Category Archives

News & Features

Planting Seeds for a Career in Leadership

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: March 7, 2025
Categories: Engaged Citizens, News & Features, Volunteers, Youth Tree Team

For Jillian Lain, her career in community engagement and leadership began with a shovel in hand and a passion for making a difference. As a Youth Tree Team (YTT) leader in 2007, Jillian didn’t know then that her summer job with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) would shape the way she approached her professional journey, leadership […]

From Trailer Park to Urban Oasis: The Remarkable Transformation of Shelton Heights GreenSpace

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: October 16, 2024
Categories: AES Indiana Project Greenspace, Clean Neighborhoods, Engaged Citizens, News & Features, Partners, Volunteers

If you’ve ever seen a before-and-after photo that made you do a double take, get ready to be amazed by the transformation story of Shelton Heights GreenSpace! This once-forgotten piece of land, previously a trailer park riddled with crime and neglect, has now blossomed into a vibrant community park, thanks to the dedication of neighbors, […]

Rebuilding Indianapolis’ Tree Canopy: The Good, the Bad, and How to Get Involved

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: October 1, 2024
Categories: Community Forestry, Education, Engaged Citizens, KIB in the News, News & Features, Research & Data, Tree Tenders, Trees and Native Habitats, Uncategorized, Volunteers

As the President and CEO of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), I’m writing to you with a story that has both a challenging side and a hopeful future—especially if we work together. Let’s start with the tough part. A recent study by American Forests found that over the past decade, Indianapolis’ tree canopy has declined—from covering […]

Greening Urban Neighborhoods from the Ground Up

Posted by: Benjamin Shine
Posted: April 18, 2024
Categories: Clean Neighborhoods, Education, Engaged Citizens, News & Features, Partners, Research & Data, Trees and Native Habitats

How can community members come together, using data and community input, to address environmental concerns and effect change? That’s what The Greening Urban Neighborhoods from the Ground Up Initiative, a collaborative effort between Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) and Indiana University, is seeking to understand. The initiative aims to amplify community input regarding environmental issues impacting quality […]

Local Faith Leaders Gather for Tree Planting

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: November 28, 2023
Categories: Community Forestry, Engaged Citizens, KIB in the News, News & Features, Partners, Trees and Native Habitats, Volunteers

For the last decade, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving has been touted as Giving Tuesday, a year-round global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. But for Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, it’s Giving Treesday. On Tuesday, November 28, we partnered with the Center for Interfaith Cooperation to host “Giving Treesday” […]

Good Attracts Good: Study shows KIB’s AES Project GreenSpace sites reduce gun violence

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: September 26, 2023
Categories: AES Indiana Project Greenspace, News & Features, Partners, Research & Data

This morning marked a significant moment in our journey at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), as we proudly unveiled the promising results of a year-long study of our AES Indianapolis Project GreenSpace program. Together with Mayor Joe Hogsett and other community members, we gathered at our Shelton Heights GreenSpace to announce the exciting findings of the […]

Volunteerism in Indianapolis

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: April 4, 2023
Categories: AES Indiana Project Greenspace, Clean Neighborhoods, Education, Engaged Citizens, News & Features, Trees and Native Habitats, Volunteers

At Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, we rely on thousands of Hoosiers every year who help us co-create a city that is cleaner, greener, healthier, and safer. Last year, everyday citizens happily donated 16,660 hours to help us plant trees, create new greenspaces, and remove litter from our streets. When one of us lends a hand, it […]

Mayor Joe Hogsett plants Indy’s 30,000th tree, marking major milestone in city’s increasing sustainability and resilience goals

Posted by: Derek Glass
Posted: March 16, 2023
Categories: Community Forestry, News & Features, Partners

Mayor Joe Hogsett, the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability and local nonprofit Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) gathered today to plant the 30,000th new tree in Indianapolis, celebrating the completion of a critical goal in Thrive Indianapolis as well as Indy’s 35 th official Tree City USA designation. Photos from the event are included below. The 30,000 trees included […]

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful named Affiliate of the Month by Keep America Beautiful

Posted by: Derek Glass
Posted: February 6, 2023
Categories: Awards & Recognition, News & Features, Partners

Keep America Beautiful® is proud to announce our next Affiliate of the Month. In this KAB initiative, we feature the great work being done in our network of 700 certified affiliates. Our Affiliate of the Month for January 2023 is Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful is being recognized for the Innovation Awards they received […]

KIB is addressing lead contamination, and you can, too

Posted by: Jeremy Kranowitz
Posted: November 14, 2022
Categories: Education, Engaged Citizens, News & Features

Toxic lead contamination is a scary topic that sometimes creeps into our news headlines, like it did with the crisis in Flint, Michigan, in 2014. Lead exposure can affect all of us, especially children, throughout the year, and high levels of exposure can be incredibly damaging to our health. The good news is that there […]