Ground break­ing Green Build­ing envi­ron­men­tal leg­is­la­tion was passed in Howard County on July 30, 2007.  This Green Build­ing leg­is­la­tion estab­lishes stan­dards for future com­mer­cial con­struc­tion and includes incen­tives for going beyond the estab­lished standards.

Green build­ing tech­niques use envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able mate­ri­als to con­struct build­ings that con­serve resources, both in their con­struc­tion and in their future oper­a­tion, and pro­vide healthy liv­ing or work­ing space. Howard County green build­ing require­ments and State and local tax cred­its are based on the United States Green Build­ing Council’s Lead­er­ship in Energy and Envi­ron­men­tal Design (LEED) Guide­lines. Infor­ma­tion about LEED Guide­lines is avail­able at: U.S. Green Build­ing Coun­cil. Addi­tional infor­ma­tion about green build­ing tech­niques is avail­able through the Mary­land Depart­ment of Nat­ural Resources at: Mary­land Envi­ron­men­tal Design Pro­gram.

Green Build­ing Requirements

Coun­cil Bill No. 47–2007, estab­lished green build­ing stan­dards for pub­lic and pri­vate build­ings in Howard County. Effec­tive July 1, 2008:

• Most new pub­licly funded build­ings (30% or more County fund­ing), larger than 10,000 square feet must attain a LEED Sil­ver rating.
• Most new pri­vate build­ings larger than 50,000 square feet must attain a LEED Cer­ti­fied rating.

Green Build­ing and Green Neigh­bor­hood require­ments are over­seen by Howard County’s Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Zon­ing and the Depart­ment of Inspec­tions, Licenses and Permits

Tax Cred­its

As an incen­tive to pro­mote green build­ing, Mary­land allows a green build­ing tax credit for busi­nesses that con­struct or reha­bil­i­tate a build­ing con­form­ing to spe­cific stan­dards intended to save energy and mit­i­gate envi­ron­men­tal impacts.  The Mary­land Energy Admin­is­tra­tion offers incen­tives such as tax cred­its and rebates for energy effi­ciency.  Please visit their web­site for details on state res­i­den­tial and busi­ness incentives. 

Howard County also offers prop­erty tax cred­its for green build­ings that exceed Howard County LEED cer­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ments.  New con­struc­tion and exist­ing build­ings may qual­ify for tax cred­its for LEED-silver, LEED-gold and LEED plat­inum buildings.

Grants

In addi­tion to tax cred­its, the Mary­land Energy Admin­is­tra­tion oper­ates a Solar Energy Grant Pro­gram. The solar grants are avail­able to res­i­den­tial, busi­ness, school and non­profit enti­ties, and can be used to off­set a por­tion of the cost of either solar elec­tric­ity gen­er­a­tion or solar water heat­ing projects.