BALTIMORE, MD (July 7, 2010) -- At an event hosted by the Green Building Council in Jessup last evening, Maryland Department of Environment Secretary Shari T. Wilson, Business and Economic Development Deputy Secretary Dominick Murray, and Natural Resources Deputy Secretary Joe Gill presented the first-annual Maryland Green Registry Leadership Awards. British American Auto Care, Inc., GM Baltimore Transmission, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, St. Mary's College of Maryland, and the Union Hospital of Cecil County received the awards, presented to organizations that have shown a strong commitment to sustainable practices, measurable results, and continuous improvement.

Governor O'Malley said: "Maryland has made enormous strides on so many fronts -- working to restore the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways, to fight climate change and promote a clean energy future, to create green jobs, to make our air cleaner and our water safer, and to protect our land and farms for future generations. Our partners in this work, Green Registry members are leaders bringing good business and sustainable environmental practices together -- to save money and to protect our resources."

MDE Secretary Shari T. Wilson said, "A healthy environment and a healthy economy go hand-in-hand. I am proud to present these awards to organizations that have displayed outstanding leadership through their strong commitment to environmental protection. While they represent a variety of facility types and sizes, all have several key factors in common that contribute to their success: each organization has a green team, has organization-wide commitment to environmental performance, sets annual environmental goals, and measures their results."

Winning Green Registry organizations were chosen based on their commitment to continuous improvement and environmental results achieved to date. Each of the winners completed a "Five Leaders.Five Questions" profile discussing the importance of these elements in their programs, posted online at: http://www.mde.state.md.us/marylandgreen/Pages/LeadershipWinners.aspx

British American Auto Care is an automotive service and repair facility in Columbia that has:

• Developed an innovative method of draining oil bottles allowing them to save over 55 gallons of oil and 588 pounds of plastic.
• Converted more than half of their landscaping into a natural area that does not require mowing and converted an area to garden plots for employees.
• Installed more efficient lighting systems throughout their facility, allowing them to cut their energy use in half.

GM Baltimore Transmission in White Marsh manufactures transmissions, including the two-mode hybrid transmission. GM Baltimore Transmission:

• Has been "landfill free" since 2007, meaning all waste is either reduced, recycled, or sent to a waste-to-energy plant.
• Has reduced its energy use by 54 percent since 2003.
• Has set goals for future water and energy conservation, driven by their ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management System.

The NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt is a laboratory used for developing and operating unmanned scientific spacecraft, as well as managing many of NASA's earth observation, astronomy, and space physics missions. NASA/Goddard:

• Since 2005, has reduced their waste production by 25 percent, exceeding their original goal of a 20 percent reduction by 2010.
• Is working to increase its renewable energy use by implementing a landfill gas project and retrofitting an existing building with a geothermal heat pump.
• Achieved LEED Gold certification at their newly constructed Exploration Sciences Building.

St. Mary's College of Maryland is a public honors in St. Mary's City that has:

• Thanks to a fee increase supported by the students, improved its energy efficiency by 25 percent and achieved 100 percent carbon neutrality for electricity through the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits.
• Reduced its polluted stormwater runoff by 50 percent -- even though the college has doubled in size since 1986.
• Received the Audubon International Certification in Environmental Planning, thanks to the grounds crew, making them the first college in Maryland to receive such certification.

Union Hospital of Cecil County in Elkton, which offers a number of inpatient and outpatient services, has:

• Established benchmarks to measure success in programs such as their single stream recycling initiative and medical waste reduction strategies -- developing a scorecard for each initiative to communicate progress to staff and the community.
• Was the first hospital to join the "Balanced Menu Challenge," which promotes a climate change strategy through food services, and signed the Healthy Food in Health Care pledge and is making great strides toward adopting sustainable agricultural practices into their food service department.
• Have converted 85 percent of chemicals purchased to Green Seal certified products.

The Department of the Environment also announced collective results that were self-reported by participating organizations. The more than 200 Green Registry members, over a single year, reported the following annual results: 1.6 million pounds of hazardous waste reduced, 4.7 million pounds of non-hazardous solid waste reduced, 2 billion pounds on non-hazardous solid waste recycled, 2.8 million gallons of wastewater reduced, 3.8 million gallons of fuel conserved, 1.6 million miles vehicle miles traveled reduced, 3.6 million MW electricity reduced, 53 million gallons of water conserved, 1.5 million metric tons carbon equivalent greenhouse gas emissions reduced (including 420 million pounds of carbon dioxide reductions), and $24 million saved.

Governor O'Malley also recently asked Marylanders to consider nominating their fellow citizens, local governments and organizations for recognition under the 2011 Smart, Green and Growing Awards Program. Details on the nomination process and criteria are available at http://mde.maryland.gov/marylandgreen/Pages/Home.aspx

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