Municipalities with Certifications Expiring in 2020
Municipalities in this group are still encouraged to pursue certification this year if so desired. Successful re-certification efforts would result in certification through October 31, 2023. However, if staffing constraints prevent a municipality from being able to focus on an application, they will not need to submit for certification in 2020 to avoid a lapse in the certification. Upon request, these municipalities with certifications set to expire on October 31, 2020, will have their certifications extended to October 31, 2021.
In addition, to streamline the 2021 re-certification process, any actions currently approved and set to expire later this year in 2020 will be set to expire October 31, 2021.
Municipalities Planning to Apply for Certification in 2020
The initial deadline is June 30. Municipalities that submit by June 30 will be guaranteed two rounds of review on their application to meet the deadline for certification and be recognized at the Sustainable Maryland award ceremony. If a municipality is not ready to submit its application by June 30, but does apply by July 30, Sustainable Maryland will make every effort to review the application and provide feedback so that additional updates can be submitted by the September re-submission deadline.
We understand that some 2020 activities and initiatives may not have been able to take place due to the COVID-19 crisis. Therefore, for most actions that are events intended to take place on an annual basis, documentation from 2018-2020 will be accepted. A municipality seeking re-certification that may have these actions appear as “Expired” in its application can resubmit for points if the documentation is from 2018-2020 by simply changing the action status from Expired to Completed. For actions that are not annual events, Sustainable Maryland will consider approval of previously submitted documentation on a case-by-case basis based on the date of the documentation provided and the reasons why the action could not be updated due to COVID-19 related disruptions.
2020 Certification Cycle Changes Webinar - May 6
We will hold a webinar on Wednesday, May 6 at 2:00pm to review the changes to the 2020 certification cycle and answer your questions about the timeline and process. If there are questions you would like addressed during the webinar, please email them to bespinol@umd.edu by Monday, May 4. You can register for the webinar here.