The Official Website of the City of Indianapolis and Marion County

Here's a summary of what the City of Indianapolis is doing to "green up" our little part of the world:

• Cleaning up the White River and tributaries through our 20-year Raw Sewage Overflow Long Term Control Plan.
• Fixing neighborhood health problems linked to failing septic systems with the help of our new Septic Tank Elimination Program, which greatly accelerates the pace of our City's conversion of homes with septic systems to City sewer. 
• IndyParks Land Stewardship has actively managed, protected, and restored over 750 acres of Indianapolis' natural resource areas over the past 14 years, in order to maximize the environmental benefits of our City's Green Infrastructure, 
• IndyParks Land Stewardship will plant over 60 acres of prairie – including nearly 2 dozen species of native grasses and wildflowers – this year alone, This investment in Indy's Green Infrastructure will significantly reduce the runoff of polluted water into our steams, as well as maintain the natural diversity of our urban land for generations to come. 
• IndyParks will convert 150 acres of turf grass over the next 4 years into low-maintenance natural resource areas such as forest, prairie and wetland. This will significantly reduce mowing emissions, as well as actively clean and filter pollutants from our air and water.
• Neighborwoods has launched an effort to plant 100,000 trees across the City, in addition to the 85,000 new trees contributed by IndyParks since 2000.
• Greenspace and parkland acquisition has added 22 parks and 638 acres of open space and parkland since 2000.
• Cultural Trail and Greenways expansions
• Recycle Indianapolis' current campaign to improve the City's household recycling programs, expand Tox-Drops, e-Cycle, leaf pickup and Christmas tree recycling programs, and to use recycled materials for hard surface paving in IndyParks.
• Maintaining clean air health standards for ozone, and implementing efforts to reduce particle pollution to meet federal clean air health standards.
• Increasing use of flexible-fuel vehicles to reduce dependence on foreign oil, and pursuing energy savings through building improvements, and more efficient traffic lighting.
• Redevelopment of environmentally challenged properties through the City's brownfield efforts has resulted in more than 50 projects, completed or underway, with grants  totaling $1.44 million since 2000.
• Environmental education efforts through IndyParks have reached over 75,000 individuals annually since 2004 through outreach programs and the environmental centers at Holliday Park and Eagle Creek.
• Improved management of storm water pollution runoff through awareness programs with industry and the general public, including marking storm drains, and improved runoff controls at construction sites and in development plans.
• Turf Management programs through IndyParks continually seek to convert more of its 11,018 acres from turf management to natural vegetation. The agency reduced its mowing frequency lowering emissions from mowing equipment, and decreased the overall parkland mowed in 2005 by 5%, saving the agency $40,000.  Prairie plantings and wetland mitigation projects are continuing to decrease mowing cycles.
• Wetland Mitigation project, a collaborative effort with the State DNR to create new wetland areas, is currently in development.
• Facility Operations Efficiencies in IndyParks is being demonstrated to the public through a contract with Johnson Controls, a firm that monitors the indoor environment of five recreation centers.  This monitoring ensures the most efficient use of the HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and Air-conditioning), allowing the system to respond to and predict HVAC needs, resulting in energy savings.  This level of monitoring allows the agency to evaluate our energy saving procedures within the entire park system.
• Land Acquisition allowed IndyParks to acquire 158.8 acres of land in 2006 for development into parkland and natural areas.  It is projected that for 2007, IndyParks will acquire an estimated 125.0 acres of additional land.
• Earth Discovery Center at Eagle Creek Park has many 'green' features incorporated into its design including the Geo-thermal heating and cooling system that relies upon ground to provide heating and cooling in a more economically and environmentally friendly manner. The installation of a revolving door at the main entrance reduces heating and cooling loss.  In addition, during construction excavated soil was reused at other IndyParks construction project. The Exterior lighting on and around the building is directed to reduce light pollution.  The facility restrooms were designed with automated flush and automated sink basins as well as a no-flush urinals reducing water usage.  The building is furnished with re-used items from other parks facilities to reduce the purchasing of new items.  Finally, all windows installed are energy efficient to lower heating and cooling costs.
• Waste Tire Recycling through IndyParks and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is being used to create a new environmentally friendly asphalt surfaces.  These surfaces have been created using a mixture of asphalt and recycled tires ground into crumbs.  Once all surfaces have been completed, it is estimated that over 5,500 tires that would have otherwise degraded in landfills will be put to positive use in recreational places such as the Haughville Park basketball courts and the Marott Parking lot surface. Seven additional basketball courts and two tennis courts are schedule to receive new surfaces at seven different neighborhood parks throughout 2007.
• Parks Recycling, provided through a partnership with DPW, offers recycling drop off sites at various parks throughout the city.  Recently added locations include Brookside Park and Garfield.  
• Lead free initiatives employed by IndyParks ensure that only lead-free paint is used at all facilities and on all equipment. In addition, all play structures and equipment that contained lead based paint or material were removed several years ago at all parks to prevent health and environmental hazards. 
• IndyParks Forestry Division plants an average of 300-350 trees annually throughout the City in various parks, neighborhoods and street line.  The trees are a minimum of 2.5 inches and are   typically, the trees are acquired and planted through grants such as the 164 trees that are schedule to be installed along Burdsal Parkway through a $35,000 grant from the Indianapolis Parks Foundation and the Efroymson Fund.