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.

The Houston Botanic Garden presents Pat Hudnall, vice president of the Texas Gulf Coast Fern Society, who will introduce participants to 12 ferns often available in Houston nurseries that are well suited for, and typically not difficult to grow in, the Gulf Coast climate.

Garden members receive a $5 discount off registration.

*Non-member price ($15) covers the workshop but does not include general admission to the Garden on July 31, which is an additional $15 for adults, $10 for children and students.

Event page:  https://hbg.org/events/a-dozen-ferns-for-houston-gardens-2021-07-31-10-30/

Plant-it-Forward will give a presentation on city farming and plant growing times. Plant-it-Forward empowers refugees to develop sustainable urban farming businesses that produce fresh, healthy food for our community. This event is free and registration is required. Masks and social distancing are highly encouraged.

“Green Jobs” are all over the internet. What is the true intention of the term? Clearly, installing solar panels is a green job, but are green jobs limited to renewable energy positions?  Join Steve Stelzer, Program Director of Houston’s Green Building Resource Center, who has researched this subject, for a multi-faceted presentation to help people understand the various green and not-so-green interpretations out there in the job market.  In addition, he has some suggestions for “greening up” one’s conventional job. Time for interactive discussion with the speaker will be provided.  Please register for this talk on www.eventbrite.com. Contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com with any questions.

Gardening and growing fruit, vegetables, and herbs organically is easy when recreating systems of nature to incorporate plants for wildlife and for people. Gardening in the gulf coast climate allows us to grow year around. Carol Burton, Director of Garden Education at Urban Harvest will explore the seasons from Summer gardening strategies to Fall transitions for a bumper cool season crop and the top five fruit trees to get started. Time for interactive discussion with the speaker will be provided.  Please register for this talk on www.eventbrite.com. Contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com with any questions.