EarthDayHTX

Festival Activities

Earth Day HTX Speaker Series Agenda   Earth Day HTX Festival Activities

Earth Day HTX Exhibits – April 19, 2023

Houston Parks and Recreation Department

• Experience a simulated forest at City Hall. Scan interactive QR codes about Greenspace Management and learn about the local ecology while visiting a mini nature center with live animals or reading the signs in the nature preserve. In the forest, make sure you stop and pick up a tree or wildflower to take home.
• Participate in inflatable archery with our Recreation and Wellness team, while learning about programs, community center operations and more.
• Observe the many ways the Houston Parks and Recreation Department is going green. Visit our display on energy conversion and energy conservation. Also, learn about the ways recycled asphalt and granite are utilized in a more sustainable way in parks and trails.

Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs

• Garden Traces is an exhibition in the City Hall Rotunda of mixed media, textile, and documentary work by artist Naomi Kuo. Presented by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA), the exhibition follows Kuo’s ongoing research about Asian American home gardeners in the Greater Houston area. The artwork also gives glimpses of her experience living in multigenerational immigrant communities and of the material resonances between various Asian American spaces across the country. In celebration of Earth Day and Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Kuo hopes to bring greater visibility to Asian American expressions of home, community, and sustainability—and to inspire others to create their own spaces and practices that nurture healthy bonds between people and nature. The exhibition will be on view at the Houston City Hall Rotunda, April 17–May 31, 2023.
• Kuo will be hosting an activation in the City Hall Rotunda on April 19, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 P. Called “Garden Connections / Plant Exchange.” It will be a gardener’s exchange event where visitors are invited to bring their own seeds, plants, or gardening goods to swap with others that day in a take-some-leave-some fashion. Art supplies will be available to create nature-inspired art and sustainability advice cards to exchange with others. The artists will be exchanging plants, gardening goods, knowledge, zines, and art. Learn more about the artist at www.naomikuoart.com

 

Click each graphic above for a full-sized version

The Urban Plan (Invite Only Session)

• The Urban Plan is a realistic, engaging exercise in which participants—public officials, city employees, and neighborhood leaders—learn about the fundamental forces that affect real estate development in our communities. Participants experience the challenging issues, private and public sector roles, complex trade-offs, and fundamental economics in play when proposing realistic land use solutions to vexing growth challenges.

Mayor’s Office of Education and Youth Engagement

• Bill of Rights interactive educational activity for children

General Services Department

• Informational material, air quality analysis canister, rainwater detention tank 

Houston Fire Department

• Ambulance with electric battery for equipment

Houston Information Technology Services

• Reverse osmosis and video display parts recycling
• Rico exhibit highlighting the sustainability advantages of features we've implementing to reduce printing and also energy savings by putting the devices in sleep mode
• DocuSign presents an exhibit highlighting the sustainability advantages by processing documents electronically in lieu of printing

Houston Health Department

• Houston Wilderness butterfly garden with flowers and native grasses 
• Identifying and planting Houston super trees, featuring the Houston Wilderness Mascot 
• Tree giveaway 
• Lead monitoring – will test jewelry, pottery, herbs, etc. 
• Air monitoring with SPOD, clarity monitor, MAAML, and clean river monitors

Houston Public Library

• Get your free My Link card onsite in a few simple steps and walk away with a new sustainable way to access resources: e-books, audiobooks, streaming music and movies and much more!
• Get your list of the top Green Reads and learn more about our Earth.
• Exercise your creativity with STEAM activities!
• Think velocity and trajectory while playing fun yard games.
• Stop by the HPL Mobile Express—our library on wheels—for a free book!

Houston Public Works

• Multimodal safety and design - featuring information on designing streets for all modes of transportation to decrease passenger vehicle emissions. Examples of complete streets that accommodate walking, biking, transit, and driving.
• A scavenger hunt to identify elements in the street that support walking, biking, and taking transit. Prizes will be available for people who complete the scavenger hunt
• Sewer overflow prevention and pipe protection
• Ecofriendly vegetation management using goats 
• Green stormwater infrastructure, multi-use park facilities, and Adopt-A-Drain Program 
• Information and materials about Give Water a Break campaign and rain barrel program 
• Prizes will include aerators, low flow shower heads, hose times, and rain barrels 

Legal Department

• Trivial Pursuit: Environmental Law version for adults and children
• Interactive recycling game
• Environmentally friendly prizes
• Visual Arts: A day in the life of an environmental lawyer

ParkHouston

• City of Houston commuter solutions
• Digital parking payment options
• Use of solar-powered meters
• ConnectSmart App
• Live Kahoot! Interactive game with sustainable giveaways

Planning and Development

• Tiny House with small carbon footprint, low emissions, and other conservation highpoints 

Solid Waste Management

• Showcase local student art contest winners
• Recycling process and importance of environment service center

Houston Airport System

• Sun base solar array

HTV Houston Television

• Showcase videos of environmental programs produced by HTV over the past 7 years

Fleet Management Department

• City of Houston FleetShare electric vehicle display

Office of Resilience & Sustainability

• Educational booth on climate change causes and impacts featuring adaptation and mitigation solutions

Municipal Courts Department

• Educational materials and giveaways

Houston Community College

• Informational materials on HCC’s Industrial Technology Program, Global Energy Program
• Public safety, resiliency, and transportation programs

Evolve Houston

• EV display with demo vehicles such as a truck, car, and boat
• Ride & Drive EV cars

CenterPoint Energy

• Information on CenterPoint programs and a Ford F-150 Lighting (Pick Up Truck)

NRG Energy

• Power-solar
• Tree giveaway

Houston Parks Board

Houston Community College

Coca-Cola

• Don’t toss non-biodegradable plastic into landfills. Try your hand at tossing one of Coca-Cola’s 100% recycled bottles through a scoring circle on our prize board and go home a winner!

Metro

• Climb aboard a battery-powered electric bus that will become part of the METRO fleet and its mission to procure only zero-emission buses by fiscal year 2030.