2025 Valero Report on Guiding Principles - Flipbook - Page 38
2024 Biodiversity and Conservation Initiatives
The following programs and projects are part of our biodiversity initiatives beyond the company's business activities.
We prioritize the needs of local nonpro昀椀ts and other community stakeholders when selecting biodiversity projects
and value these opportunities to engage with our neighbors.
Nature-Based Carbon Capture Programs:
Harte Research Institute – In 2024, volunteers from the
Valero Corpus Christi Re昀椀neries participated in the Sink
Your Shucks oyster recycling program in collaboration
with Texas A&M Corpus Christi’s Harte Research Institute.
Volunteers bagged ten tons of shells in 1,600 bags to create
a new oyster reef in Aransas Bay.
Ducks Unlimited – The Valero Memphis Re昀椀nery
supported the Ducks Unlimited Park, a 1,500-acre public
park and conservation site located by the Mississippi River
across from downtown Memphis. In conjunction with the
Big River Park Conservancy and TennGreen, Ducks Unlimited
is working to restore and protect forested wetlands, and to
create and enhance recreational amenities for tourism.
Valero volunteers joined the Pontchartrain
Conservancy to plant trees in the LaBranche
Wetlands area of St. Charles Parish.
Pontchartrain Conservancy – Valero
continued its partnership with the
Pontchartrain Conservancy committing
$1 million in support of the 昀椀ve-year
reforestation project. In the 2024-2025 planting
season, volunteers from Valero Meraux and
St. Charles Re昀椀neries planted 1,150 trees in the
Pontchartrain Estuary. To date, more than 52.5
acres have been restored across multiple sites in
and around St. Charles and St. Bernard Parishes.
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BCarbon – Valero has supported
BCarbon, a nonpro昀椀t nature-based
carbon dioxide capture and storage
registry, in the development of a living
shoreline to protect the Kohfeldt Marsh
near the Valero Texas City Re昀椀nery.
The living shoreline will help to preserve
and enhance Gulf Coast ecosystems
– such as mangroves, seagrasses and
salt marshes – which naturally absorb
and hold large amounts of atmospheric
carbon dioxide.
Photos and video by Gustavo Raskosky/Rice University.
