ST. MARY'S CITY -- From the outside, the new brick classroom building at St. Mary's College looks much like the other Colonial-style structures on the riverfront campus of this small, historic liberal-arts school.
But inside, Goodpaster Hall represents something very different for St. Mary's - and for the rest of Maryland. From the recycled wood flooring to the sod covering part of its roof, it is one of the state's first "green" college buildings, and a potential prototype for many more such taxpayer-funded facilities to come.
Gov. Martin O'Malley has proposed legislation that would require using energy- and resource-efficient building design and materials in all newly constructed or significantly renovated state buildings, as well as in all state-financed public school buildings - even if they cost a little more to build. Advocates say the buildings will save money on energy bills in the long run.
"It's just the right thing to do, and now is the right time to do it," said Alvin C. Collins, secretary of the Department of General Services, which oversees the state's building projects. A hearing is scheduled today on the administration's bill.
Growing concerns about rising energy costs and the threat of global warming are driving the spread of green buildings across the country. If the governor's bill passes, Maryland would join about two dozen other states and dozens of cities and counties that have adopted laws, policies or regulations to incorporate energy-saving and environmental features into new public facilities, such as compact fluorescent lighting, solar or geothermal heating, bamboo flooring and nontoxic wall coatings.
Fifth-greenest state
Maryland, ranked fifth-greenest among the states in a recent survey by Forbes magazine, has been toying with green-building technology for years. Former Gov. Parris N. Glendening set up a Maryland Green Building Council in 2001 and ordered the construction of two state-funded pilot projects to show the way - one of them the recently finished Goodpaster Hall at St. Mary's.
The legislature also adopted a tax credit for commercial green buildings in 2001 - which proved so popular that the $25 million in credits were used up three years ago.
But green-government-building bills last year fell victim to lawmakers' worries that the mandate could be costly at a time when they were facing a huge budget deficit in future years. Legislators asked the Green Building Council to study the issue.
