City's Office of Sustainability Invites Community Collaboration with Launch of Dynamic Thrive Indianapolis Website
The updated website includes features on seven completed climate action items
INDIANAPOLIS—Today, the City's Office of Sustainability revealed a comprehensive overhaul to ThriveIndianapolis.com, the website that hosts Thrive Indianapolis ("Thrive"), Indy's first-ever sustainability and resiliency action plan originally published in 2019. Changes to the website include a dynamic tracking approach to Thrive's goals, recommended individual actions for residents aiming to "Be a Part of the Solution," and featured stories on sustainability-related city programs and initiatives.
"This recent announcement builds upon the great progress Indianapolis has made over the last year toward carbon neutrality, including multiple landmark policy changes catalyzed by our participation in Bloomberg Philanthropies' American Cities Climate Challenge ," said Mayor Joe Hogsett. "Civic engagement via this robust digital platform is an integral component of continuing to enact an equitable, community-driven sustainability and resiliency action plan."
To date, seven of the original 59 ambitious action items included in Thrive at its publication in 2019 are considered completed. They are:
1B from the Waste & Recycling element: Through the Thriving Schools Challenge, promote and support programs that reduce waste in schools by 2022.
1A from the Built Environment element: Develop an energy benchmarking and disclosure policy for municipal and commercial buildings with the first-year disclosure completed by the end of 2020.
2D from the Built Environment element: Increase street sweeping operations throughout the county to improve stormwater drainage.
1C from the Transportation & Land Use element: Increase transit-oriented development through high density housing, access to employment opportunities, and economic growth with measurably less consumption of energy.
1E from the Transportation & Land Use element: Continue to identify opportunities to create temporary pedestrian-only zones in our cultural and entertainment districts by 2020.
1C from the Energy element: Deploy strategies that allow our community to overcome existing hurdles to solar energy installations, including education and assistance with solar cooperatives and bulk purchasing contracts. Pilot one community solar program by 2025.
1B from the Food & Urban Agriculture element: Advocate to increase access to SNAP benefits, including removing the asset limit from SNAP qualifications.
On Earth Day this spring, the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability released its inaugural annual report on nine output metrics outlined in Thrive plus nineteen additional data points and stories demonstrating collective progress toward sustainability and resiliency under the plan's eight elements: Built Environment, Economy, Energy, Food & Agriculture, Natural Resources, Public Health & Safety, Transportation & Land Use, and Waste & Recycling. Read the 2020 Thrive Annual Report here.
"This comprehensive refresh of our Thrive website demonstrates the City's commitment to transparency as well as to achieving the goals laid out in the plan by utilizing community collaboration," said Morgan Mickelson, Director of the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability. "As cities continue to feel the effects of climate change, we want our citizens to feel empowered with localized information and resources to help increase overall resilience."
Indianapolis residents and organizations are encouraged to embrace the community aspect of Thrive by exploring the new website and analyzing where their work might align with the goals. Parties interested in collaborating or forming partnerships that will contribute to a stronger, more resilient Indianapolis are invited to email sustainindy@indy.govto discuss potential opportunities.
Additional updates on Thrive and related partnerships including the Bloomberg Philanthropies' American Cities Climate Challenge, local air quality initiative Knozone, and electric vehicle education campaign Highly EVolved, can be found by following the Office of Sustainability on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube or by visiting sustain.indy.gov; thriveindianapolis.com; knozone.com; and behighlyevolved.com.