It takes a lot to make a school green and stu­dents, teach­ers, and par­ents can work together to make changes.  Change starts with small steps and leads to BIG results. Sim­ply encour­ag­ing stu­dents and fac­ulty to turn off lights and elec­tron­ics when not in use, recy­cling, and engag­ing the school com­mu­nity in envi­ron­men­tal projects are great ways to help­ your school go green.

Become a Mary­land Green School

As of 2011, Howard County has 42 schools cer­ti­fied Mary­land “green schools.”  That’s more than half of all our pub­lic schools!  What does it mean to be a Mary­land Green School?   It means that the school com­pleted a 2-year process and their appli­ca­tion was approved by the Mary­land Asso­ci­a­tion for Envi­ron­men­tal and Out­door Edu­ca­tion (MAEOE).  To be approved, schools com­plete envi­ron­men­tal projects to improve the green­ness of the school itself, and also incor­po­rate envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion into the class­room.  Click here to see an arti­cle about the Howard County green schools.

Some of Howard County’s green schools cre­ated web­sites describ­ing their pro­grams.  This encour­ages shar­ing the infor­ma­tion within the school com­mu­nity and allows other schools to be inspired and get new ideas.  Here are the links to the green school web­sites avail­able as of 2011.

Bel­lows Spring Ele­men­tary School

Gor­man Cross­ing Ele­men­tary School

Ham­mond Mid­dle School

Lau­rel Woods Ele­men­tary School

St. John’s Lane Ele­men­tary School

Tal­bott Springs Ele­men­tary School

Vet­er­ans Ele­men­tary School

Waverly Ele­men­tary School

Please email Elissa Rei­neck at ereineck@howardcountymd.gov to let us know if your school is a green school and has a web­site we can fea­ture here!

For a quick list of ideas for mak­ing your school greener, check out this link to the Live Green Card for Green Schools: (PDF)