Houston, a city known as the Energy Capital of the World, is also a progressive city where environmental initiatives abound.

Click Here for green efforts at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Alternative Energy in the Houston Region

Houston has the tools and infrastructure in place to capitalize on this emerging sector of the energy industry.

Wind Energy

• Through the end of 2007, Texas has installed the largest amount of new wind power generation this year in the nation bringing its cumulative wind power installed capacity to 4,356 MW. 

Biodiesel

• Houston Biodiesel educates about and promotes the use of clean, renewable, domestically produced biodiesel in all diesel engines. The company also sells high quality biodiesel that conforms to ASTM specifications and invites consumers to make their own biodiesel in their "BIG" batch reactor. 
• TexCom, Inc. is building and will operate a new 30-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel plant at the LBC Houston LP bulk liquids terminal in Seabrook, Texas. TexCom plans to construct the multi-million dollar plant that will convert virgin soybean oil into biodiesel and utilize existing on-site storage capacity and other terminal facilities under a long-term lease from LBC.

Hybrid Technology

• Mayor Bill White announced in April 2005 plans to convert a substantial portion of the City’s fleet of cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles to hybrids by the year 2010.
• The City fleet comprises more than 11,000 vehicles of which 3,554 are the civilian, light-duty, “non-specialty” fleet.

Ethanol

• Houston’s first ethanol (E85) fuel dispensing facility opened in October 2004 at NASA's Johnson Space Center. JSC is now the fifth NASA center to add ethanol fueling capability. JSC employees are now mandated to use E85 in the 25 Flexible Fuel Vehicles in the GSA fleet assigned for employee use, if their official business takes them within a 50-mile radius of JSC.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

• The Woodlands-based Center for Fuel Cell Research and Applications is a multisponsor research consortium working to advance hydrogen and fuel cell technologies from lab to market. The Center offers two programs - one providing surveillance of early-stage technologies and the other providing operational verification of products emerging from late-stage developers and manufacturers.

Outdoors

Houston rates first among the nation’s 10 most populous cities in total acreage of parkland and second behind only San Diego in park acreage per capita, according to a 2007 study by The Trust for Public Land.  Houston has 56,405 acres of total park space, with 27.2 acres per 1,000 residents.  The national average is 18.8 acres per 1,000 residents.

The City of Houston maintains more than 100 miles of hike and bike trails.

The 155-acre Houston Arboretum and Nature Center is located in central Houston between downtown and the Galleria area.  Visitors can enjoy more than 5 miles of nature trails, including forest, pond, wetland and meadow habitats.

In the past seven years, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership has raised and leveraged more than $45 million for improvements along a 10-mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou (which runs 52 miles through the city) from Shepherd Dr. to the Turning Basin.  These improvements have included a 20-year master plan, three miles of hike and bike trails east of downtown, Sesquicentennial Park, the North Side Trail and the purchase of more than 35 acres of land in the East End for park lands.

The Millie Bush Dog Park was voted No. 1 in the nation by Dog Fancy magazine in June 2005.

More than 165 public and private golf courses are located in the Greater Houston area.

Located 50 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, Houston is a destination for avid fishermen. An estimated 3 million Texas fisherman spend more than 9 million days fishing each year on the 1.5 million acres of lakes and 80,000 miles of rivers, streams and bayous of Texas.  They fish for sport and for food, avidly seeking such long-time favorites as large-mouth bass, crappie, sunfish, white bass and various species of catfish. Sport fishing offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and in the inshore waters of the Texas coast has long been a favorite recreational pursuit of both Texans and visitors.  Catches include tarpon, kingfish, red snapper, wahoo, ling, bonito and yellow-finned tuna.  Eighty miles offshore from Galveston is some of the country's best bill fishing, with catches of blue and white marlin and sailfish.

Houston is located 30 minutes from Clear Lake, a 2,000-acre destination for boating enthusiasts.  Considered to be the nation's "third coast," Clear Lake has one of the greatest concentrations of sailboats, yachts and pleasure craft in the U.S.

City and GTRI Agree to Develop Recommendations For Improving Energy Efficiency in Houston Buildings
Source:  City of Houston, Office of the Mayor (October 19, 2007)

$1 Million Gift from BP Positions Discovery Green for LEED Certification
(September 13, 2007)

Houston Ranked No. 1 in Total Acreage of Parkland Among Top Ten U.S. Cities
Source:  City of Houston, Office of the Mayor (July 24, 2007)