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Above: Perfect Pet Resort in Lothian
Lower electric bills. Lower water bills. Lower heating bills. Go green in your business or home, and everything drops—and Maryland can prove it.
Green building in Maryland is really beginning to take off. Tax credits for green buildings or other green initiatives mean that businesses looking to go green in Maryland. And businesses using eco-friendly initiatives in Maryland are seeing a new kind of green building—green buildings save money by lowering every bill from electric to water to heating.
“I’m not coming at it from a treehugger perspective,” says Sean McGuire, Director of Sustainability Policy for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “I’m trying to save money.”
“There’s not just a do-gooder mentality,” agrees Elizabeth Chaney, owner of Perfect Pet resort in Lothian. “”If you’re investing in green technology now, you’re going to be more solid in the future. Green things pay for themselves, for the most part. It’s a financial decision.”
From the Top Down
Sean McGuire is a green policy wonk. In 1999 he began leading the Green Building Task Force, which met for a year to discuss encouraging green building outside of the government, including private business, nonprofit organizations and other interested groups. In 2001, an executive order from then-governor Parris Glendening created the Green Building Council. Under that council, Maryland built two test sites that met Leadership in Energy and Enviornmental Design (LEED) standards: The Hammerman Beach complex in Gunpowder State Park, and Goodpaster Hall at St. Mary’s College.
In 2008, the state senate passed SB-208, which requires that all state facilities that are 7,500 gross square feet or greater that are completely state-funded must meet LEED silver standards. How a building acquires silver status varies, but might include such things as water-efficient landscaping, using rapidly renewable resources in building, and using low-emitting materials, such as paint, to improve air quality.
A current bill would mandate that any building that gets any state funding would have to also meet LEED silver standards. “That is causing some concern,” says McGuire. “Escpecially with low-income areas; they’re on the tightest of budgets. But on the other hand, green buildings and healthy facilities are not just for the wealthy.” The next state-sponsored green project will be the Harriet Tubman Museum, set to open in Dorchester County.
“It’s been an incredible ride,” says McGuire. “Back in 1999 or 200, no one knew what LEED was, and even on a personal level, no one had heard of cellulose insulation and bamboo flooring. Now you can get bamboo at Lowes and Home Depot. It’s been impressive to watch.”
Learning Green
Goodpaster Hall, the building that was one of the projects for the Green Building Council, is a 57,000 square foot chemistry building, including classrooms, computer rooms, a lecture hall and laboratories. The water initiatives alone, which include waterless urinals and gray-water systems, will save 300,000 gallons of water a year. The lumber used in the building was harvested from environmentally managed forests and only low-VOC paints, adhesives and sealants were used in the construction.
In August, Goodpaster hall was awarded Project of the Year in the LEED New Construction category by the National Capital Region chapter of the US Green Building Council at it annual Awards of Excellence program.
But students don’t just learn chemistry because of Goodpaster Hall. “[The building] has played a signivifant role in stimulating student activism on campus,” says Charles Jackson, associate vice president of planning and facilities for St. Mary’s College in a press release. “Our students are highly engaged in a variety of additional initiatives to reduce the carbon footprint of the college.”
Going to the Dogs
One local business making good use of green technologies is the Perfect Pet Resort in Lothian. Built in 2003, the business provides boarding, classes and doggie daycare, among other pet-friendly opportunities. Elizabeth Chaney, the owner, got the rare opportunity to build her green business literally from the ground up.
Though Perfect Pet Resort is located in a wooden area, no trees were cut down during construction. The building is also built with insulated concrete forms (ICFs), which not only make the building incredibly energy-efficient, but are much more fire-resistant and soundproof than many traditional building materials. Chaney also participates in Anne Arundel County’s commercial recycling program—in fact, they were one of the first business to participate.
What about when “accidents” happen? “It’s difficult in pet care to have totally green cleaning products, because we have to keep things extremely sanitary,” she admits. “But we picked the greenest products that we can to keep things as clean as possible, and I think we’ve done a good job.”
“As far as the environment goes, it’s always been important to me to recognize our responsibility,” she continues. “In pet care, these are our guests, these are family members.”
But going green made financial sense, too. “Green business is smart business. It is an investment in the business’s future.” Without her green building, and with the economy going through a rough time, “my electric bill would be out of control and more difficult to pay,” she says. “I can’t imagine what it would be right now in a building that isn’t so efficient.” For the future, Chaney is looking into retrofitting her building for either solar or geothermal heat.
Sound Building for Sound Business
Of course, building green costs more at the beginning. But it does pay off in the end, sometimes in surprising ways. “If you’re going to own that facility and you’re going to have your employees in there, making it a green building is going to make you money in the long run,” says McGuire. “If you’re in a building no one wants to be in, you’re going to have a high turnover rate, and the time, effort and cost of retraining people is staggering. It has environmental and social benefits, but businesses are recognizing it’s a bottom-line issue.”
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