Houston_Green_10.23.09 - 12

G W H Green Works Houston costs. The program received pledges from over 300 buildings; nearly 105 million SF of ofﬁce, educational, medical and retail space, including Allen Center, Brookﬁeld, Crescent, Humble School District, Houston Independent School District, Memorial City Mall, NASA, Shell Oil, Transwestern, and Williams Tower. Every major news network in Houston covered the story, which was a testament to the popularity of such a simple, yet powerful idea for Houston businesses—just turn off the lights. With US Green Building Council - Houston and the Greater Houston Partnership, the City sponsors Green Building Tours, free and open to the public. Guided tours of local LEED certiﬁed buildings allow the public to experience sustainable construction ﬁrst hand and give participants an opportunity to discuss green building strategies with architects and building owners who serve as tour guides. Green Building Tours are scheduled approximately once a month by the Green Building Resource Center. The City of Houston joined AIA Houston and the Rice Design Alliance in sponsoring an international design competition for an affordable, sustainable house – The 99K House Competition (www.the99khouse. com). Mayor White, through letters of support helped secure necessary funding for the competition and encouraged Houston’s Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority (LARA) (www.houstontx.gov/lara/index. html) to donate a site to construct the winning design as a prototype. Lessons learned concerning residential construction with environmental awareness at an affordable price will be valuable for many redeveloping areas of Houston, where organizers of the competition hope many more of these houses will be constructed. Updating the City of Houston television channel, HTV, produced six of a 12-part series called Build Green featuring organizations, individuals, and products that are using healthy environmental practices. Next on the production list is the Green Building Resource Center. CITY OF HOUSTON GREENS ITSELF MORE In 2008, the City of Houston purchased 40 mega watts of Texas wind power to be delivered annually for the next ﬁve years. This green electricity was being used to power approximately 25% of the City’s electrical load for facilities such as street lights, waste water treatment plants, the airports, and ofﬁce buildings. In keeping with the City’s ranking of number one municipal purchaser of green power and previous rank of number nine out of all public and private sector purchasers in the United States, Houston amended their contract to purchase 50 mega watts of power annually to power 32% of their load. This green power purchase was executed through an innovative contract, which enabled the City to directly negotiate renewable power purchases in the wholesale market, moving past the Air Force to become the leading governmental purchaser, currently holding the sixth largest contract in the country. More than one-third of the waste stream in the Houston area is made up of construction and demolition material, much of which could be diverted and re-used. In an effort to mitigate this practice, the City of Houston Building Materials Reuse Warehouse opened on April 29, 2009, and now accepts donated construction materials from builders, supply companies, remodelers, contractors, and individuals that would otherwise be dumped in local landﬁlls. These materials are stored by the City and made available at no charge for use by any non-proﬁt organization. Examples include: Cabinets, toilets (low ﬂush only),

Houston_Green_10.23.09

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