Howard County gov­ern­ment is tak­ing a hard look at its own oper­a­tions and find­ing ways to con­serve and inno­vate.  Howard County has had suc­cess phas­ing in hybrid vehi­cles and diesel-electric hybrid buses.  These vehi­cles are sav­ing money in fuel and main­te­nance costs.  Howard County also con­verted all traf­fic lights on County roads to LED lights.  These lights use 60% less energy than before.   Other exam­ples of oper­a­tional changes within the County include the revamp­ing of the recy­cling pro­gram which increased recy­cling col­lected and decreased trash col­lected.  Another County facil­ity project is the instal­la­tion of solar pan­els at Howard County Library’s East Colum­bia Branch.

Howard County is also imple­ment­ing poli­cies that pro­mote sus­tain­able prac­tices such as green build­ing, green neigh­bor­hoods, and con­ser­va­tion ease­ments.  These poli­cies pro­vide guid­ance and incen­tives for busi­nesses and res­i­dents to decrease impacts on the environment.

Another thing Howard County is doing is col­lect­ing and shar­ing infor­ma­tion with the pub­lic.  The annual Green­Fest is a free fam­ily event that pro­vides access to green ven­dors, orga­ni­za­tions and experts.  County web­sites, such as Green Cen­tral Sta­tion, and pub­li­ca­tions help cus­tomers find green busi­nesses, com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions and learn about new tech­nolo­gies. Res­i­dents and edu­ca­tors are now able to dis­cover all kinds of envi­ron­men­tal infor­ma­tion, as well as oppor­tu­ni­ties to get involved in mak­ing Howard County the best it can be.