KIB News & Information

INDIANAPOLIS -- 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 in this tally have been planted within Marion County public right-of-way since the benchmark in 2018 and include trees planted by the Department of Public Works as well as those planted via the City's partnership with KIB, IUPUI, Downtown Indy, trees planted via Citizen Energy Group's 10,000 Trees Initiative with KIB, and AES Indiana's Trees For Indy program. The specific tree species chosen for the plantings are always native so as to best support the natural local ecosystem, yellow poplars, Indiana's official state tree.
 

STAMFORD, Conn. (February 1, 2023) – 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 from KAB in 2020 and 2021. The Keep America Beautiful Innovation Award salutes affiliates that have created innovative partnerships and programs to further the mission of Keep America Beautiful.

There will be different sites around Indianapolis where 950 Lilly employees will be doing 19 different projects to help spiff up parts of the town on Thursday as part of the Lilly Global Day of Service.

Every year, Lilly employees volunteer in local communities around the world through our Global Day of Service.

Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB) a $3.78 million grant to mobilize efforts to clean up litter along several busy streets and waterways in Indianapolis, furthering KIB’s mission to create and maintain vibrant public places where people and nature thrive.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, which plants 3,000 to 4,000 trees in the city each year, has been collecting and gathering data to help guide its planting plans for more than a dozen years. Now, it is digging even deeper into that data and working even more closely with city government to make sure those plans bene􀀁t all areas of the city in a more equitable way.

Quick Hits

• Masks are strongly encouraged during the project check-in and demonstrations
  • Masks are optional during the project itself.
• If an event is indoors, non vaccinated volunteers are strongly recommended to wear a mask 
• Bringing your own water to a project is recommended
  • KIB will provide water for volunteers as well
• There are no group restrictions at this time for volunteers
• Social distancing as much as is feasible (little longer than a shovel between people)
• Stay home if sick or if contact was made with someone who is ill

Quick Hits

• Masks required all the time
• Gloves strongly recommended
  • Volunteers can bring their own from home
• 25 volunteers per project leader
  • Separate meeting locations, tools, water, and hand sanitizer
• Hand sanitizer everywhere
  • Sanitizing wipes available
• Tools set out in kits before the project
• Tools sprayed with sanitizer after each project
• Encourage volunteering with a household member
  • Especially at Community Forestry projects!
• Encourage check-ins on volunteers’ personal cell phones
• Social distancing as much as is feasible (little longer than a shovel between people)
• Stay home if sick or if contact was made with someone who is ill
  • No onsite health screening or temperature check due to unreliability

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A $25,000 grant from the Duke Energy Foundation is helping fund the effort, which is part of broader programs to reduce invasive species in Hamilton County and restore the White River so it can be used by residents. In place of the unwanted plants, the city will likely plant Sycamore trees and other native vegetation.

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Starting in 1950, a group of Black families built a neighborhood just off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. Veterans had returned to Indianapolis after the war, and a self-help housing program organized a way for families to afford dwellings that would build wealth in the Black community.

Indianapolis leaders were hard at work Friday for a downtown revitalization project. Participants included board members from groups like Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Indy Chamber and Visit Indy as well as companies like Cummins and Salesforce. They worked on cleaning, weeding, painting and landscaping projects.

In this episode of the Indy’s Trusted Servant Show, host Danny O’Malia speaks with Jeremy Kranowitz with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.

Several new steps are being taken to ensure the safety of our volunteers and staff. Please read this article before coming to a KIB project.

KIB's statement regarding COVID-19.

FOX59 News interviews KIB's new President and CEO, Jeremy Kranowitz, about Operation My Indy, Kranowitz's strategy to learn about all parts of Indianapolis. Krantowitz came to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful from Connecticut. Rather than immediately find a home in the city, he stayed in a different neighborhood for 15 weeks to better know his new home.

Matt McKinney reports on the City-County Council's early focus on addressing climate change in 2020.

Clean water is critical for everything we grow, eat, cook, wash and manufacture—it really is our most valuable resource.

Jill Sheridan reports on KIB's renewed partnership with the City of Indianapolis.

Keep Indianapolis Beautiful's Director of Eduction, Heather Maurer, discusses the importance of urban forestry with other experts on WFYI's show "All In"