We love when we get together in person!
August’s C3MD in-person networking event, at member The 3rd, was full of familiar faces and new attendees eager to learn all about this month’s theme, “Environmental Sustainability and Restoration.” Fortunately, Howard EcoWorks Founder and Executive Director Lori Lilly was in the house to enlighten us all on the importance of climate resilient landscaping, sustainability, and home- and landowner applications.
Lori’s presentation began with an introduction to Howard Ecoworks, a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that 
designs, builds, and maintains environmental projects through their green jobs programs. In addition to their Uplift and Seeds of Changes workforce development programs, Howard Ecoworks helps Maryland residents and organizations meet their environmental goals broadly focused on conservation and restoration of soils and plants.
Participants were eager to learn about important topics like stormwater management, agricultural sustainability and innovation, as well as the best non-invasive plant species to use in their gardens to attract pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. Through Lori’s presentation, we learned some intentional processes we can put in place to use landscape to mitigate climate change, promote resilience, and fight biodiversity loss in our communities.
Some steps you can take to support environmental sustainability include:
- Determining functions of various landscape spaces for yourself and the ecosystem
- Starting small with manageable projects over time
- Replacing lawn (or portions of) with native landscapes, deep rooted native grasses that hold carbon in the ground, perennial plants to support the insects, and trees for canopy
- Incorporating native plants and nitrogen fixing plants into your landscape spaces, e.g. bee balm and ostrich fern
If you’re interested in learning more about Howard Ecoworks, their services, and the programs they support, visit their website. And, if you’re looking for some new plants for your garden, visit their nursery!
A big thank you to our meeting host, The 3rd for use of their fantastic community and co-working space on the lakefront in Downtown Columbia. If you’re not familiar with this non-profit organization, we encourage you to check it out for your organization’s next event needs. They also have a café on site and we can confirm that Chef Jamila will take good care of you!
And thank you again to our event sponsors: Indigo Ink Digital Printing, insight180 Brand Consulting & Design, Kevin T. Howard CPA, PFS, P.A., and The Wendy Slaughter Team of Elevate Real Estate Brokerage for another great in-person event. We’ll be back to our regular virtual breakfast meeting in September.
Pictured here are a few of the slides from Lori’s presentation:
Thank you to all of those who attended, we hope to see you at our next meeting. Don’t wait, register for our virtual Tuesday, September 12 meeting today through our event page. We’ll be discussing conscious business culture. Join us!
––Wendy Baird, C3MD Board Member
Thank you to C3MD Board Member Wendy Baird for this meeting recap post. If you are interested in submitting a guest blog post please reach out. We want to hear what you have to offer!
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