Kroger Announces Multi-Year Support of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful Exceeding $225,000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
Linda Broadfoot
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc.
Vice President of Development & Public Relations
O: 317.264.7555 x112
C: 317.223.5181
lbroadfoot@kibi.org

John Elliott
Kroger
Phone: 317-579-8113
FAX: 317-579-8080
john.elliott@kroger.com

INDIANAPOLIS – (April 18, 2011) At a special celebration at 10:00 AM this morning at Kroger’s store at 71st & Binford, The Kroger Co.’s Central Division announced a multi-year commitment to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. (KIB). Participating in the event were representatives from KIB, the Office of the Mayor, Binford Redevelopment & Growth (BRAG), AbiBow Recycling LLC and Community Recycling Solutions Inc.

This enhancement to the Kroger-KIB partnership follows Kroger’s three-year pledge to KIB covering 2008-2010 that provided more than $150,000 in support to KIB. Kroger’s new three-year pledge includes:

• $25,000 in cash per year, totaling $75,000 over three years, with a portion to be allocated to the community garden initiative intended to help local food pantries feed the hungry. The initiative is led by the Indianapolis Food Resource Network and Mayor Ballard’s Office of Sustainability.
• Income from Paper Retriever recycling bins for three years estimated at $30,000 in 2011, $35,000 in 2012 and $40,000 in 2013; a total of $105,000 over three years
• $5,000 per year in support of the Great Indy Cleanup and smaller neighborhood cleanup initiatives, totaling $15,000 over three years; also includes the use of Kroger store locations across Indianapolis as rallying and staging areas for neighborhood cleanups
• Use of a Kroger store location each year for a citywide paper drive on America Recycles Day. The 2010 event collected more than 10 tons of paper and generated more than $10,000 in income for KIB. Event support from Kroger would include donated promotional support and manpower.
• Kroger will donate advertising space to KIB during Kroger’s second fiscal period (May 22nd to August 13th) valued at more than $30,000 over three years. This will include print, radio and in-store advertising.

Additional opportunities are being evaluated and may be announced later as this dynamic partnership continues to evolve and grow.

As part of its annual support, Kroger will once again be supporting the Great Indy Cleanup. This month-long event includes a broad collation of companies, local government agencies, nonprofit organizations and individual volunteers under the leadership of KIB. For more information, please visit www.greatindycleanup.com .

In a separate announcement during the same event, Kroger announced successful completion of a recycling pilot program with Community Recycling Solutions Inc. of Franklin, Indiana. Details of that announcement, which includes additional support for KIB, are included in a separate news release.

Kroger Central Division Public Affairs Manager John Elliott said, “Kroger will continue to be an industry leader in sustainability, not only in the way we build and operate our stores, distribution centers and food plants, but recycling and other environmental programs that encourage both associate and customer participation. We will lead by example, further increasing our own sustainability efforts in every local community we serve in 2010. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful has been a highly effective organization, not only beautifying our city, but enriching the quality of life and acting as a catalyst for positive change in one neighborhood after another. It is an honor to collaborate with the KIB team in enriching the environment we all share.”

David Forsell, President of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, shared the following, “Kroger supports KIB in so many ways and really walks the walk when it comes to being a real part of the community. We couldn't have the impact we have on neighborhoods, schoolchildren and our environment without their support. It is crucial to our engagement of volunteers in every corner of Marion County and for our mission to unite people to build community and transform public spaces through aesthetic and environmental improvement.”

Paper Recycling:
Working with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) and AbiBow Recycling LLC, Kroger is able to provide customers with a paper recycling program. Green and yellow Paper Retriever containers are in the parking lots of 38 Kroger stores in Central Indiana communities where recycling centers are available and are being added to additional stores in other Indiana markets. AbiBow Recycling manages the program. Kroger promotes the program to raise customer and associate awareness and recycling participation. Income from those recycle containers does not go to Kroger – it provides income to KIB, the Indiana Recycling Coalition and other local environmental organizations. KIB received $28,886 in income from the bins in 2010, a 32.4% increase over income received in 2009. The Kroger-KIB-AbiBow program collected 3,844,000 pounds or 96 tractor trailers of paper for recycling in 2010, saving more than 32,674 trees, 5,766 cubic yards of landfill space, 7.9 million kwh of electricity (enough to power 4,000 homes for one month), eliminating 115,320 pounds of pollutants that would otherwise have been released into the air and saving 13.5 million gallons of water. For more information visit www.PaperRetriever.com .

Plastic Bag Recycling:
Kroger’s national plastic recycling program called “Bag 2 Bag” includes custom-designed barrels allowing customers to contribute plastic grocery bags, shrink-wrap, dry cleaning plastic and other types of plastic bags for recycling. The barrels also are used for plastic generated by Kroger’s store operations. In 2010 the Central Division’s “Bag 2 Bag” program recycled over 1.6 million pounds of plastic. This is equivalent to more than 57 semi trailer loads of recycled plastic and equal to more than 3,200 barrels of oil not consumed. Kroger expects the impact to be even greater as more customers participate in the program.

Reusable Bags:
Kroger has continued to strongly promote a national reusable bag campaign called “Choose to Reuse.” Central Division has been a consistent leader in the sale of reusable bags within the national Kroger enterprise. The company sold 198,113 bags in 2010, which was a 5.86% increase over 2009. One reusable bag can replace as many as 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime.

Corrugated Recycling:
Central Division recycled more than 30,049 tons of corrugated generated by its own store operations in 2010, up 50% over 2009. Nationally the company recycled 1.16 billion pounds of corrugated in 2010, up 16% over 2009.

About Kroger:
The Kroger Co. has been serving local communities for 128 years. The Kroger Central Division has 149 food stores, 123 pharmacies and 64 fuel centers operating under five banners; Kroger, Scott’s, Owen’s, Hilander and Pay Less, with locations primarily in Indiana and Illinois, in addition to five stores in Missouri, one in Michigan and one in Ohio. Kroger Central Division is dedicated to supporting every local community it serves, contributing more than $13.3 million in 2010 to local organizations, primarily focusing on hunger relief, K-12 education, health causes and diversity. At Kroger we value: honesty, respect, inclusion, diversity, safety and integrity.

About Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc.:
Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. is a private, nonprofit organization uniting people to build community and transform public spaces through aesthetic and environmental improvement. In 2010, KIB engaged nearly 40,000 volunteers on 500 community improvement projects. To learn more, please visit www.kibi.org.
 

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