In honor of the company’s environmental commitment to Our Texas, Our Future, H-E-B’s gift will help engage all Texans in discovering and experiencing state parks in 2023.
To kick off an effort to celebrate public lands across the state, H-E-B made a $1 million gift to commemorate 100 years of Texas State Parks. As the presenting sponsor for the centennial celebration, H-E-B’s donation will support programming aimed to engage all Texans in discovering and enjoying the nearly 90 state parks in Texas.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation will launch the centennial celebration, which will begin in January 2023. As part of the Texas Parks, there’s more than 640,000 acres of owned or leased land, which includes 89 state parks, historic sites, and natural areas. Among these areas are 11 unique ecoregions that are home to nearly 800 species of fish, 634 species of birds, and over 4,600 species of native plants. Through Our Texas, Our Future, H-E-B’s mission is to increase awareness and education of the environmental stewardship state parks provide to preserve land, water, and air in Texas.
Along with its donation, H-E-B will support the year-long effort through initiatives such as product releases, cooking tips, in-store activations, and more.
“In a state rich with majestic landscapes, our support of this effort aims to provide access to our parks and the beauty of our great state for all Texans to enjoy,” said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President of Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. “Only a fraction of land in Texas is public land, and it’s our commitment to work with our longtime partner Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and many other dedicated organizations to protect these precious resources, so Texans can use them for generations to come.”
As part of H-E-B’s Our Texas, Our Future mission, which reinforces the company’s longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability, H-E-B along with Field & Future by H-E-B, the retailer’s environmentally minded brand of household and personal care products, supports Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation in efforts such as coastal conservation along the Texas Gulf Coast, Black Bear restoration in West Texas, and the establishment of Palo Pinto Mountains State Park. The first new state park to be opened in North Texas in 25 years, Palo Pinto Mountains State Park is located on 4,871 acres of scenic, undeveloped land approximately 75 miles west of Fort Worth and 75 miles east of Abilene. It’s expected to open to the public in late 2023.
An industry leader committed to environmental sustainability, H-E-B has contributed more than $13 million to over 500 environmental organizations in land and water conservation, habitat and coastal preservation, and community cleanups since 2012. This includes giving more than $2 million in grants to organizations such as Keep Texas Beautiful, Texas Conservation Fund, and the Nature Conservancy in Texas.
Focused on supporting our nonprofit partners in their efforts, H-E-B is excited to work with Keep Texas Recycling to help fund municipal recycling grants to cities and counties that need support launching and improving recycling programs, which included the recent opening of the recycling center in Ingleside, Texas. Also, earlier this year, H-E-B joined the How2Recycle program, adding informative recycling labels on more than 2,300 H-E-B brand products to help strengthen recycling efforts in Texas.
Committed to doing its part, H-E-B recycled more than 636 million pounds of cardboard, plastics, office paper, food waste, metal, and truck tires in 2021. Among its endeavor to minimize waste last year, H-E-B recycled 54 million pounds of food into animal feed and compost and recycled 17.5 million pounds of plastic. H-E-B’s recycling efforts in 2021 saved the equivalent of 11 million trees, 1.6 million barrels of oil, and enough energy to power more than 83,000 homes for an entire year. Additionally, H-E-B’s Hunger Relief Program donated 34 million pounds of food to families in need last year. Since 1982, the year the program was founded, H-E-B has donated more than 1 billion pounds of food to 5,500 non-profit organizations in Texas and Mexico.
For more information on the Centennial Celebration, including signature events, the history of Texas State Parks and how to make a day visit or overnight reservation, visit the newly launched Texas State Parks 100 Years website at TexasStateParks.org/100years.
More about H-E-B’s sustainability efforts can be found at H-E-B Newsroom and at ourtexasourfuture.com.
