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Clean Community Program

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What is the Clean Community Program?

IDEM’s Clean Community Program seeks to make Indiana a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable place to live. The Clean Community Program is about ensuring a better quality of life for all Hoosiers, now and for generations to come.

The Clean Community Program is a free and voluntary program aimed at recognizing and rewarding Indiana communities for implementing a proactive, positive approach to addressing community and social issues through sustainable environmental and wellness projects.

How Does the Program Work?

The Clean Community Program is designed to be flexible. Municipalities choose projects that fit their community’s sustainability goals. IDEM recognizes the many environmental challenges municipalities would like to tackle on a day-to-day basis under limited budgets. Through this program, IDEM is creating a network of municipalities to assist one another, collaborate, connect them with resources, and recognize the communities' successful achievements in completing the projects to address these challenges. The Clean Community Program can potentially help communities cut operating costs while improving the quality of life for residents.

The Clean Community Program offers a 3-tiered membership, allowing communities to step through the program at their own pace. IDEM has added a scaled system which takes a community’s population into account when determining the number of projects that must be implemented for membership. Each of these flexible options allow communities to focus on implementing projects and entering the program more easily. The Clean Community Program Quick Guide [PDF] provides additional information.

What Indiana Municipalities are a Part of the Program?

Gold Tier

  • Beech Grove

Silver Tier

  • Brown County
  • Evansville
  • Fishers
  • Richmond
  • Zionsville

Bronze Tier

  • Bloomington
  • Fortville
  • Hobart
  • Kokomo
  • Merrillville
  • New Castle
  • New Chicago
  • Porter
  • Shelbyville
  • Whitestown

Your Community Can Be a Clean Community!

Application Process

  • Access and complete the application form.
    Please note that the signature on the application must be that of the highest-ranking public official for the municipality (for example: mayor, county commissioner, etc.).
  • Attach the completed form to an email to: clean@idem.in.gov with “Application for Clean Community Program” in the subject line.
  • You will receive confirmation of receipt of your application for processing.
  • As with all IDEM recognition programs, successful applicants must have a positive environmental compliance history. This will be determined through an IDEM environmental compliance history check process.
  • Upon successfully meeting the requirements of environmental compliance, the Clean Community program manager will contact you to fill out a Clean Team & Project Information Sheet.
  • The sheet will identify your population, number of projects required based on that population, and the name of the projects that you are choosing from the list of Clean Community pre-approved projects. This project list will be provided to you by the Clean Community program manager
  • Once your projects are chosen, the Clean Community program manager will provide you with specific project descriptions that outline exactly what needs to be submitted to qualify for Clean Community program requirements.
  • Lastly, you will identify your Clean Team members, a group of people in the community who will help plan and implement your sustainability efforts. It is recommended that your Clean Team be comprised of people from multiple departments and areas of expertise, both within the municipality, businesses, or through citizen involvement.
  • Based upon the review of the items above, you will be issued either a Welcome or Denial Letter. A denial will provide an explanation of areas of improvement needed to qualify for entry into the program.
  • Work at your own pace to complete your municipality’s chosen projects.

Participant Responsibilities

  • A simple Annual Report is required that keeps the Clean Community program manager informed of your progress.
  • Attendance by at least one representative of your Clean Team at the Clean Community Annual Meeting is also required.

Questions or Interest in Joining?

Please contact the Clean Community program manager.

Video Resources

  • Clean Community Meeting and Statewide Kickoff - November 28, 2023
  • Clean Community Training - Green Procurement [YouTube]
    • IDEM's Clean Community Program recognizes Indiana’s cities, towns and counties that take proactive and positive environmental actions. Communities participating in the voluntary program choose projects from at least two different categories to implement. One option for an eligible project is implementing a green procurement framework to purchase sustainable products, such as cleaning products made with safer chemical ingredients.

      IDEM coordinated with EPA Region 5 to develop an in-person training for Clean Community participants to better understand how to implement a green procurement system, as well as learn about helpful resource and hear from guest speakers about their perspectives on sustainable purchasing. Recordings of these trainings are provided below for reference by participants in the Clean Community Program, as well as to provide helpful information to other interested municipalities.
      • Part one: includes an overview of green procurement resources available from EPA, such as the Safer Choice program, as well as other related EPA resources such as the Toxics Release Inventory and Pollution Prevention Grants. It also includes Rebecca Kaufold, a guest speaker from Spartan Chemical Company, describing how the company develops products to meet consumer needs and evolving definitions of green or sustainable products.
      • Part two: provides insights from two guest speakers. First, Kelly Weger shares her perspective as a national sustainability expert about how organizations can think about the full life cycle of their purchases and procurement processes. Then, Lane Daley of Clif Bar & Company describes how her team works to incorporate sustainability into the company's daily operations.
      • Part three: offers a framework for developing green procurement policies, and points to resources available to help lay the foundation for a sustainable procurement system.

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