Campaign to sustain

The University of Maryland's Scott Lupin was flying back from a conference on sustainability when a fellow passenger questioned him on the need to lower greenhouse emissions to stop climate change.

"He turned to me and said, ‘Rush Limbaugh said it's all bunk,'" Lupin recalled. "I said, ‘I didn't realize Rush Limbaugh was a scientist on this. Is that who you take scientific advice from?'"

Advocates pushing sustainable communities — ones that meet the needs of current residents and others without threatening the resources of future generations — are finding their message resonating now more than ever.

From liberal Montgomery County to conservative Frederick County, where Limbaugh's ideology typically might carry more weight, elected officials are implementing greener policies to protect the environment and save some green in their budgets.

At the University of Maryland, College Park, that has meant changes in building design and studies of how people travel to school to try to come up with better transit solutions, Lupin said.

The hard surface of Washington Quad was torn up and turned into a green space to absorb rainwater runoff, he said. A collection tank was installed to hold rainwater runoff from the roofs of surrounding dorms, and that water is used for watering the plants outdoors.

When the campus had to install a new roof on an existing dorm tower, it was retrofitted with a green roof covered with plants to absorb rain and the sun's rays in the hotter months, Lupin said. That will lower air-conditioning costs and extend the life of the roof much longer than that of standard roofs, saving the school money in a couple of ways.

Two years ago, the campus created an Office of Sustainability that is looking to lower greenhouse gas emissions by getting more students and staff to take public transit in lieu of driving to campus, and by buying electricity from renewable sources, he said.

"This is a very big undertaking across the campus," Lupin said.

For example, the university installed energy-efficient lighting fixtures and changed how they were situated, at a cost of $1.8 million. However, based on estimated energy savings, the investment in the new light fixtures will pay for itself in 2� years.

Water fixtures at the student union were replaced with faucets that shut off automatically and reduce water use by 70 percent, at a cost of $26,000. The university estimates that due to the reduction in water use and the lowering of the electric bill to heat water, the investment will pay off in two years.

Similar efforts are under way across the state.

"It's time to move from 20 years of treading water to 20 years of cleaner water and more sustainable growth," Gov. Martin O'Malley said recently.

O'Malley (D) had five bills introduced during this session of the General Assembly related to the state's new Smart, Green and Growing effort.

But counties and universities have launched their own sustainability drives as well — from growth policies to help protect the water supply from pollution to requiring more energy-efficient materials in building codes.

O'Malley's bills include a proposal to strengthen county land-use laws to allow for more sustainable development that also is oriented around public transit.

The new drives are being pushed largely by the realization of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to halt climate change, said Douglas Stewart, development and communications director of 1000 Friends of Maryland, a Baltimore-based group that advocates for more sustainable growth and development policies. While some greenhouse gas emissions are caused naturally, many are created through the burning of fossil fuels like gasoline and coal for energy, as well as from solid waste landfills.

"There's a real interest in environmental reform and making society more sustainable," Stewart said.

Maryland has had successful efforts at the development of sustainable communities. The Rockville Town Center is a good example of one, with a mix of high-density residential homes within walking distance of supermarkets and other retail stores as well as the Rockville Metro and other public transit, Stewart said.

The Rockville Town Center also incorporated numerous environmentally friendly features in the renovation work, Stewart said.

Stewart said the fact that Maryland is surrounded by water makes it vulnerable to the impact of global warming.

"Whether talking to a CEO of a company or a legislator or a civil leader, many people throughout Maryland acknowledge that global warming is happening, and it's caused by human activity," Stewart said.

But many government leaders at the county level are jumping on board to save money and not just to save the planet, he said.

"It's crossed party lines. It's not just a Democratic issue; it's also a Republican issue. It's not just a matter of protecting the earth; it's, ‘Hey, we don't have the money for this,'" Stewart said.

For example, when the price of fuel skyrocketed to more than $4 a gallon last year, county officials across the state paid more attention to how much they spend on fuel for school buses. The number of miles traveled by the buses has more than doubled in the past 15 years.

"Counties are finding they can't transport all these kids to school," Stewart said. "Those living within a mile from school are going to have to walk, because we can't afford these fuel costs."

In Frederick County, the commissioners have formed an Office of Environmental Sustainability, even though climate change isn't universally accepted by the county commissioners, said office director Hilari Varnadore.

"Not everybody on our Board of County Commissioners is on the same page when it comes to global warming and climate change discussions," Varnadore said.

More citizen groups also are taking an active role in encouraging sustainability, particularly on the Eastern Shore, said Teresa Crane, program associate at Town Creek Foundation in Easton, which promotes sustainability through charitable grants.

The recession has helped boost sustainability efforts in a couple of ways, from stopping the housing boom that contributed to sprawl to forcing people to look for ways to improve efficiencies and cut down on energy costs through conservation, Crane said.

In Montgomery County, for example, a sustainability work group, consisting of public and private sector officials, recently completed a 58-point climate protection plan.

Montgomery County, the state's most populous jurisdiction, intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent every five years through a variety of efforts — from home energy loan programs to encouraging people to install solar panels to generate energy to improving the energy efficiency of public buildings, said Bob Hoyt, director of the Montgomery County Department of the Environment.

The goal is highly ambitious and won't be easy to achieve, but it is attainable, Hoyt said. "We wanted to hit the ground running," he said.