Live Green Howard County pro­motes inno­va­tion, a healthy and sus­tain­able envi­ron­ment, and lead­er­ship in fos­ter­ing green tech­nol­ogy and cre­at­ing green jobs.   The Live Green ini­tia­tive seeks to lessen the envi­ron­men­tal impact of County oper­a­tions and to pro­vide resources to help res­i­dents and busi­nesses “go green.”

Howard County’s com­mit­ment to being a green com­mu­nity has many dif­fer­ent parts.  Live Green Howard County encom­passes the sus­tain­abil­ity efforts of all County depart­ments and divisions.  Because the County works closely with the com­mu­nity on so many of these efforts, the Live Green accom­plish­ments are often a part­ner­ship between cit­i­zens, gov­ern­ment, busi­nesses and non-profit organizations.

Howard County’s Office of Envi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­ity web­site pro­vides infor­ma­tion about Live Green resources, the Envi­ron­men­tal Sus­tain­abil­ity Board, and Live Green accom­plish­ments.  It also houses Live Green projects such as the Green House Gas Inven­tory/Climate Action Plan, the Robin­son Nature Cen­ter and Green­Fest, a free fam­ily event pro­vid­ing access to green ven­dors, orga­ni­za­tions and experts.  With the devel­op­ment of Maryland’s first Green Busi­ness Coun­cil, Howard County has brought together local busi­ness lead­ers to con­sult, part­ner, net­work and col­lab­o­rate on envi­ron­men­tal best practices.

Live Green Howard County also includes Green Neigh­bor­hood and Green Build­ing pro­grams which pro­vide indi­vid­u­als, busi­nesses and orga­ni­za­tions lists of the spec­i­fi­ca­tions for meet­ing these green certifications.

A Live Green resource that brings a lot of envi­ron­men­tal infor­ma­tion together is the Green Map, which high­lights the loca­tions of nat­ural resources, green busi­nesses, and com­mu­nity ameni­ties right here in Howard County.