The Denton community walks the walk when it comes to environmental awareness and makes it look so easy.
It’s almost impossible not to live at least a little green in Denton. The city makes recycling as effortless as taking out the garbage, the municipal electric company happily visits residents’ homes to help them find ways to be more energy efficient, and children start their environmental education in the second grade. Yeah, being green in Denton is easy.
Greener EducationIn October 2006, the Denton Independent School District received a $260,000 grant from the Clean Buses for Kids program, which helps public school districts retrofit school buses to run on biodiesel fuel. With the grant, the district was able to convert 36 of its almost 150 buses to cleaner-burning biodiesel.
At the other end of the educational spectrum stands the Environmental Education, Science and Technology (EESAT) building on the University of North Texas campus. The building opened in 1998, and every aspect of it was carefully crafted to be environmentally sound: Ceiling fans on the third floor cool the entire building, the floors are made of a renewable soy-based compound, and the water is heated by solar panels on the roof. EESAT was a green building before the idea of green building even had a name.
Hiking up the BeltConstruction of the North Texas Greenbelt began in 1983 as a joint project between Denton, Dallas, and the Army Corps of Engineers to connect Lake Ray Roberts to Lake Lewisville. The greenbelt features 10 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails within a 1,500-acre corridor that follows the Elm Fork of the Trinity River.
The project took about 16 years to complete, and it’s been open less than 10, but it has become the premier destination for outdoor enthusiasts from the surrounding area looking to get away from the hustle of city life.
The LEEDing EdgeDenton’s newest fire station opened in late March. It might seem like a mundane fact, but Fire Station 7 is not like any other fire station in the state. A geothermal well heats and cools the station, giant cisterns store rainwater to irrigate the landscape, and the station itself was constructed of recycled materials and low-emission paints and adhesives—and these are just a few of the things that make the station the greenest building in Denton.
The station was submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council for certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. If certified, the station would have the distinction of being one of the first officially green fire stations in Texas.
On the HorizonThe Clear Creek Natural Heritage Center is the city’s newest green project. Located near the headwaters of Lake Lewisville at the Highway 380 entrance to the North Texas Greenbelt, the 2,700-acre wildlife management area will soon feature a 50-acre environmental-education facility designed to integrate the real world and the classroom to promote the idea of “environmental citizenship” to all who visit.
“It’s kind of the next stage,” says Katherine Barnett, utility special projects coordinator for the city.
“Now we can take students from a controlled environment on-site to a wetland or prairie environment, and we have the benefit of the environmental sciences programs at the university. It’s a great learning environment.”
By Jason Goodman PHOTOGRAPY BY DARREN SMITHERMAN