The Citizens’ Environmental Coalition was founded in 1971 by an outstanding group of women who were proactive in environmental causes and successfully lobbied for many quality of life issues. They saved Buffalo Bayou from being straightened and lined with concrete, they created a nature center at Armand Bayou, and they built safe places to ride bicycles – just to name a few accomplishments. These visionary women saw that there was a real need for all the local environmental groups to communicate with each other, to coordinate their efforts, and to support each other, and they created the CEC to serve that need.

Originally, the Coalition published a joint calendar listing the activities of member groups in order to avoid conflicting events and duplication of programs. Soon the annual Environmental Resource Guide was born, an answering service was established, and community forums were organized.

Over 40 years later, communication remains our mission. We work to foster dialogue and collaboration regarding environmental issues, and serve as an information clearinghouse for our member groups and the community at large through a variety of programs. Our service area is the 13-county region in the Greater Houston region, including Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller, and Wharton Counties.