Built Environment » Environmental Resource Guide
Purpose: HARC (the Houston Advanced Research Center) is a nonprofit research hub providing independent scientific analysis. HARC focuses on building a sustainable future that helps people thrive and nature flourish. Programs: HARC’s research focuses on air, water, energy, and resilience. Current research programs include Air Quality Science, Clean Energy Research, Hydrology and Watersheds, Energy Efficient Buildings, and the Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems (EFD) Program.…
Purpose: Empowering Texans to fight pollution through sustained grassroots organizing campaigns that shift corporate and governmental policy. The TEC envisions a Texas free from pollution. As the largest environmental group in Texas organizing support through door-to-door canvassing, grassroots is both who we are and what we do. Programs: Advocates for local, state and national policies that hold manufacturers responsible for recycling the toxic products they create (such as electronic waste or “e-wasteâ€); works to strengthen environmental and health standards for Texas landfills; educates residents and builds grassroots support through a year-round neighborhood canvassing program; and works toward recycling for all Houstonians.…
Purpose:Â To enable the public to experience and learn more about healthy and energy, water, and material conserving design and construction; also known as Green Building.
Steven M. Stelzer, AIA, LEED AP, Program Director
steve.stelzer@houstontx.gov
Purpose: To promote the evolution and implementation of Plan Houston as the basis for planning the City’s future. Blueprint Houston serves as a resource and catalyst for better long-term planning for Houston’s future growth and development.
Blueprint Houston was founded in 2003 to build community support for a coordinated planning process to make improvements to Houston’s quality of life.…
Purpose: The Houston Community ToolBank is a nonprofit tool lending program that stewards an inventory of tools for lending to charitable organizations to increase the impact of their mission-related efforts in the community. With year-round access to an inventory of tools for use in volunteer projects and facility and grounds maintenance, the ToolBank provide resources to enhance the charitable sector’s capacity to serve, facilitating hands-on volunteerism in the greater Houston area.…
Purpose: The Houston Parks Board creates, improves, protects and advocates for parks for everyone. HPB is driven by the vision of thriving parks and communities for everyone forever.
Programs: Parkland and greenspace acquisition; park capital improvement projects; collaboration with other green groups; Neighborhood Partnership Program; 50/50 Park Partners Challenge; Volunteer Program.…
Purpose:Â The mission of Living Paradigm is to empower people by creating home ownership of shelters erected from reclaimed materials. These dwellings will be environmentally responsible and healthy places for those that inhabit them and will contribute to the culture, vitality, and individuality of the community.
Living Paradigm addresses the social, economic and environmental basis of sustainable living by building low-cost homes (under $50k), with volunteer or apprenticeship labor, using materials that would otherwise go to the landfill.…
Purpose: The Resilience & Sustainability Office is responsible for implementing Resilient Houston and the Houston Climate Action Plan. Together, these documents provide a clear framework to foster the growth of a Houston that is both a healthy place to live and an equitable, inclusive, and affordable city that leads in climate mitigation and adaptation and offers a transformative economy that builds forward.
Purpose: The mission of BikeHouston is to promote safe bicycling and to improve the quality of life in the Houston area. Goals -secure equitable access to regional facilities, lands and roads -educate the public about rights and responsibilities of bicyclists -promote public awareness of the personal and community benefits of cycling Meeting Time: Varies, see website.…
Wildlife Habitat Federation(WHF) works to create resilient prairie ecosystems in the mid upper coast of Texas. Our focal area includes the Greater Houston Area to Austin to San Antonio, but we have a footprint in 47 Texas counties. WHF is a 501 (c) 3 organization, and our mission is to provide on-the-ground restoration, management and generational sustainability of prairie habitat for the conservation of soil, water, air and wildlife.…
Purpose: To enhance, enable, and integrate sustainable use of land and water for the Houston area’s continued growth and economic vitality.
Maintaining the pace of growth and development in the greater Houston area requires that those with a vested interest adopt new ideas and employ new methods that will insure that growth can be sustained.…
Purpose:Buffalo Bayou Partnership is the Houston non-profit organization revitalizing and transforming Buffalo Bayou, our city’s most significant natural resource. Coordinating the integration of major improvements into the Bayou greenway, the Partnership seeks increased community involvement through pedestrian, boating and biking amenities, art installations, and other natural and built attractions. Major Events: Buffalo Bayou Regatta, kayak tours, history hikes, walk tours, bat tours, Second Saturday Boat cruises, Twilight tours, Seasonal Cruises, Nights on Blue Bayou events along the Sabine Promenade.…
Purpose:Â Dedicated to the advancement of architecture, urban design, and the built environment in the Houston region through educational programs, the publication of Cite, and active programs to initiate physical improvements. By sponsoring lectures, seminars, symposia, exhibits, and tours, RDA seeks to involve the public.
Volunteer Opportunities: Docents needed for house tour, gala, and other events.…
Purpose:Â Houston Tomorrow is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for all the people of the Houston region through research, education, and discussion. Its vision is that on its 200th birthday, the Houston region will be home to the healthiest, happiest, most prosperous people in the United States.…
The Exploration Green Conservancy, Inc. (EGC) has been formed and incorporated to develop, preserve and protect the land known as Exploration Green (EG). This area was purchased by the Clear Lake City Water Authority (CLCWA) for use as a storm water detention area: the CLCWA created a Master Plan for the area and initially sponsored the formation of the EGC.…
Purpose:Â Scenic Houston works to eliminate visual blight because all Houstonians are entitled to a green, uncluttered, visually appealing city. Scenic Houston promotes sign control, billboard reduction, freeway landscaping, scenic byway development, and enhanced design standards for public projects. Our success improves the quality of life for all Houstonians.
Major Events: Scenic Visionary Awards Dinner, October.…
Purpose: Protection of Texas’ air, water and open spaces. Improving the quality of our environment and our lives by using independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment.
Program Priorities: Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Green Building, Open Space Preservation, Clean Air and Water, Global Warming.…
Purpose: Founded in 2004, the CTC is an all-volunteer grassroots transportation advocacy organization. The Citizens’ Transportation Coalition advocates for a broad-based public educational and planning process to identify neighborhood aspirations, influences projects to achieve the best transportation options, and engages our communities in designing a complete multimodal transportation system that serves us all.
Dexter Handy, Chair
drhandy@aol.com
Carol Caul, Advocacy Chair
Ed Browne, Science and Technology Chair
Purpose: The Houston-Galveston Area Council is a region-wide voluntary association of local governments in the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning region of Texas. H-GAC’s mission is to serve as the instrument of local government cooperation, promoting the region’s orderly development and the safety and welfare of its citizens. Key governmental services include transportation planning, disaster resiliency, cooperative purchasing, homeland security, workforce development, air and water quality planning, forecasting, and mapping.…
Purpose: Founded 2005 as part of the Houston History Project (now the Welcome Wilson Houston History Collaborative), UH Center for Public History, UH-HHA is a public repository for books, documents, oral histories, and images related to the Houston region’s growth and development from 19th century to present. Particular areas of collection interest include energy development, environmental history and activism, and documentation of Houston’s ethnic diversity and activism.…
The CEC has a searchable, web-based version of the Environmental Resource Guide. You may also download older versions of the printed guide below.
Archived Resource Guides