H-E-Being Green

H-E-B's new brand of green products will benefit Texas Parks & Wildlife

Proceeds from Field & Future by H-E-B will benefit Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

Courtesy of H-E-B

In time for Earth Day, grocery chain H-E-B is introducing a new retail initiative that will help support its commitment to take care of Texans for generations to come.

Last year, the company revealed products from Field & Future by H-E-B, a new environmentally minded line of household, personal care, and baby products designed to be clean and green. Now, the retailer is using its new brand to benefit longtime partner Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation (TPWF) by supporting their efforts to help conserve and protect Texas.

“Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation is excited about our new partnership with H-E-B. This Texas company will donate a portion of all sales proceeds from its Field & Future line of sustainable products to support our efforts to conserve the state’s wildlife, habitat and natural resources,” TPWF Chairman Mike Greene says.

The retailer and the wildlife foundation are longtime partners, and this new initiative will aid coastal conservation efforts, as well as Black Bear restoration in West Texas and the establishment of the state’s newest park, Palo Pinto Mountains, which opens in North Texas next year.

San Antonio-based H-E-B is the parent company of Dallas-based Central Market. Where H-E-B stores already exist in Fort Worth suburbs of Burleson and Willow Park, the company is finally checking into Dallas, with new stores being built in Frisco, Plano, and McKinney.

“H-E-B is an iconic Texas company, and this new partnership with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, our official non-profit partner, is incredibly exciting,” said TPWF Executive Director Carter Smith in an April 5 release. “It’s fitting that the Field & Future line of products will benefit conservation projects across Texas, and we’re deeply grateful for this new partnership.”

There are nearly 100 Field & Future by H-E-B items on shelves across Texas already. Products range from dish soap to bath tissue; baby diapers; and trash bags, which are made from 65 percent post-consumer recycled plastic from H-E-B facilities.

The line features the How2Recycle label, which is found on more than 1,700 other H-E-B branded items. The grocery chain joined the How2Recycle program last year, placing clear and easy-to-read labels on products so customers can know if and how to recycle product packaging.

“We know H-E-B and our customers have a shared commitment in protecting the land, water, and air of Texas for generations to come,” said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President of Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs in the release.

Since 2012, H-E-B has contributed more than $20 million to over 500 environmental organizations in land and water conservation, habitat and coastal preservation, and community cleanups. 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.

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Under the Sun

Solar power poised to surpass coal for the first time in Texas

Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in Texas.

Solar power promises to shine even brighter in Texas this year. A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates that for the first time, annual power generation from utility-scale solar will surpass annual power generation from coal across the territory covered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Solar generation is expected to reach 78 billion kilowatt-hours in 2026 in the ERCOT grid, compared with 60 billion kilowatt-hours for coal, the EIA forecast says. The ERCOT grid supplies power to about 90 percent of Texas.

“Utility-scale solar generation has been increasing steadily in ERCOT as solar capacity additions help meet rapid electricity demand growth,” the forecast says.

Although natural gas remains the dominant source of electricity generation in ERCOT, accounting for an average 44 percent of electricity generation from 2021 to 2025, solar’s share of the generation mix rose from 4 percent to 12 percent. During the same period, coal’s share dropped from 19 percent to 13 percent.

EIA predicts about 40 percent of U.S. solar capacity, or 14 billion kilowatt-hours, added in 2026 will come from Texas.

Although EIA expects annual solar generation to exceed annual coal generation in 2026, solar surpassed coal in ERCOT on a monthly basis for the first time in March 2025, when solar generation totaled 4.33 billion kilowatt-hours and coal’s totaled 4.16 billion kilowatt-hours. Solar generation continued to exceed that of coal until August of that year.

“In 2026, we estimate that solar exceeded coal for the first time in March, and we forecast generation from solar installations in ERCOT will continue to exceed that from coal until December, when coal generation exceeds solar,” says EIA. “We expect solar generation to exceed that of coal for every month in 2027 except January and December.”

For 2027, EIA forecasts annual solar generation of 99 billion kilowatt-hours in the ERCOT grid, compared with 66 billion kilowatt-hours of annual coal generation.

In April, ERCOT projected almost 368 billion kilowatt-hours of demand in ERCOT’s territory by 2032. ERCOT’s all-time peak demand hit 85.5 billion kilowatt-hours in August 2023.

“Texas is experiencing exceptional growth and development, which is reshaping how large load demand is identified, verified, and incorporated into long-term planning,” ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said. “As a result of a changing landscape, we believe this forecast to be higher than expected … load growth.”

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This article first appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.

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