HOUSTON RANKS LAST IN NATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY STUDY
By Sarah Morgan

More bad news for Houstonians: A report released last week found Houston to be the least sustainable city in a 25-city study that assessed and averaged data in twelve categories including transportation, water, air quality, and recycling. Houston ranked near last in every aspect, to the point where it was "statistically in a class by itself," according to the report.

"Houston is playing out the oil endgame like it was the only game in town," the report says in its Houston summary. "The city was built on oil and it shows."

The report comes from California-based SustainLane, a group dedicated to gathering, studying, and providing information regarding sustainability. According to the report, Houston's score was four times worse than the two leading cities, Portland and San Francisco.

Houston tied for 19th in the transportation category, with only 6 percent of the population using public transportation to commute to work. Houston air quality came in number 21. In "solid waste diversion," a category including recycling efforts and composting, Houston ranked 23.

But, according to Warren Karlenzig, chief strategy officer with SustainLane, what was really troubling about Houston was the fact that finding someone with all the information they needed seemed nearly impossible. Karlenzig said that Houston, unlike many of the other cities studied, had no official contact information online for environmental programs. After several phone calls, Karlenzig said researchers thought they had found someone who could help them, but the person they had located turned out to be with the Houston Police Department.

"Most cities would call us back within a few days with the information we needed," Karlenzig said. But with Houston, no one called them back. They resorted to public records and federal data, and therefore ended up with little to no information for four of the twelve categories including renewable energy, climate change policy, and "city innovations," which counts how many city vehicles run on alternative fuels. Berkeley, California, for instance has 200 city trucks that run on 100 percent biodiesel fuel from used cooking oil.

"We couldn't verify these things for Houston," he said. "Some information we received would have made the city look even worse, but we couldn't verify it."

Other categories where Houston ranked poorly include parkland per city acre and number of farmers' markets.
"Farmers' markets - there were only three, which was shocking for a city that size," Karlenzig said.

Where the city average for farmers' markets was one per every 100,000 people, Houston's average was 0.15 for every 100,000 people. Given Houston's size and population, it should have about twenty markets, Karlenzig said.

Another interesting result that set Houston apart was the lack of neighborhood identification. Karlenzig said researchers noticed that when they asked Houstonians what neighborhoods they lived in, the answer was "just Houston."

"People should have pride in their neighborhood," he said. Identifying with a neighborhood and a community tends to result in more efforts to make that area a more desirable place to live, he explained.
Also, cities in the study received extra credit for working with other environmental or sustainable groups or organizations, but no such partnerships could be identified in the Houston area.

But Karlenzig said all is not lost for those hoping to make Houston a more sustainable place to live and work. One thing Houston has going for it is the number of LEED certified buildings, with one already in existence and 17 more in the works. Karlenzig said some places have yet to catch on to the idea of green building and have no such facilities at all.

This is the first study of its kind from the group, though Karlenzig said they hope to make it an annual report with next year's including a total of 50 cities. The 25 cities in this year's study were selected based mostly on size of population, with cities having populations of over 1.4 million automatically included. This has been a point of criticism of the study. Other criteria included geographic diversity and availability of information.

A second criticism is that the study takes into account the future intentions of a city, meaning a city with plans for developing more sustainable practices might have out-ranked a city that has already put these ideas into practice.

For more information on the study and its findings, visit http://www.sustainlane.com/cityindex/citypage.php?name=ranking.

MEMORIAL PARK COMPLETES FIRST TRAIL EXPANSION PROJECT
by Sarah Morgan

The Memorial Park Conservancy and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department jointly announced the completion of the first of a series of park improvement projects, a new crushed-granite trail along Memorial Drive.

The new trail extends about half a mile from the west edge of the park and was created with the help of almost 50 volunteers from Deloitte and Touche, a Houston-based accounting firm.

"It's all about helping people enjoy the natural beauty of the park," said Peter Tyler, executive director of the Memorial Park Conservancy. "Creating well-planned and well-maintained trails helps improve the experience for visitors and decreases the impacts to the park's ecosystem."

Memorial Park is one of the largest urban parks in the region, and one of the most visited. Encompassing more than 1,500 acres, the park offers a variety of recreational opportunities, from hiking and biking to jogging and birding.

Five more trail projects are in the works for later this year, ranging from 40- to 1,000-meter trails. Most are perimeter trails that will be constructed around the major roads, such as Memorial Drive. Tyler said all of the new projects will be multi-use trails and all are being designed and built with input from the runners' groups, biking groups, naturalists, and other community organizations that use the park. "It's a good process," Tyler said. "It's the only way to do it right."

This collaborative process results in better trails that consider the needs of all users, he said. Bikers and joggers get trails suited to their needs, while use by naturalists and conservationists assures that plants, trees, and foliage continue to thrive in the areas.

The existing Lieberman trail, the main jogging route used by more than three million visitors a year, already received maintenance earlier in the year. The trail was resurfaced and a volunteer event was organized in May to prune back some of the invasive species that were crowding the route. Similar projects will continue throughout the park.

"Invasive species is a huge issue in Memorial Park," Tyler said. "There are sections in the park so overgrown with invasive species that no new growth is occurring."

Tyler said that in addition to the trail work, there is an ongoing habitat assessment process to see how to start addressing the issue of invasive species.

Memorial Park relies on volunteers to do much of the hands-on work throughout the park. To learn about the trail improvement plans, or for information on how to volunteer, contact the Memorial Park Conservancy at http://www.memorialparkconservancy.org or (713) 863-8403.

RESCHEDULED: ENVISION HOUSTON REGION 2030

Blueprint Houston and the Houston-Galveston Area Council are sponsoring a land-use transportation visioning project for the region: Envision Houston Region 2030. The event was originally scheduled for June 18, but has been postponed. Instead, there will be a wine and cheese kick-off reception on June 27, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, at the new United Way building, 50 Waugh Drive, where the new date for the project will be announced. The kick-off reception will feature speaker John Fregonese.
Envision Houston Region 2030 will give the public an opportunity to participate in planning the region's future infrastructure. Mobility, air quality, flood control, and healthy neighborhoods are a challenge, and today's planning decisions make a difference. At the workshop, public citizens and stakeholders can map their suggestions for where an expected three million more people will live and work in the Houston region. H-GAC has agreed to help fund this project as a means to involve the public in developing future Regional Transportation Plans. Given how much the transportation network affects our daily lives and the future form of the city, we want to let as many people as possible know about this opportunity. For more information or to RSVP for the kick-off reception, call (713) 522-0590 hsweetnam@blueprinthouston.org.

MERCER ARBORETUM SUMMER PLANT SALE

Mercer Arboretum is hosting its annual summer plant sale June 18, from 9 am to 4 pm, highlighting gingers and tropicals and offering the perfect opportunity to find just the right plant for any garden. Experts will be available to give information and advice on the types of plant best suited for your garden. The sale will be held at Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens, 22306 Aldine Westfield Road. A special members-only advance sale for the Mercer Society will take place from 8 to 9 am. For more information, contact (281) 443-8731.

PEDIATRIC ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH: PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Baylor College of Medicine, City of Houston Health and Human Services, Southwest Center for Pediatric Environmental Health, and Texas Children's Hospital is hosting the second pediatric environmental health symposium June 23 at the Crowne Plaza Houston Medical Center Hotel. This year, nationally renowned experts will discuss the importance of incorporating an environmental exposure history into pediatric practice. The symposium will also offer practical information about taking an environmental exposure history, getting reimbursed for the diagnosis and treatment of environmentally caused or exacerbated illnesses, and participating in data collection activities to help study the relationship between exposure and illness. Continuing education credit for health professionals will also be offered. The evening will include a reception and three-course meal. To learn more about the symposium, visit http://www.envirohealthhouston.org/symposium05, or call (713) 798-2223.

TOYOTA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES GRANT PROGRAM

Toyota Motor Corporation is accepting applications for the FY2005 Toyota Environmental Activities Grant, a program designed to support environmental revitalization and conservation activities, for the purpose of sustainable development.
The program was established in commemoration of Toyota's receipt of the Global 500 Award in 1999 from the United Nations Environment Program and has been implemented every year since FY2000 as part of the company's environmental philanthropy.
The program provides general grants to support practical projects in the areas of environmental education and experience-based learning, or creating/providing the opportunities for such activities, as well as projects aimed at the localization of experiment-based environmental technology at the community level. Projects are to be conducted by NPOs and other nonprofit private groups, with no restriction regarding implementation sites or limit on the grant amount per project. The deadline to apply is July 8.
For application guidelines and an overview of previous grants, visit http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/2631/toyota.

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