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The state of Maryland, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, is leading by example in
encouraging Maryland business to reduce their environmental footprint and that's what
the Green Registry, and so many other things that we're doing, are all about. As we're
able to bring schools, and businesses, government agencies, and non-profits, all of whom are
part of our state-wide effort to green our communities by creating green teams, which
get done setting environmental goals and pushing for measurable results. And those are some
quite impressive numbers. We can all contribute to the environmental progress that is so essential
to the health of our state and our people. We know that a clean environment and a healthy
economy go hand-in-hand. The numbers are right there; saved $63 million dollars. And since
the Maryland Green Registry started 3 years ago, businesses that are committed to these
environmental friendly goals have saved, what's the number? $63 million? Is that in one year
or in three years? One year. Wow. We're well over $100 million dollars in savings. No doubt.
Through the many activities that are represented on that board. And it didn't happen by accident.
It took hard work and commitment and leadership in not only the public sector, but also in
the private sector. I know tonight we're going to be able to recognize a number of leaders
and outstanding organizations in this effort. Our state is also made in choices that are
greening our environment by lowering carbon emission, increasing our use of renewable
energy, and reducing hazardous waste; the state government, itself, as an organization.
So in addition to what Bob mentioned in terms of policy, initiatives that we've taken to
clean the Bay, to clean the air, to clean the water that we consume and that we enjoy.
And we're doing a number of things within the organization of state government, as well.
We created a state of the art energy database to collect usage data from all state buildings
to see where we can save energy. We're generating electricity for five state buildings from
solar photomontage systems that are installed on the roofs. We're using solar hot water
heating systems in three state government sites. We're purchasing clean energy from
local solar and wind energy sources, and we've even installed a wind turbine at the state
highway administration at its maintenance facility to test whether we can use wind energy
in sufficient quantity to help repair a state highway facility. And these are just a number
of things that we've done. We've charged each agency to work with our department of channel
services to find ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint, just like we've asked each
of the registrants in the Maryland Green Registry to do. So we're working hand-in-hand with
you. Maryland continues to make tough choices that protect our environment and create green
jobs. We know that just by way of example under government house leadership when we
made adjustments to the renewal energy portfolio standards, and we have a 2% standard for solar
as a result for that there are 2,000 jobs in Maryland today that are related to the
solar energy industry that didn't exist 4 years ago before that standard. So by enforcing
green standards, environmentally-friendly standards, we can and we've demonstrated that
we can create jobs, as well.