TALKE USA's Recycling Support Center opened Jan. 12 in Chambers County. Photo via LinkedIn.

TALKE USA Inc., the Houston-area arm of German logistics company TALKE, officially opened its Recycling Support Center earlier this month.

Located next to the company's Houston-area headquarters, the plant will process post-consumer plastic materials, which will eventually be converted into recycling feedstock. Chambers County partially funded the plant.

“Our new recycling support center expands our overall commitment to sustainable growth, and now, the community’s plastics will be received here before they head out for recycling. This is a win for the residents of Chambers County," Richard Heath, CEO and president of TALKE USA, said in a news release.

“The opening of our recycling support facility offers a real alternative to past obstacles regarding the large amount of plastic products our local community disposes of. For our entire team, our customers, and the Mont Belvieu community, today marks a new beginning for effective, safe, and sustainable plastics recycling.”

The new plant will receive the post-consumer plastic and form it into bales. The materials will then be processed at Cyclyx's new Houston Circularity Center, a first-of-its-kind plastic waste sorting and processing facility being developed through a joint venture between Cyclix, ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell.

“Materials collected at this facility aren’t just easy-to-recycle items like water bottles and milk jugs. All plastics are accepted, including multi-layered films—like chip bags and juice pouches. This means more of the everyday plastics used in the Chambers County community can be captured and kept out of landfills,” Leslie Hushka, chief impact officer at Cyclyx, added in a LinkedIn post.

Cyclyx's circularity center is currently under construction and is expected to produce 300 million pounds of custom-formulated feedstock annually.

LYB joins BP, NRG Energy and Chevron Phillips Chemical on the list. Photo via lyondellbasell.com

4 Houston energy & chemical giants boast best corporate culture, says Forbes

Where to Work

Four Houston energy and chemical giants have just landed on Forbes' new ranking of "America's Best Employers for Company Culture." The report highlights six more Houston-area companies for their inspiring company culture.

Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey over 218,000 workers at companies with at least 1,000 employees throughout the U.S, and relied on data from the past three years of employee surveys (with an emphasis on the most recent data and recommendations from current employees). Companies don't pay to be included, Forbes additionally noted.

Among the final list of 600 U.S. companies, 30 Texas employers were praised for providing "a unifying company culture that inspires a sense of purpose and loyalty among employees."

The Houston employers in the energy and chemical sector are:

  • No. 325 – BP
  • No. 492 – Chevron Phillips Chemical
  • No. 558 – NRG Energy
  • No. 593 – LyondellBassell

According to the report's research, employers with a successful company culture don't rely on "surface-level perks" such as free lunches, wellness apps, and flex days to inspire employee engagement. Instead, employers that focused on conflict resolution and coaching their managers saw a reduction in employee burnout and an increase in "perceptions of fairness and leadership care."

"In fact, the researchers noted that when 'senior leaders changed how they led — how they ran meetings, gave feedback, made decisions and responded to challenge — trust scores rose by an average of 26 percent,'" the report said.

The six other Houston-area companies that earned national acclaim for their company culture are:

  • No. 15 — Houston Methodist
  • No. 47 — MD Anderson
  • No. 220 – Stewart Info Services
  • No. 332 – Baylor College of Medicine
  • No. 525 – Insperity
  • No. 586 – Waste Management

Other Texas employers with great company culture:

Elsewhere in Texas, 15 North Texas companies and five Central Texas companies were included on Forbes' list of employers with the best company culture.

The three Austin-area companies that earned spots on the list include Austin Community College District (No. 56), Round Rock-based Dell Technologies (No. 207), and Keller Williams Realty (No. 352).

The two San Antonio-based companies that made the cut are beloved Texas grocery chain H-E-B (No. 445), and municipal electric utility company CPS Energy (No. 551).

The 15 Dallas-Fort Worth-based companies that made the list include:

  • No. 58 – The Container Store, Coppell
  • No. 73 – Lewisville Independent School District, Lewisville
  • No. 117 – Southwest Airlines, Dallas
  • No. 123 –Topgolf, Dallas
  • No. 170 – McKesson, Irving
  • No. 190 – Kimberly-Clark, Irving
  • No. 245 – Jacobs Solutions,Dallas
  • No. 312 – Brinker International, Coppell
  • No. 350 – Texas Health Resources, Arlington
  • No. 482 – Toyota North America, Plano
  • No. 562 – Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Dallas
  • No. 567 – AT&T, Dallas
  • No. 569 – Energy Transfer, Dallas
  • No. 591 – American Airlines Group, Fort Worth
  • No. 597 – Aimbridge Hospitality, Plano
---

A version of this article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

Chambers County has helped fund a new recycling support center in Mont Belvieu that will process post-consumer plastic materials. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston-area logistics co. breaks ground on recycling center tied to circularity hub

coming soon

TALKE USA Inc., a Houston-area arm of German logistics company TALKE, broke ground on its new Recycling Support Center in Mont Belvieu Aug. 1.

The facility will process post-consumer plastic materials, which will then be further processed at Cyclyx's new Houston-based Circularity Center, a first-of-its-kind plastic waste sorting and processing facility that was developed through a joint venture between Cyclix, ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell.

The materials will ultimately be converted into recycling feedstock.

“We’re proud to break ground on a facility that reflects our long-term vision for sustainable growth,” Richard Heath, CEO and president of TALKE USA Inc., said in a news release. “This groundbreaking marks an important milestone for our team, our customers, and the Mont Belvieu community.”

The new facility was partially funded by Chambers County, according to the release. The Baytown Sun reports that the county put $1 million towards the construction of the project, which brings advanced recycling and mechanical recycling to the area.

TALKE USA said it plans to share more about the new facility and its impact in the future.

Meanwhile, the Houston-based Cyclyx Circularity Center (CCC1) is slated to open this year and is expected to produce 300 million pounds of custom-formulated feedstock annually. A second circularity center, CCC2, is expected to start up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the second half of 2026. Read more here.

Houston-based energy companies have again held a sizable presence on the Fortune 500 ranking. Photo via Getty Images

Houston energy companies score big on annual Fortune 500 ranking

big cos.

Fourteen businesses with global or regional headquarters in the Houston area appear on Fortune’s new list of the world’s 500 biggest companies.

Oil and gas company Saudi Aramco, whose headquarters for the Americas is in Houston, leads the Houston-area pack. With annual revenue of $494.9 billion, it lands at No. 4 on the Fortune Global 500. Ahead of Saudi Aramco are U.S. retailers Walmart and Amazon, and Chinese electric company State Grid.

To put Saudi Aramco’s annual revenue in perspective, the total is slightly above the gross domestic product for the Philippines.

For the third year in a row, Saudi Aramco stands out as the most profitable member of the Fortune Global 500. The company racked up $121 billion in profit last year.

Overall, Saudi Aramco and 32 other petroleum refiners — many of them with a significant presence in the Houston area — made the Fortune Global 500.

“The Global 500 is the ultimate scorecard for business success. The aggregate revenue of the Fortune Global 500 in 2023 reached $41 trillion, a record level. That sum represents more than a third of global GDP — a sign of how much economic power is concentrated in these companies,” Scott DeCarlo, Fortune’s vice president of research, says in a news release.

Here’s the rundown of Fortune Global 500 companies with global or regional headquarters in the Houston area, including the ranking and annual revenue for each:

  • Saudi Aramco, No. 4, $494.9 billion, Americas headquarters in Houston
  • ExxonMobil, No. 12, $344.6 billion, global headquarters in Spring
  • Shell, No. 13, $323.2 billion; U.S. headquarters in Houston
  • TotalEnergies, No. 23, $218.9 billion, U.S. headquarters in Houston
  • BP, No. 25, $213 billion, U.S. headquarters in Houston
  • Chevron, No. 29, $200.9 billion, global headquarters relocating to Houston in 2024
  • Phillips 66, No. 52, $149.9 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • Engie, No. 130, $89.3 billion, North American headquarters in Houston
  • Sysco, No. 163, $76.3 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • ConocoPhillips, No. 235, $58.6 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • Enterprise Products Partners, No. 303, $49.7 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • Plains GP Holdings, No. 311, $48.7 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • LyondellBasell, No. 368, $41.1 billion, global headquarters in Houston
  • SLB (formerly Schlumberger), No. 479, $33.1 billion, global headquarters in Houston

Fortune uses revenue figures for budget years ending on or before March 31, 2024, to rank the world’s largest companies.

The hub will combine advanced sorting and recycling operations to address the plastic waste challenge. Photo courtesy of LYB

LYB makes deal to bring new plastics recycling hub to German town

guten tag

Houston-based chemical company LyondellBasell has signed a land lease agreement for a new integrated plastic waste recycling hub by an existing industrial park in Knapsack, Germany.

The agreement is with YNCORIS, a German industrial service provider. The hub will combine advanced sorting and recycling operations to address the plastic waste challenge and the company hopes it will grow the circular economy.

The first phase of the project will see the construction of an advanced sorting facility, which will process mixed plastic waste that can produce feedstock for mechanical and advanced recycling, since this mixed plastic waste is not recycled and usually sent to incineration for energy recovery. The hub's initial advanced sorting facility expects to start operations in the first quarter of 2026. The large facility will cover an area equivalent to 20 soccer fields.

"The industrial park in Knapsack is the ideal location for our integrated hub as is it close to our world-scale facilities in Wesseling and will allow us to develop additional technologies for the recycling of plastic waste," Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell's executive vice president of circular and low carbon solutions, says in a news release. "The integration of various technologies will allow us to build scale and offer our customers a wide range of products from recycled and renewable resources."

In April, LyondellBasell also secured 208 megawatts of renewable energy capacity from a solar park in Germany. Under the 12-year deal, LyondellBasell aim s to purchase about 210 gigawatt-hours of solar power each year from Germany-based Encavis Asset Management.

By 2030, LyondellBasell hopes to produce and market at least 2 million metric tons of recycled and renewable‑based polymers annually.

LYB is building its first industrial-scale catalytic advanced recycling demonstration plant at its site in Germany. Photo via lyondellbasell.com

LyondellBasell announces renewable energy power purchase agreement with German partner

power move

Houston-based chemical company LyondellBasell has agreed to secure 208 megawatts of renewable energy capacity from a solar park in Germany.

Under the 12-year deal, LyondellBasell will purchase about 210 gigawatt-hours of solar power each year from Germany-based Encavis Asset Management. That’s enough energy to power about 56,500 homes each year.

LyondellBasell aims to purchase at least half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The deal with Encavis will enable LyondellBasell to achieve more than 90 percent of that goal.

A report from BloombergNEF ranks LyondellBasell as the world’s third largest corporate buyer of clean energy, behind Amazon and Meta.

“This latest agreement will accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy across different sectors in Germany,” says Chris Cain, LyondellBasell’s senior vice president for net-zero transition strategy.

Construction of the solar park got underway in March, with completion set for next summer. The park’s total generating capacity for solar power will be 260 megawatts, which is enough to supply electricity to about 96,000 homes per year.

“Leveraging our industry know-how, we are committed to operating the solar park in an environmentally sustainable and economically profitable manner,” says Karsten Mieth, a spokesman for Encavis Asset Management.

Encavis Asset Management is a wholly owned subsidiary of Encavis, a large-scale producer of wind and solar power in Europe.

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Houston energy startups named finalists for 2026 Innovation Awards

Meet the Innovators

InnovationMap.com, EnergyCaptialHTX's sister website, has revealed the finalists for the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, and the local energy sector is well-represented throughout the awards.

The sixth annual Houston Innovation Awards program returns in an all-digital format this fall to honor the best of Houston's innovation ecosystem, including startups, entrepreneurs, mentors, and more.

Finalists were determined by an esteemed panel of judges. The panel reviewed applications across 10 prestigious categories to determine our finalists. They will select the winner for each category, except for Startup of the Year, which will be chosen by the public via online voting launching later this month.

We will announce the honoree of our annual Trailblazer Award in the coming weeks, then stay tuned as we unveil all of this year's winners on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Without further ado, here are the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards finalists:

Minority-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by BIPOC or LGBTQ+ representation:

  • AI Made Fun
  • Deep Anchor Solutions
  • HEXAspec
  • Prana Surgical
  • Torres Orbital Mining Inc.

Female-founded Business

Honoring an innovative startup founded or co-founded by a woman:

  • Adair
  • ARIX Technologies
  • Bairitone Health
  • FlowCellutions
  • ParaDocs Health

Energy Transition Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing a solution within renewables, climatetech, clean energy, alternative materials, circular economy and beyond:

  • Capwell Services
  • FlowCellutions
  • Hertha Metals
  • Mars Materials
  • Solidec

Health Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup within the health and medical technology sectors:

  • Bairitone Health
  • InformAI Inc.
  • Prana Surgical
  • Skybound MedTech

Deep Tech Business

Honoring an innovative startup providing technology solutions based on substantial scientific or engineering challenges, including those in the AI, robotics and space sectors:

  • Casimir
  • Focis AI
  • Machine Saver Inc.
  • Square Robot
  • Venus Aerospace

Startup of the Year (People's Choice)

Honoring a startup celebrating a recent milestone or success. The winner will be selected by the community via an online voting experience:

  • Fluxworks
  • IronLattice
  • Lumino
  • Progress Report
  • Rosarium Health
  • Thread
  • TokenRoster

Scaleup of the Year

Honoring an innovative later-stage startup that's recently reached a significant milestone in company growth:

  • Erock
  • Hertha Metals
  • Venus Aerospace

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year

Honoring a local incubator or accelerator that is championing and fueling the growth of Houston startups:

  • Activate
  • Impact Hub Houston
  • MarMo Innovation

Mentor of the Year

Honoring an individual who dedicates their time and expertise to guide and support budding entrepreneurs:

  • Al Danto, Rice University
  • Eric Rubenstein, New Climate Ventures
  • Jeremy Pitts, Activate
  • Joe Alapat, Liongard
  • Kyle Judah, Rice University's Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • Rachel Bickham, Bickham Services Unlimited LLC

Trailblazer Recipient

  • To be announced

Energy AI company opens first U.S. office in Houston after Halliburton deal

houston expansion

Building on its partnership with Houston-based oilfield services provider Halliburton, energy-sector AI company Shape Digital recently opened an office at The Ion. It’s the company’s first U.S. location.

Shape Digital’s workforce in Houston includes employees specializing in tech support, business development and client services. The company’s local hiring projections and headcount weren’t available. The new office will be located within Industrious at the Ion, according to Rice Alliance.

A key driver of the new Houston office: The company forecasts North America will account for more than 20 percent of its business in 2027.

“North America is a critical market for industrial innovation, and Houston sits at the center of companies driving that progress,” Caio Sene, vice president of client services at Shape Digital, said in a release. “Growing our presence here allows us to work alongside operators as they look for practical ways to turn existing operational data into clear recommendations for what to do next.”

Shape Digital, which also has offices in Singapore and Brazil, develops decision-making platforms for the oil and gas sector.

The Ion District office gives Shape Digital a presence close to Halliburton’s headquarters. In May, the two companies forged a partnership to combine Halliburton’s Digital Field Solverdecision-making system with Shape Digital’s AI portfolio.

Shape Digital layers AI software atop existing operations data rather than replacing legacy systems or adding new software.

The company’s suite of AI agents draws on more than 200 operations-monitoring algorithms, continually learning from company and industry data. The suite comprises four products: Shape Aura, Shape Lighthouse, Shape Lumen and Shape Reef.

Shape Digital says that by working with a customer’s existing operations data, it can deliver ROI in less than two months without any additional investment in equipment or infrastructure.

The company is a 2021 spinoff of Japan-based Modec. Modec builds, owns, and operates floating offshore oil and gas production facilities. Its Modec America subsidiary is based in Houston.

This article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

Houston energy startup names former Cheniere execs to C-suite

new leaders

Houston-based energy infrastructure startup Joulent has brought aboard a new chief financial officer and new chief operating officer—both former executives at Houston-based Cheniere Energy.

The C-suite moves come three months after Joulent raised $1.75 billion from National Grid Ventures.

Michael Wortley joins Joulent as co-president and CFO. Wortley most recently was executive vice president and CFO at Cheniere, an LNG producer and exporter.

In conjunction with Wortley’s hiring, Brian Boland, who was Joulent’s interim CFO, has been named executive vice president, chief investment officer, and head of strategy.

Corey Grindal comes to Joulent as co-president and COO. Grindal most recently was executive vice president and COO at Cheniere.

“As Joulent evolves to meet the growing demand for power infrastructure, our expanded leadership team will help ensure we continue delivering the execution certainty our customers, partners, and investors expect,” Chris James, Joulent’s founder and CEO, said in a press release.

“Corey and Michael are accomplished operators with exceptional records of building and leading world-class energy infrastructure businesses, where they have embedded a culture defined by operational excellence and disciplined execution,” James added.

Joulet builds dedicated power-generating facilities that feed directly into data centers and other power-dependent facilities. This eliminates the need for companies to draw power from grids.

“With an initial multi-gigawatt development portfolio and strategic partnerships across the energy, infrastructure, and data center ecosystem, Joulent is helping remove power constraints to enable the next chapter of American innovation and U.S. reindustrialization,” the company says.

The $1.75 billion minority investment from National Grid Ventures complements Joulent’s existing partnerships.

Joulent, founded in 2023, emerged from stealth mode this summer. The company was founded by investment firm Engine No. 1.

Joulent’s first project, the Project Kilby natural gas facility in West Texas, will be co-located with a Microsoft data center. It’ll deliver about 2.67 gigawatts of power under a 20-year deal between Microsoft and Energy Forge One, a 50/50 joint venture between Chevron and Joulent.