greeNEWit & Columbia Association Bring STEM & Energy Education to Howard County Public Schools

    COLUMBIA, MD, December 21, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- 'Tis the season for being green. Local energy solutions firm, greeNEWit, is partnering with Columbia Association (CA), to bring free science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) awareness and energy education to students, parents and teachers of the Howard County Public School System.

The partnership kicked off with a STEM Night at Cradlerock Elementary School on December 2nd. CA sponsored the evening where more than 40 families and 100 participants learned how to use STEM to be more energy efficient and sustainable. greeNEWit's OUR Schools Director, Gabe Bustos, started the evening with an interactive presentation about how parents and students can work together to be energy detectives in their home, school and community to identify energy and water saving opportunities.

Students participated in a series of STEM-related activities administered by Bustos and Cradlerock Elementary teachers that included engineering coin batteries and building eco-home models out of recycled materials. While students were engaged in these activities, parents participated in an educational workshop given by Julie Roby of greeNEWit and Jeremy Scharfenberg of CA. The workshop provided basic information on energy efficiency and resources available to the community to help them make their homes more sustainable.

One of the professional resources offered to parents during the presentation was a Home Performance with ENERGY STAR audit. greeNEWit will donate $50 back to Cradlerock Elementary if parents complete the service along with a solar panel feasibility site visit. OUR Schools fundraisers like this have helped raise over $3,500 for STEM activities in schools so far.

"We are proud to partner with CA," Roby said. "We believe this collaboration is a perfect fit for Columbia families as we all learn how to use and think about energy in order to make better choices for a brighter future and greener community."

More STEM Nights will occur at various Howard County elementary schools in 2016.

If you'd like to bring the OUR Schools Program to your school email [email protected]. To learn how greeNEWit can help you save energy and money, visit http://www.greenewit.com or call our office at 866.994.7639.

About greeNEWit

greeNEWit is the national leader in sustainable community development and smart grid integration. The firm develops, manages, and implements net-zero trajectory assets to help make communities more resilient, sustainable, and economically prosperous. By working with residential, multifamily, and commercial real estate, greeNEWit has an expansive perspective on how energy end-users understand, interact, and engage with their energy profile. With clients that include some of the most successful developers and managers of student, military, and multi-family housing, greeNEWit is a tech-enabled service business in the growing clean-tech space. Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, greeNEWit is expanding nationwide. For more information, visit: greeNEWit.com.

About Columbia Association

Columbia Association (CA) is a nonprofit service corporation that manages Columbia, MD, a planned community that is home to approximately 100,000 people and several thousand businesses. Additional information about CA is available at ColumbiaAssociation.org.

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