The city of Baltimore is leading the way among school districts nationwide that are stepping up to tackle the climate crisis through net-zero buildings — which aim to use less energy than they produce each year.

Maryland is one of only a handful of states that invests directly in clean-energy schools, said Kristin Keim, program manager at national sustainability nonprofit Generation180. This past year, the state’s Decarbonizing Public Schools program funneled around $26 million to local districts, with another round of funding on the way.

Baltimore leads the state in the number of net-zero school buildings, with two — Holabird Academy and Graceland Park/O’Donnell Heights — in full operation. The city received $5.5 million from the state to jump-start two more projects, with one set to open next fall and another in 2028.

“It's a mixture of strong leadership and good timing,” said Joanna Pi-Sunyer, the district’s sustainability manager since 2013. “We passed our first sustainability policy in 2016. Our board of school commissioners adopted it, our CEO signed on, and the funding then became available.”

Net-zero schools come with a significant budget benefit, Pi-Sunyer said. Both schools run an annual energy bill of around $30,000, compared to $150,000 for a typical building of comparable size.

But the construction comes with a lot of upfront costs. Just adding solar panels to a building comes with a $2 million bill, Pi-Sunyer said.

“And it's much easier to do a net-zero energy building from new construction than when renovating a school,” Pi-Sunyer said. “Because if we were to put solar panels on our oldest, highest-energy-use school, there's no way we could have enough roof space to generate enough electricity to offset those costs. So our first step is, how do we make it super insulated? How do we have the most efficient HVAC system? How do we have the most efficient kitchen equipment?”

The district hires an outside maintenance company to monitor their solar systems every day. And they don’t always perform as they should.

“Sometimes we have an excess of electricity that we generate, like on a beautiful, clear day,” Pi-Sunyer said. “And then on a day that's very cloudy, we're not generating very much, and so we're actually taking electricity from the grid.”

For the past two years, both Holabird and Graceland Park have failed to hit the net-zero mark. Pi-Sunyer says it’s a constant learning process, like training students and staff in best practices.

“You know, turning off the lights when they leave the room, and not propping open the doors, and not everyone having their own personal coffee pot,” she said.

Pi-Sunyer said she’s proud the district is doing what it can.

“We're often trying to find that sweet spot where we can make an impact and change our behavior, or change our actions or our operations, that doesn't cost us more money,” she said. “We're also setting an example and showing students, staff and the public that we are committed to reducing our impact on the earth.”

A closer look at clean energy education

Stephanie Novak-Pappas, principal of Holabird Academy, says the biggest perk of being net-zero is the extra education.

“As our scholars are moving into high schools, careers in college, they have the sustainability lens,” she said. “They understand why conservation might be impactful for climate change; they understand some of the more social justice issues. And so one of the hopes that I have is that our scholars will move from learning about sustainability to actually advocating and for sustainable practices within Baltimore City, within Maryland.”

Erica Strautin teaches sustainability to every grade at Holabird, once a week for 45 minutes. She calls the job a “passion role.”

“When I think back on the educators that have made an impact on me, it's when they spoke passionately about something, and then also put evidence behind it,” she said. “I’m just trying to give them those snapshots of, like, Why? I want them to be able to answer that question for themselves, and then do something about it.”

It’s Strautin’s first year in the role, coming with a background as a reading specialist and ESOL teacher. Her curriculum – which she says is “all from [her] brain” – starts with simply getting younger kids excited about exploring nature.

By eighth-grade, students complete a capstone project about LEED certification, a global rating system for sustainable buildings. In class last Friday, she pulled up Holabird’s most recent scorecard, which gives the building a “platinum” rating of 82 of 110 points across seven categories.

“We're going to talk today about things that we have in place, and you are going to be able to make some recommendations, because there's still work to be done, right?” Strautin asked her students. “If we are going to minimize human impact, this is an ongoing effort.”

Holabird is replete with clean-energy resources. The building is designed with ceiling-to-floor windows and solar tunnels to maximize natural light, a roof full of different solar panels that follow the sun, and a community garden — which Strautin says is still a work-in-progress.

“These two lots will be raised garden beds; this will be the pollinator garden,” Strautin said, pointing to the lot behind the school’s library. “And then this is all going to get cleared out and mulched to be workstations for early childhood classes, where they’ll have different exploration-type stations.”

Strautin said she sees success in her curriculum from students who are already active participants, like the 20 who come to school early for the “Green Team.”

“These are students who are willing to come down and get the compost from the kitchen or from the cafeteria when it's like food that everybody has eaten,” she said. “But they're willing to do the dirty work. And that’s hard; it feels uncomfortable. But they care; they’re motivated, so that feels exciting.”

Maryland released environmental literacy standards for K-12 schools in March 2023. Strautin says that as she works to make Holabird more green, she hopes other educators have the opportunity to do the same.

“My hope is that moving forward, this is something that we can invest in district-wide, to create greater access to nature and help students fall in love with this earth,” she said.