Executive Ken Ulman made Howard County the second county in the country to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Under the Agreement, Howard County committed to take following three actions:
- Strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities, through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns;
- Urge their state governments, and the federal government, to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol -- 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012; and
- Urge the U.S. Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading.

"Did You Know?" - Facts from the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement

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