1. The Irvington
Green Initiative
A story of growth, impact and success as reported by
Jeff Echols, Chairman, Irvington Green Initiative
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

2. Taking the Green Initiative
• In 2007 Shawndra Miller and Laura Hildreth, residents
of the historic eastside Indianapolis neighborhood of
Irvington spearheaded an effort that led to the Irvington
Development Organization launching a Green
Initiative.
• By 2008, it was clear that the Initiative needed to
graduate from an occasional meeting of friends and
neighbors in a borrowed storefront space into
something more substantial. Jeff was appointed the first
Chairman of the Irvington Green Initiative by the
President of the Irvington Development Organization
Board.
• The Irvington Green Initiative (IGI) is a volunteer, not-
for-profit organization that takes a positive approach
toward encouraging people to adopt a more sustainable
lifestyle.
• For almost 2 years IGI did what many “Green” groups
do. They screened environmental movies, sponsored
local cleanups, held rainwater conservation workshops
and sold reusable grocery bags; but they made big
plans.

3. Setting Green Goals
• In 2010 the Irvington Green Initiative took the idea of
building relationships to a radical level by partnering
with over 40 groups, organizations and businesses to
accomplish 3 major goals:
• Create a teaching rain garden with a local
elementary school;
• Produce a Spirit and Place Festival event (The
Spirit and Place Festival is an annual city-wide
event that offers numerous lectures, seminars,
performances, and workshops organized around
a specific theme) and
• Launch the monthly “Green Hour;” a grass roots
engagement and networking series.

4. Radical Relationship Building
• Jeff Echols coined the term “radical relationship
building” and leveraged the idea to the successful
accomplishment of these goals.
• IGI made the leap from a 2-year-old, once-in-a-while
gathering of a few neighbors into an organization
that:
• Partnered with City agencies and local schools
and businesses
• Leveraged public and private money into the
development of 1,500 square foot educational
rain garden project, the largest Spirit and Place
Festival event in 2010 and a monthly event that
eclipses the success of similar events organized
by an international organization.
• All in all, IGI engaged 150 different volunteers and
measured total event attendance at over 1,200 with a
regular monthly attendance at the Green Hour
averaging over 30 … in just one year.

5. Guiding Principles
• Every event and project has the goal of connecting
people and imparting knowledge by exploiting the
balance between the strengths and knowledge of
our community and the needs and interests of our
community.

6. Neighborhood-Wide Change
• The Irvington Green Initiative set a goal of
launching a neighborhood-wide recognition
program designed to reward homeowners, business
owners, schools and congregations for their
sustainability efforts. The initial step towards this
program included:
• Holding Rain Barrel Building Workshops with
the goal of adding storm water collection
systems to at least 100 homes in the
neighborhood.
• The development of the Teaching Rain Garden
Project at Irvington Community School.

7. Teaching Rain Garden
• By leveraging public and private money and in-kind
donations, the Green Initiative designed and built a
1,500 square foot educational rain garden that
elementary students helped plant and continue to
observe, study and maintain; fostering interest in
sustainability in our youngest residents.
• The goal of Teaching Rain Garden project is to
provide the families and staff of Irvington
Community School and users of the Pennsy Trail
(adjacent Indy Greenways trail) education of
natural storm water mitigation through the proper
assemblage of native flora and the fauna it attracts.
Hands-on construction and maintenance, periodic
curriculum and enjoyable observation are all
components of this ongoing education opportunity
for the community.

8. Skill Sharing
• The Irvington SkillShare “Feast”ival was a
groundbreaking Spirit and Place Festival event
offering “garden to kitchen” skill demonstrations.
• The “Feast”ival emphasized creative ways the
average urban resident might use the land and
abilities they have to become more self-reliant from
the garden to the kitchen. It was intended to share
the wealth of knowledge that we have in our own
back yard and empower people to try these skills at
home.

9. Skill Sharing
• By offering so many skill demonstrations in one room,
the “Feast”ival attracted more than 800 people from
all walks of life and with all levels of expertise.
Garden skills included vermiculture, aquaculture,
extending the garden season through cold frames,
composting, beekeeping, edible landscaping, raising
chickens, making rain barrels, small space gardening
and seed saving. On the kitchen side, presenters
shared how to bake bread, cook healthy economical
dishes, make sauerkraut, gather and prepare wild
plants, can and preserve foods and make and use a
solar cooker.
• The majority of the expert presenters were drawn
from the Irvington neighborhood and the near eastside
of Indianapolis, allowing the type of neighbor-to-
neighbor interaction that truly inspires people to
believe they too can live more sustainably.

10. An Hour for Green
• The Green Hour was originally envisioned as a tool
for outreach; a way to support local businesses in a
failing economy; a forum to highlight and discuss
sustainability on a local level.
• The inaugural Green Hour was held in a local
restaurant in December of 2009.
• Every month for more than 3 years, Jeff Echols and
IGI have presented a guest speaker to talk about their
efforts in sustainability. Past speakers have included
local, mom and pop businesses like Homespun:
Modern Handmade; city agencies like the Office of
Sustainability; sustainability luminaries like People
for Urban Progress; government officials like
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard; educators like
professors and scientists from the Marion University
EcoLab.

11. A Scalable ‘Business Model’
• The strengths of the Irvington Green Initiative lie in
human capital; in the knowledge and networks of
volunteers and committee members. That’s where
Radical Relationship Building was born.
• All of the Initiative's efforts are guided by the
principle of developing and enriching networks;
bringing people together and sharing the vast wealth
of knowledge contained within these networks.
• The United States is made up of over 300 million
individuals but we gather in communities. For one
reason or another, people congregate and connect.
That’s why the Irvington Green Initiative’s model is
scalable. They simply identify the connections and
successfully exploit them for the purpose of
community enrichment. With minimal volunteer
effort (scheduling timely and relevant speakers and
keeping the communication media updated and
proactive), they create the opportunity for sharing –
community members do the rest.

12. Recognition
• Teaching Rain Garden:
• 2011 Indianapolis Office of Sustainability -
SustainIndy Sustainability Award Finalist
• SkillShare “Feast”ival:
• 2011 Local Initiatives Support Corporation /
Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center /
Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood
Development / Making Connections
Indianapolis - Neighbor Power! Connecting
Community Award
• Goodwill Going Green:
• IGI was invited to present at the inaugural
Goodwill Industries Going Green summit in
2010.
• Neighbor Power! Event:
• IGI was invited to speak at (and Chair) a panel
discussion on Connecting Communities at the
city-wide Neighbor Power! Event in 2011.

13. Results
During the growth of the Irvington Green Initiative,
Irvington and surrounding neighborhoods have begun
striving towards sustainability. Since 2010:
• The largest construction project to be undertaken in
the neighborhood in decades will be certified “Green”
and will feature photovoltaic panel farms, storm water
harvesting, a green roof and a rain garden.
• Community events feature recycling opportunities.
• A Girl Scout Troup has, in consultation with IGI,
begun planning the construction of a Rain Garden.
• At least 6 local community gardens have been
planted. Recently a resident donated a 1 acre parcel
for IGI to insure the continuation of this trend.
• Several local congregations have begun their own
green committees.
• Residents have up to 3 curbside recycling options.

14. An organizational report presented by Jeff Echols,
Chairman, Irvington Green Initiative
The Irvington Green Initiative
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead