Initiatives for Texas

Locality	Initiative Type	Mitigation Strategy	Link	Title & Description	Date
Austin	Green Building Program and Standards; Resolution; Comprehensive Plan and Design Guidelines	Cool Roofs; Green Roofs; Trees and Vegetation; Cool Pavements	City of Austin - Heat Island Mitigation Resolution Austin Climate Protection Plan	Austin Heat Island Mitigation - In May 2001, the Austin City Council adopted a heat island mitigation resolution that committed the city manager to review recommendations for a variety of activities to diminish the city's heat island. In September of that year, the City Council awarded $1 million towards implementing the recommendations, which ranged from developing a cool roof strategy to increasing enforcement of the city's tree-saving ordinance. Austin's Climate Protection Plan incorporates heat island reduction through its green building and energy efficiency elements.	Active
Austin	Incentive	Cool Roofs	Building Envelope Rebates	Austin Energy Efficiency Rebates - Austin Energy offers a 15-cent-per-square-foot rebates for cool roof retrofits. Customers must use cool roof products that have a minimum reflectivity of 75%.	Active
Dallas	Green Building Program and Standards	Cool Roofs	See Item #3 (PDF)	Dallas Green Building Program Ordinance - The City of Dallas passed this ordinance to establish a green building program. The program will consist of two phases; the first phase focusing on energy efficiency, water conservation and reduction of the heat island effect through cool roofs, and phase two will expand phase one to implement a comprehensive green building standard for all new construction. For new proposed commercial projects affecting less than 50,000 square feet of floor area, the requirements include energy efficiency, water conservation, cool roof requirements for low-slope roofs, and an outdoor lighting restriction.	Active
Dallas	Urban Forestry Program; Green Building Program and Standards; Demonstration Project; Tree and Landscape Ordinance; Resolution; Zoning Code; Building Code; Outreach and Education Program; Comprehensive Plan and Design Guidelines; Incentive; Air Quality Requirement	Cool Roofs; Green Roofs; Trees and Vegetation; Cool Pavements	Sustainable Skylines - Dallas Urban Heat Island Project	Dallas Sustainable Skylines Initiative - The Sustainable Skylines initiative is a three-year partnership between the City of Dallas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTOG) to promote sustainability within the City via voluntary programs which emphasize air quality improvements. The initiative has identified the following categories of potential projects to initially perform together: green buildings project, creating a greenhouse gas strategy, green taxis project, off-road equipment replacements and retrofits, renewable energy/energy efficiency outreach program, and an urban heat island project. The goal of the urban heat island project is to develop and implement an urban heat island program for the City of Dallas that will both decrease heated surfaces and increase permeability of surfaces in the Central City and other areas of Dallas.	Active
Frisco	Green Building Program and Standards	Cool Roofs	Green Building Program See Chapter 18, Article IV, Division 3	City of Frisco Green Building Program - Frisco, Texas requires cool roofs in its commercial green building program. In late 2006, the City Council approved requirements for most new commercial construction to install ENERGY STAR labeled cool roof products.	Active
Houston	Building Code	Cool Roofs	See Section 5.4.3.5 Cool Roofs (PDF)	City of Houston Commercial Energy Conservation Code - The City of Houston created this energy conservation code to provide requirements for the design and construction of new buildings. Cool roof requirements are included for new buildings. The code requires low slope roofs up to 2:12 to be covered with a surface that has a minimum solar reflectance of 0.70 and a minimum thermal emittance of 0.75.	Active
Houston	Incentive	Green Roofs; Trees and Vegetation	Downtown Houston Development Assistance (PDF) Vertical Gardens Grant Initiative (PDF)	Vertical Gardens Matching Grant Initiative - The Houston Downtown Management District (HDMD) Vertical Gardens Matching Grant initiative first gave grants in 2007 to encourage plantings that cover walls. The grants also support exceptional landscaping that adds significant evapotranspiration and shade for blank walls, parking garages, and sidewalks. The program goals include improving overall aesthetics, pedestrian comfort, air quality, and reducing the heat island effect. Grants cannot exceed half of the total project cost or $20,000, and contributions can be in kind. Tenants, property owners, and registered non-profits can all apply.	Active
Houston	Research; Demonstration Project; Outreach and Education Program; Air Quality Requirement	Cool Roofs; Green Roofs; Trees and Vegetation; Cool Pavements	Houston Urban Heat Island Effect	Cool Houston! - Cool Houston! is a program led by the Houston Advanced Research Center and is designed to reduce urban temperatures through use of cool technologies – reflective and green roofing, paving with light colored or porous materials, and a greatly expanded forest canopy.	Active
San Antonio	Tree and Landscape Ordinance	Trees and Vegetation	San Antonio Ordinance (PDF)	San Antonio Tree Preservation Ordinance - San Antonio, Texas requires different levels of tree protection based on tree class or location. The ordinance classifies significant trees, heritage trees, and trees within the 100-year floodplain. For example, heritage trees (defined, for most species, as trees 24 inches [60 cm] or greater in diameter at breast height), must be preserved. The ordinance, however, generally counts total tree diameter-inches at a site, not individual trees, and gives flexibility in preservation: up to 90% of the tree-diameter-inches can be considered preserved if the developer plants an equal or greater number of tree-diameter-inches elsewhere. Developers can also fulfill the preservation requirement by contributing to the city's tree fund.	Active
Taylor	Tree and Landscape Ordinance	Trees and Vegetation	Click on Ordinances, and then Landscape Ordinance	Landscape Ordinance for Taylor, Texas - The City of Taylor requires that all outdoor parking areas having spaces for more than twenty vehicles have landscaping within the perimeter of the parking area equal in area to not less than 5% of the total paved area. Further, no parking space is to be located more than seventy feet from a portion of the required landscaping, and one tree of at least two inch caliper in size will be provided within the perimeter of the parking area for each two hundred fifty square feet of landscaping required.	Active

Initiatives for Texas

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