Adapting to a new Houston future; Removing carbon from the air and storing it in the Earth. RSVP to this event by emailing info@houstontomorrow.org. Free! – bring your lunch.

Save the Date! Memorial Park Conservancy’s first ever Fitness Fair brings together the best in health, wellness, and fitness, right to YOUR Park! Fitness Fair will feature booths from local business, running clubs, and fitness groups. You can also sample new products, enjoy the food truck, and try out free fitness classes throughout the morning. This event is made possible through the generosity of Axis Earth and Whole Health Center Houston. Visit their Facebook page.

Thursday, December 13, 6 pm – 7:30 pm

Did you have a bumper crop from your garden this season? Join Kyle Wolfe in the McGovern Centennial Gardens as he shares the basics of preserving your garden fruits and vegetables through canning and demonstrates step-by-step how to make a simple jelly from produce harvested in the garden. Tickets are FREE for anyone to attend, but you must register in advance!

The Herb Society’s upcoming evening meeting is at the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion in Hermann Park.  Hosts are Julie Fordes and Andi Leger. The program, “Moringa – A Nutritional Powerhouse in Your Backyard,” is presented by Tommy Garcia-Prats, founder and general manager of Small Places, LLC. Bring your plate and napkin and a dish to share.

Come learn about the Miracle Tree. Also known as the Tree of
Life, Mother’s Best Friend, and Nebedaye (which
means “never die” in many African languages),
Moringa oleifera may well be the world’s most
important plant. As one of the most nutrient-dense
plant foods known, moringa is being promoted as
a potential solution to world-wide malnutrition. It
was also named a Top Wellness Trend of 2018
and is an excellent source of complete plant
protein for vegetarians and vegans. And if that’s
not enough, this easy-to-grow tropical/subtropical
plant actually thrives in the Houston climate. So, if
you don’t already know about moringa, it’s time
you did.

You can learn about this life-saving “superfood”
when you join us for the January 16, 2019 Evening
Meeting of the South Texas Unit of The Herb
Society of America. The program is free and open to the public. We
meet in the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion, 1500
Hermann Drive, where it T-intersects with
Crawford Street. There is free parking adjacent to
the Pavilion. Members gather at 6:15 pm, and the
public is welcome to join us at 7:15 to enjoy the
program.

Trees are important oxygen producers, help provide energy-saving shade and the presence of trees positively impacts our psychological well-being. Keep Pearland Beautiful will pass out native trees during Arbor Day. KPB encourages a suggested donation of $10/tree (Two per household limit).

Pearland will benefit from these trees in multiple ways. First, people are attracted to a community with beautiful landscaping that includes trees for shade. Second, in city urban spaces and your own neighborhood a thriving tree canopy is important to keeping temperatures down in the summer. Planting trees around your home increase the energy efficiency of your air conditioner in the summer months. And finally, everyone benefits psychologically from having green spaces with trees. Visit their website, provided above, for an updated list of their tree selection.

City of Houston—Houston Public Works’ Code Enforcement Green Building Resource Center presents an Education Seminar in partnership with the Texas Chapter of the US Green Building Council.  Interested in helping the City of Houston with our Climate Action Plan? Stakeholder meetings are an important way for cities to gather and dispense information to the interested public. Climate action plans are complicated and data intensive. This is a great opportunity to learn how they are developed, and what type of data they require.

Hear Speakers:  Larissa Williams, Energy Manager, City of Houston ARA Sustainability; Gavin Dillingham, PhD, Clean Energy Policies, Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC); and Steve Stelzer, Program Director, City of Houston Green Building Resource Center.  Larissa will explain the intentions and processes of the Plan. Gavin will discuss the data gathering and research components. Steve will report findings and outcomes from plans of other cities. The event will be filmed to serve as a record for this important public engagement. In addition we will be answering questions, and taking notes for follow up.

The meeting is free and open to the public on Wednesday, March 27th at 6:00pm.  The event is held in the Green Building Resource Center, located in the Houston Permitting Center with its LEED Gold Certification since 2012. The GBRC is Houston’s best location for seeing displays of green building materials and strategies.

The Woodlands G.R.E.E.N. is sponsoring a FREE Going Green Sustainability lecture: “Mycophile or Mycophobe–we all need mushrooms” with guest speaker, Teri MacArthur, Certified Texas Master Naturalist. This event is free and open to the public.

Celebrate Texas Arbor Day with a tree planting demonstration and receive a complimentary tree sapling while supplies last. Visit the outdoor library corner to find books on trees and how to care for them at Mercer’s West Side Arboretum. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES, FACE PAINTING, HISTORICAL TREES, CHILDREN’S CRAFTS

Time to get rid of those tires, mattresses, paint, motor oil, antifreeze and other hard to recycle items. Keep Pearland Beautiful is hosting Pearland Recycles Day on Saturday, November 16th from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. This is the only day that the Stella Roberts Recycling Center will accept tires and mattresses for recycling. Pearland residents and non-Pearland residents can recycle up to 8 tires ($2/each) and up to 3 mattresses ($5/each). We are only accepting car & light truck tires off of the rim. KPB received a grant from Keep America Beautiful of 9-Volt batteries.  We will be distributing them to residents on this day to educate about the importance of replacing your smoke detector batteries and recycling all batteries properly.

Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) including paint, motor oil, antifreeze, etc. is accepted year-round at the Recycling Center during normal operating hours of Tuesday – Friday 8 AM – 5 PM and Saturday 9 AM – 1 PM. Brazoria County residents can recycle HHW at the Recycling Center for free with proof of residency and non-Brazoria County residents can drop-off HHW for a $1/pound donation to KPB.

Tires and mattresses were chosen to be collected on this day for several reasons. Used tires can be a threat to the environment because they hold water, serving as a breeding space for mosquitos. They can also become a fire hazard, emitting harmful toxins into the environment. Used tires will be sent to Liberty Tire Recycling, where they will become rubber mulch and tire derived aggregate. Mattresses are bulky, hard to compress, and tough on machinery when taken to the landfill. Mattresses collected from the event will be sent to Houston Furniture Bank, which will reuse, if possible, or recycle up to 90% of the material.

Keep Pearland Beautiful offers this program in conjunction with Texas Recycles Day and America Recycles Day. Please go online and take the pledge to recycle more at americarecyclesday.org. For more information about this event call (281) 489-2795.

Register

Viewing Global Best Practices through Texas Leadership
Texans design, construct, operate and maintain their buildings has an immediate and lasting impact on the Social, Environmental and Financial health of our communities.  Texas continues to rank high Nationally in total number and total area of Energy Star and LEED certified buildings and has over 11,000 trained LEED Accredited Professionals.

However, the advancement of betterments such as Energy Efficient Designs, Proven Advanced Technologies, Healthy Indoor Air Quality, and Higher Standards of Care Processes have stagnated.

This session will be facilitated by Unboxed, a social innovation consulting firm that helps organizations thrive by connecting people, planet, purpose, and profit. They will introduce us to innovation methods and guide us through a brainstorming sprint in order to generate innovative ideas to make best practices and knowledge about sustainable buildings available for everyone.