Release: Indianapolis Once Again Named an "A List City" in 2022 for Environmental Disclosure

Indy joins 121 other global cities and counties named climate action leaders on CDP’s 2022 A List

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indianapolis has been recognized by CDP as one of 122 cities and counties across the globe taking bold leadership on environmental action and transparency, despite the pressures of a challenging global situation. Indianapolis has disclosed environmental impact data through CDP since 2015; this is the fifth time it has received an A rating.

Designed to encourage and support local governments to ramp up their climate action and ambition, CDP's Cities A List is based on environmental data disclosed by local governments to CDP-ICLEI Track. A clear momentum in local climate disclosure and action is building -- for the first time, more than 1,000 cities and counties (1,002 in total) received a rating for their climate action from CDP in 2022, a rise on the 965 cities and counties scored in 2021. Only 12 percent of cities and counties that were scored in 2022 received an A score.

"Being recognized as one of CDP's A List Cities is one in a long list of environmentally-focused achievements at the local level in 2022, including the launch of our Thriving Buildings benchmarking program," said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett. "Climate action remains a major priority for Indianapolis as we look to decrease our city's carbon emissions even further."

To score an A, among other actions, a local government must disclose publicly through CDP-ICLEI Track, have a community-wide emissions inventory, and have published a climate action plan. It must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards. Many A List cities and counties are also taking a variety of other leadership actions, such as political commitment from a city's mayor to tackle climate change.

While national governments communicate commitments at the ongoing COP27 convening, A List cities and counties are demonstrating their climate leadership through concerted and effective action with CDP reporting. In fact, A List cities are taking twice as many mitigation and adaptation measures as non-A List local governments. The global economy also looks to CDP as the gold standard of environmental reporting, and the organization holds the world's richest and most comprehensive dataset on how companies, cities, states, and regions measure, understand, and address their environmental impacts.

"In disclosing our environmental information publicly year after year, we hope to demonstrate that our team understands the risks Indianapolis faces, and also how our team is planning for the future," said Morgan Mickelson, Director of the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability. "While we regularly use the action items developed by the community in Thrive Indianapolis to prioritize and track the progress on our climate action goals, taking the time to report to CDP each year is another indicator of our commitment to environmental leadership at the local level."

Indianapolis and the other 121 cities and counties on this year's A List are also celebrated for showing that urgent and impactful climate action -- from ambitious emissions reduction targets to building resilience against climate change -- is achievable at a global level, and in places with different climate realities and priorities. However, this action needs to go further and faster.

"Congratulations to the City of Indianapolis for earning a spot on the CDP Cities A List -- one of 49 cities and counties in North America to make the list in 2022," said Katie Walsh, Head of Cities, States, Regions and Public Authorities, CDP North America. "From mitigating carbon emissions in line with science, to building resilience against floods, drought, and other climate hazards to centering marginalized and vulnerable communities in their response, A List local governments are demonstrating best-practice environmental action. Indianapolis is in the vanguard of cities and counties leading the way toward a climate-safe future."

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About the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability and Thrive Indianapolis
The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability, also known as SustainIndy, uses best practices in sustainability to enhance the quality of life for all residents in Indianapolis and Marion County. The Office promotes an environmentally sustainable city through different programs and initiatives, including those which improve issues such as air quality, stormwater management, energy efficiency and environmental planning. Specific programs include Knozone, a year-round air quality initiative; and Highly EVolved, an electric vehicle education and awareness campaign. The Office also administers Thrive Indianapolis (“Thrive”), the first sustainability and resiliency action plan in Indy's history. Thrive prioritizes community collaboration to achieve equity in policy, planning, and project implementation, setting a path for citywide carbon neutrality by 2050.

About CDP
CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000 and working with more than 680 investors with over $130 trillion in assets, CDP pioneered using capital markets and corporate procurement to motivate companies to disclose their environmental impacts and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests.

Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2022, including more than 18,700 companies worth over 50% of global market capitalization, and over 1,100 cities, states and regions. CDP is a founding member of the Science Based Targets initiative, We Mean Business Coalition, The Investor Agenda and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Visit cdp.net or follow @CDP to find out more.

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