Goal 3: Baltimore Lab School will maintain its buildings, grounds, and operations to support positive environmental and human health outcomes.
· School buildings, grounds, and operations are models of sustainability for the community, making continual progress towards net-zero environmental impacts, including carbon, solid waste, wildlife habitat, and hazardous waste.
· The school environment has a positive effect on the health of students, staff and the surrounding community.
· School buildings, grounds, and operations are models of sustainability for the community, making continual progress towards net-zero environmental impacts, including carbon, solid waste, wildlife habitat, and hazardous waste.
· The school environment has a positive effect on the health of students, staff and the surrounding community.
June 29, 2017
Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc.
Baltimore Energy Initiative
City of Baltimore
Baltimore Lab School was awarded up to $86,603 for the purpose of carrying out energy savings improvements t its building located at 2220 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD. 21218. Funds provided through a Baltimore Energy Initiative from the City of Baltimore will enable us to replace air conditioners, lighting retrofit and add attic insulation.
Baltimore Lab Staff: Craig Hoffman, Director of Finance and Operations
Healthy Neighborhoods, Inc.
Baltimore Energy Initiative
City of Baltimore
Baltimore Lab School was awarded up to $86,603 for the purpose of carrying out energy savings improvements t its building located at 2220 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD. 21218. Funds provided through a Baltimore Energy Initiative from the City of Baltimore will enable us to replace air conditioners, lighting retrofit and add attic insulation.
Baltimore Lab Staff: Craig Hoffman, Director of Finance and Operations
Healthy Neighborhoods Grant Supporting Documents
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energy_savings_improvements.pdf | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
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December 8, 2017
NET ZERO CARBON 100% Green-E Certified.
Baltimore Lab School is proud to announce our commitment to a sustainable energy future. We want to do our part to help reduce climate change by using green energy supply to light our classrooms and heat our school. Effective immediately we are making every effort to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our facilities carbon footprint. Our natural gas supply is now NET ZERO CARBON 100% Green-E Certified. What does this mean?
All the natural gas consumed by BLS for our daily operations, heating, hot water heat, cooking etc. is GREEN E Certified. Our natural gas now comes from a landfill gas capture program. The landfill gas capture program turns garbage into power. As organic waste breaks down it releases gas which is collected via control systems.
There is NO fracking or drilling involved.
Baltimore Lab School will now eliminate 187,320 pounds of carbon emissions or 85 metric tons annually by uses NET ZERO CARBON natural gas supply! In 2018 our electricity supply will be 100% wind generated and Green E certified as clean, green sustainable energy. More details to come on our green electricity.
Baltimore Lab School Staff: Craig Hoffman, Director of Finance and Operations
NET ZERO CARBON 100% Green-E Certified.
Baltimore Lab School is proud to announce our commitment to a sustainable energy future. We want to do our part to help reduce climate change by using green energy supply to light our classrooms and heat our school. Effective immediately we are making every effort to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce our facilities carbon footprint. Our natural gas supply is now NET ZERO CARBON 100% Green-E Certified. What does this mean?
All the natural gas consumed by BLS for our daily operations, heating, hot water heat, cooking etc. is GREEN E Certified. Our natural gas now comes from a landfill gas capture program. The landfill gas capture program turns garbage into power. As organic waste breaks down it releases gas which is collected via control systems.
There is NO fracking or drilling involved.
Baltimore Lab School will now eliminate 187,320 pounds of carbon emissions or 85 metric tons annually by uses NET ZERO CARBON natural gas supply! In 2018 our electricity supply will be 100% wind generated and Green E certified as clean, green sustainable energy. More details to come on our green electricity.
Baltimore Lab School Staff: Craig Hoffman, Director of Finance and Operations
Green-E Certified Supporting Documents

bls_utility_kilowats_used_and_savings.pdf | |
File Size: | 74 kb |
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bls_-_natural_gas_carbon_reduction.pdf | |
File Size: | 285 kb |
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bls_-_certificate_of_environmental_stewardship_-_2017_gas.pdf | |
File Size: | 684 kb |
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School Policy Incentive Plan for cleaner air.
Our current Staff Handbook states that teachers who carpool and take public transportation will be given an incentive.
"We encourage faculty and staff to carpool, take public transportation, bike or walk. We strive to be a bicycle friendly community." Bikes can be brought inside and stored in the Outdoor Education room during the school day.
Baltimore Lab School Staff Handbook.
# of staff: 11 plus
Staff: Jackie Lesh, Annette Fallon, Carrie Brazell, Ruth Goodlaxson, Zac Lawhon, Kara Huggins, Joel Bonotai, Robin Brooks, John Mulherin, Katie Mulherin.
Our current Staff Handbook states that teachers who carpool and take public transportation will be given an incentive.
"We encourage faculty and staff to carpool, take public transportation, bike or walk. We strive to be a bicycle friendly community." Bikes can be brought inside and stored in the Outdoor Education room during the school day.
Baltimore Lab School Staff Handbook.
# of staff: 11 plus
Staff: Jackie Lesh, Annette Fallon, Carrie Brazell, Ruth Goodlaxson, Zac Lawhon, Kara Huggins, Joel Bonotai, Robin Brooks, John Mulherin, Katie Mulherin.

Date: October 26, 2016
# of staff: 10
Location: Baltimore lab School Dance Room
ReUse!
Description: Women’s Clothing Swap. "One woman gathers what another woman spills."
Staff brought clothes that still have some life that they no longer wanted. At the end of the hour, they took back their clothes or loaded them into our trucks and took them to Goodwill.
Keeping our green school green!
Teachers: Jackie Lesh and Darlene White, Middle School Movement and Language Arts Teachers.
September 20, 2016
Healthy Eating Samples
# of staff: 1
Items from our hydroponic garden are shared with everyone. On Sept. 20, 2017, pesto from the basil grown in the BLS hydroponic garden is available in the student/teacher snack area for everyone to try.
BLS Staff: Jenny Ngidi-Brown, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Healthy Eating Samples
# of staff: 1
Items from our hydroponic garden are shared with everyone. On Sept. 20, 2017, pesto from the basil grown in the BLS hydroponic garden is available in the student/teacher snack area for everyone to try.
BLS Staff: Jenny Ngidi-Brown, MS, OTR/L
Occupational Therapist
Grade Level: Lower School Teachers and Staff
Date: September 2016 to present.
# of staff: 20
Activity: Low waste meetings. No paper handouts any more.
Teacher: Maggie Bove Tyler, Head of Lower School
Date: September 2016 to present.
# of staff: 20
Activity: Low waste meetings. No paper handouts any more.
Teacher: Maggie Bove Tyler, Head of Lower School

low_waste_meetings.pdf | |
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Sept. 2015
Sept. 2016 # of staff: 15 Indoor Plants for improved indoor air quality. Teachers grow indoor plants in their rooms. Plants were added to the hallways in 2016. Staff: Steve Buettner, Head of School and Holly Kelly, Head of School Assistant |
September 6, 2015- present.
Reduce!
Changes to Baltimore Lab School’s break room to help the environment.
In an effort to reduce the use of disposable coffee cups, many reusable coffee cups were donated to the break room for staff use. All coffee and tea used to be purchased as K cups. We have moved away from K cups for tea and are now only using tea bags, which are biodegradable. We used to buy small canisters of sugar, and now we get a big bag and refill a reusable canister with sugar. Traditional K cups are not recyclable or biodegradable. We have started to purchase K Cups called Onecup that are 97% biodegradable and even come in biodegradable packaging. Hopefully we will be able to move away from all traditional K cups and be able to only use the environmentally friendly Onecup product instead.
BLS Staff:
September 5th, 2015
Reuse!
Parents get involved! The Leizear's, (Chris's parents) donated Clever Coffee Capsules and Dunkin Donuts coffee to our staff room for everyone to use.
August 25, 2014
Reduce!
Administrators become involved with our student led "No more cups" campaign.
Staff are provided with Baltimore Lab School coffee mugs to reduce the amount of paper cups used each day.
Staff: Lauren Scally, Development Director
2012-1016. Online High School Newspaper and Blog
Staff continued using electronic newsletters and implementing policies to reduce paper use. The Lab 10 News went to online versions. The Lab 10 News is the student newspaper and blog.
BLS Staff: Lab 10 News Teacher: Nancy Feldman
Students: Julian Urban
2017-18. Online High School Newspaper and Blog is continued.
BLS Staff: Jessica Martin
Students: Nathan Hoffman
Staff continued using electronic newsletters and implementing policies to reduce paper use. The Lab 10 News went to online versions. The Lab 10 News is the student newspaper and blog.
BLS Staff: Lab 10 News Teacher: Nancy Feldman
Students: Julian Urban
2017-18. Online High School Newspaper and Blog is continued.
BLS Staff: Jessica Martin
Students: Nathan Hoffman

2013 to present.
Online Resources in Library
Thanks to parent volunteer Kelly McDowell our library went online in 2013. The SIRS Discoverer database added a collection of nonfiction ebooks to the database. The titles cover content areas, including Animals, Arts & Humanities, Biographies, Environment, Health & Human Body, History & Government, Science, Sports, and Technology. Some of the titles include: Eyewitness books, Weekly Reader Early Learning Library, Blue Banner Biographies, Countries in Crises Series. There have been lots of new books added to the collection.
Parent volunteer/librarian: Kelly McDowell (2014-15) Darlene White (2015-present)
Online Resources in Library
Thanks to parent volunteer Kelly McDowell our library went online in 2013. The SIRS Discoverer database added a collection of nonfiction ebooks to the database. The titles cover content areas, including Animals, Arts & Humanities, Biographies, Environment, Health & Human Body, History & Government, Science, Sports, and Technology. Some of the titles include: Eyewitness books, Weekly Reader Early Learning Library, Blue Banner Biographies, Countries in Crises Series. There have been lots of new books added to the collection.
Parent volunteer/librarian: Kelly McDowell (2014-15) Darlene White (2015-present)

bls_online_enviro_research_databases.pdf | |
File Size: | 100 kb |
File Type: |

2012 to present.
All information is sent to parents and staff electronically.
All teachers have the option to enable students to read online and type their work rather than print out readings and worksheets.
BLS Staff: Administrative Assistant: Christina Rickman. Communications Director: Lauren Scally.
All information is sent to parents and staff electronically.
All teachers have the option to enable students to read online and type their work rather than print out readings and worksheets.
BLS Staff: Administrative Assistant: Christina Rickman. Communications Director: Lauren Scally.

2012 to present.
Digital Books
All high school classes (50 students) are now using new library of books, accessed digitally from a Cloud Storage service offered by Envision, our Kurzweil distributor. This saves the staff from scanning each page of literature curriculum to enter our shared file of volumes to use with Kurzweil text to speech software.
BLS Staff: Kelly McDowell, Librarian.
Digital Books
All high school classes (50 students) are now using new library of books, accessed digitally from a Cloud Storage service offered by Envision, our Kurzweil distributor. This saves the staff from scanning each page of literature curriculum to enter our shared file of volumes to use with Kurzweil text to speech software.
BLS Staff: Kelly McDowell, Librarian.

Re-purposed Materials.
# of students: 12 students
In sophomore world literature class, after studying ancient Greek drama, the students ( crafted “marble” friezes from ceramic tiles, plaster, and paints donated by Habitat for Humanity in Landsdowne, Md., originally donated to Habitat by construction contractors (re-purpose).
Teacher: Nancy Feldman
# of students: 12 students
In sophomore world literature class, after studying ancient Greek drama, the students ( crafted “marble” friezes from ceramic tiles, plaster, and paints donated by Habitat for Humanity in Landsdowne, Md., originally donated to Habitat by construction contractors (re-purpose).
Teacher: Nancy Feldman

Recycled, Re-purposed and Natural materials are used in art projects.
Summer 2012 the students in Wacky Tacky Travelers Club (1st-5th grade) engaged in a travel-themed program. The students became members of the Wacky Tacky Travelers Club. In club, members "traveled to Spain and other countries" by identifying their flight path on maps, learning phrases in other languages, creating travel journals from recycled materials to record memories of their trip, and studying artists of the world.
Teachers: Zac Lawhon
2015 update! Recycled, Re-purposed and Natural materials are used in art projects.
This initiative is followed by all of the art teachers.
Summer 2012 the students in Wacky Tacky Travelers Club (1st-5th grade) engaged in a travel-themed program. The students became members of the Wacky Tacky Travelers Club. In club, members "traveled to Spain and other countries" by identifying their flight path on maps, learning phrases in other languages, creating travel journals from recycled materials to record memories of their trip, and studying artists of the world.
Teachers: Zac Lawhon
2015 update! Recycled, Re-purposed and Natural materials are used in art projects.
This initiative is followed by all of the art teachers.

Digital Outdoor Education Manual
Outdoor Education Department Manual was written for the Baltimore Lab School and published on Baltimore Lab School's public drive.
Outdoor Education Coordinator: Patti Child
Outdoor Education Department Manual was written for the Baltimore Lab School and published on Baltimore Lab School's public drive.
Outdoor Education Coordinator: Patti Child

Date: Started November 9,2017
Grade Level: High School
Subject Area: All
#of students: 65
Activity: Snack/Food Swap
In the hallway of the high school is a basket for students to put what they do not wish to eat from their lunches or snacks to share with others. Since snacks are fine to eat in our school during the day, a wide variety of goodies can be seen in our basket and with students walking from class to class. After lunch there tend to be a bunch of fruit contributed. The basket is always empty at the end of the day.
Teacher: Britta Hoffman, H.S. IA
Grade Level: High School
Subject Area: All
#of students: 65
Activity: Snack/Food Swap
In the hallway of the high school is a basket for students to put what they do not wish to eat from their lunches or snacks to share with others. Since snacks are fine to eat in our school during the day, a wide variety of goodies can be seen in our basket and with students walking from class to class. After lunch there tend to be a bunch of fruit contributed. The basket is always empty at the end of the day.
Teacher: Britta Hoffman, H.S. IA

Recycling in School.
We recycle 75 lbs per week. Mostly paper.
# of students: 40
The school began its recycling program through our Industrialist Club Teacher Abigail Breiseth and her students in 2005, after discovering that our recycling was being thrown away in the regular trash pick up; our school contacted the Baltimore City Recycling Center to correct the situation.
1014-2016 Teachers: Jim Schwartz, High School Math Teacher
2017-18 Teacher: Britta Hoffman
BLS Staff: Yuriy Gordichuk, Facilities, Wilnett Dawodu, Business Office.
We recycle 75 lbs per week. Mostly paper.
# of students: 40
The school began its recycling program through our Industrialist Club Teacher Abigail Breiseth and her students in 2005, after discovering that our recycling was being thrown away in the regular trash pick up; our school contacted the Baltimore City Recycling Center to correct the situation.
1014-2016 Teachers: Jim Schwartz, High School Math Teacher
2017-18 Teacher: Britta Hoffman
BLS Staff: Yuriy Gordichuk, Facilities, Wilnett Dawodu, Business Office.

Reduction of Paper Handouts
All high school teachers use document camera and Smart Boards to cut down on work sheets and hard copy text.
Staff: All.
All high school teachers use document camera and Smart Boards to cut down on work sheets and hard copy text.
Staff: All.
April 2014
Healthy Living
Friday morning yoga for staff
# of staff: 10
Staff: Amy Kisler, Kara Huggins, Jackie Lesh
Healthy Living
Friday morning yoga for staff
# of staff: 10
Staff: Amy Kisler, Kara Huggins, Jackie Lesh
0 Waste Lunches!
Mrs. Child, BLS Outdoor Education coordinator, challenges our students and staff to participate in 0 Waste lunches!
0 Waste Lunches per year: 13
Middle and High School students are challenged by Mrs. Child to have a no waste lunch on every CBF Boat and 3 day Island trip they attend. Lower School is challenged to a no waste lunch on their annual North Bay and Severn River Trips.
0 Waste Lunches per year: 13
Middle and High School students are challenged by Mrs. Child to have a no waste lunch on every CBF Boat and 3 day Island trip they attend. Lower School is challenged to a no waste lunch on their annual North Bay and Severn River Trips.
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