Retailer expands its Trees for Texans tree-planting program and grows multiple environmental initiatives across Texas
During Earth Month, H-E-B is ramping up its efforts to plant more trees across Texas. Through its Trees for Texans program, the retailer is making available to nonprofits $5,000 grants for tree-planting projects to help create healthier environments for schools, parks, and communities.
Through the Trees for Texans Community Grant program, H-E-B, in partnership with Texan by Nature, is looking to support non-profits, municipalities, and civic organizations interested in planting native trees in publicly accessible areas to help increase tree canopy, enhance greenspace, cool off urban areas and beautify public spaces in the state. Eligible nonprofits must apply by the May 30th deadline at ourtexasourfuture.com/trees-for-texans. Grant recipients will be notified in July.
Launched Fall of 2023, the Trees for Texans program also supports tree-planting efforts at public schools and throughout Texas forests. For every new store opening, H-E-B, working with Texan by Nature and the Texas A&M Forest Service, identifies a nearby public school and provides native trees and educational programming for students. The donated trees provide much needed shade to schools with limited tree canopy, which are often the hottest spots in urban areas.
Additionally, customers can join in the effort to help plant native trees across Texas and donate from April 9 through May 6 at H-E-B registers in store and online when placing Curbside and Home Delivery orders.
Partners
On March 4, hundreds of H-E-B stores kicked off the annual School Plastic Bag Recycling Challenge, with a record-breaking 792 schools joining the effort. Each year, students in classrooms across Texas collect thousands of pounds of plastic bags in replicas of H-E-B’s front-of-store recycling bins for the contest. Once the contest ends on April 4 , H-E-B will tally the totals and announce which schools collected the most plastic bags on Earth Day (April 22). The winners will receive H-E-B gift cards as a prize.
Last year, 675 schools participated in the challenge, collecting more than five million plastic bags that were then recycled.
At the entrance of every H-E-B store, customers can access collection bins for plastic bags and other eligible plastic items, such as other retail shopping bags, produce bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags, and plastic overwrap for items like paper towels. H-E-B Curbside customers also can bring their bundled plastic bags when picking up their online orders. The H-E-B Partner loading the car collects the bundle from the trunk to be recycled at H-E-B’s recycling center.
H-E-B also provides several best practices for recycling on its Our Texas, Our Future website.
To bolster recycling across Texas, H-E-B, in partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful through its Keep Texas Recycling program, has supported projects that focus on increasing access to recycling in rural and underserved communities by funding infrastructure improvements and educational recycling resources. Rural towns such as Floresville and Ingleside, among others, have received grants to open the first-ever recycling center in those communities. Since 2021, H-E-B has given out more than $600,000 in grants to 11 communities, providing recycling improvements for 612,000 residents.
Beyond recycling, H-E-B looks for ways to reduce waste and plastic use. The company is rolling out training protocols for baggers to encourage using fewer plastic bags at checkout. H-E-B uses compostable cutlery and straws made from agave and other plant-based materials at its stores, restaurants, and corporate locations. And the company continues to search for and experiment with sustainable packaging options to reduce plastic and waste and increase recyclability for its H-E-B brand products. For example, Field & Future by H-E-B, the company’s line of environmentally minded household, personal care, and baby products made without over 500 harmful ingredients, uses post-consumer recycled content in the packaging of nearly all its 130+ products.
H-E-B Partners across the state are taking their own steps to protect and beautify Texas, too. Throughout Earth Month, Partners will volunteer at events in the many communities H-E-B serves. To celebrate this Earth Month, H-E-B has partnered with local organizations that provide opportunities and raise awareness around sustainable practices. More events can be found on the H-E-B community events calendar.
Since 2012, H-E-B has given more than $20 million to over 500 environmental organizations involved in land and water conservation, habitat and coastal preservation, and community cleanups.
This April during Earth Month, H-E-B will continue to further its year-round commitment to supporting environmental stewardship initiatives across its business and in communities across Texas. Guided by the company’s Our Texas, Our Future commitment, H-E-B’s mission is to increase awareness, and adoption of, sustainability efforts that help preserve Texas’s land, water, and air, now and for generations to come.
