Bringing people together to build and sustain vibrant communities
Keep America Beautiful has a rich legacy of leadership in creating sustainable impact in communities across the country. Together with our national network of community-based affiliates, we work with millions of volunteers who take action in their communities to transform public spaces into beautiful places. Education and behavior change are the cornerstones of our organization. Our work educates and empowers generations of environmental stewards. We provide the right tools and resources to guide people’s understanding and actions to reduce waste, increase recycling, protect the natural areas of our communities and ensure beauty is the lasting signature. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. Our service projects are based on the knowledge and needs of the communities where we operate. We work closely with governors, mayors and local government officials, civic and community leaders — including state recycling organizations — to ensure that our work is leaving a positive impact. Today, Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. Through our actions and impact, we help create communities that are socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound. We are committed to keeping this magnificent country beautiful. We hope you’ll join us in our mission.
Jennifer M. Jehn President & CEO
Here’s what we know to be true: People and places are profoundly interconnected
Thriving communities are rooted in individual responsibility and action
Positive change and lasting impact happen when people work together
Each and every day, Keep America Beautiful is singularly focused on continually improving public places while caring for neglected ones so that positive social, environmental and economic change can happen.
&
OUR ACTIONS IMPACTS We remove litter and debris from roadsides, highways, shorelines and waterways for safer, cleaner communities.
We plant trees, shrubs and gardens to strengthen a community’s green infrastructure.
We clean and restore nature trails, recreation areas and playgrounds to encourage play and physical activity.
40 million
87,000
81,000
81,000
1,200
3,000
8,400
2,100
3,300
pounds of litter and debris collected
miles of roads, streets, highways cleaned
miles of rivers, lakes and shorelines cleaned
trees planted
edible community gardens planted
community greening projects
acres of parks and public lands cleaned
miles of hiking, biking and nature trails cleaned
playgrounds and community recreation areas cleaned/restored
At Keep America Beautiful, it’s our mission to engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. And we don’t work alone. We have an expansive network of experienced, forward-thinking leaders who carry out our shared mission at the state, county and local levels. Together with this powerful national network of community-based affiliates, we work with corporate sponsors, partner organizations and millions of volunteers who take action in their communities. By harnessing the collective power of our network, we extend the reach of our initiatives and multiply the impact of our actions.
We recycle electronics, paper products, plastic bottles, cans, tires, clothing, and even junk cars to give garbage another life.
We restore urban, suburban and rural business districts and thoroughfares to spur economic impact.
93 million
850
8.8 million
13,800
PET bottles recycled
pounds electronics recycled
2.2 million pounds household hazardous waste recycled
residential and commercial buildings painted/renovated/constructed
graffiti removal/sites abated
We rebuild public spaces in communities struck by natural disasters to renew social connections.
2011
tornado in Guntersville, AL community park restored with native plants, park benches, recycling containers
2011
tsunami that hit Kahului, HI native trees planted
2012
tornado in Harveyville, KS trees planted, homes and buildings painted
Our leads national network hands-on work to improve our communities At Keep America Beautiful, we have a national network of community-based affiliates that carries out our shared mission at the state, county and municipal levels. Together, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. Our state leaders and executive directors along with their staff and board members have expertise in areas from city planning and landscape architecture to disaster restoration, recycling and waste reduction. These trusted and experienced professionals execute service projects that are based on the knowledge and needs of the communities where we operate. More than 50 percent of our affiliate network are housed in either state, county or city government, which demonstrates that our affiliates are at the table with the key decision makers who lead communities across this country. And while our affiliates may vary in size from small to large nonprofits, there is a common thread running through our network: ingenuity matched by expert skills to keep this country beautiful, one community at a time.
Our affiliates convene community stakeholders to identify local concerns and apply our proven 5-step process to tackle the issue at hand: • Get the facts • Involve the people • Plan systematically • Focus on results • Provide positive reinforcement For every $1 invested by local government, our affiliates return $34 in goods, services and volunteer time. Throughout the year, Keep America Beautiful connects with its community-based affiliate network, which is comprised of 600+ affiliates, to provide technical training and lead open discussions about how best to keep our communities socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound. We’re extremely proud of the men and women who make up our community-based affiliate network. Their relentless focus, tireless efforts and dedicated commitment help us keep America beautiful.
.
Our education programs empower generations of environmental stewards Education and behavior change are the cornerstones of our organization. Our formal and informal education programs empower generations of environmental stewards, teaching individual responsibility toward one’s environment. We promote environmental literacy that creates a culture in which understanding, knowledge and experience motivates individuals to improve their community’s environment. We believe that individuals need to be aware of environmental issues in order to adopt appropriate attitudes and develop the necessary problem-solving skills to take action in their communities. Collective action is critical to achieving behavior change and improving environmental literacy across communities. From building vegetable gardens and protecting community watersheds to removing litter from roadsides and educating children about recycling, we provide the opportunities to guide people’s understanding and actions to: • • • •
reduce waste increase recycling protect the natural areas of our communities ensure beauty is the lasting signature
Waste in Place
Recycling@Work
Experiential Education Programs
“Waste in Place,” KAB’s pre-K to 6th grade educational resource guide, includes over 100 activities and enrichment materials. These materials were field-tested by more than 300 educators. Topics include litter prevention, recycling, source reduction, landfills, composting and waste-to-energy. We partnered with Scholastic to create an online resource for teachers titled, “My Clean & Green Community” at scholastic.com/ kab. We launched wasteinplace.org to share activities and a Parent Guide.
We are a nonprofit partner of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Together with Alcoa Foundation, we announced our “Recycling@ Work” initiative as a joint commitment to CGI. This initiative invites corporate, commercial and institutional businesses to pledge to increase the recycling of beverage containers, paper and cardboard, electronics and other recyclable materials generated in the workplace. Educational tools and resources, as well as discounts on recycling bins, are available online. Visit recyclingatwork.org for more information.
We create structured service projects that engage volunteers to take greater responsibility for their community’s environment. Keep America Beautiful curricula also teaches the fundamentals of environmental citizenship and preservation of our natural resources, and engages young people in real-world experiences such as a visit to a local materials recovery facility. From restoring hiking trails to installing green infrastructure, our service projects create opportunities for experiential learning that instills positive behaviors that build and sustain vibrant communities.
Our impact is multiplied through stakeholder partnerships Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. We have strong relationships with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as with numerous state Departments of Transportation. We work closely with governors, mayors and local government officials, civic and community leaders -- including state recycling organizations, to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of local communities. More than 50 percent of our community-based affiliates including state leaders are housed in either state, county or city government. This demonstrates that our state leaders and executive directors are seated at the table with the key decision makers who lead communities across this country. Each and every day, our organization is focused on continually improving public places while caring for neglected ones so that positive social, environmental and economic change occurs.
Clinton Global Initiative
Leaders Against Litter
In 2011, we became a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and today, we serve as a trusted expert in recycling and waste. We are well established as the nation’s leading nonprofit that executes actionable strategies in recycling education and behavior change. Our commitments focus on increasing recycling rates in the U.S. The “I Want To Be Recycled” national public service advertising campaign and the “Recycling@Work” initiative are our most current commitments. Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne kicked off Louisiana’s Great American Cleanup with “Leaders Against Litter,” a statewide event hosted by Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB) in partnership with Volunteer Louisiana. Sixteen KLB affiliates hosted events for this one-day “litter-thon.” Our affiliates were joined by more than 600 community and business leaders who participated in local cleanups and pledged their support of a litter-free Louisiana.
We partner with big brands
Bud Light Partnership In 2014, we partnered with America’s leading beer brand, Bud Light, to launch the “Do Good. Have Fun.” summer promotion that engaged adults in community projects. Across the country, Americans were encouraged to volunteer and make a meaningful impact while having fun and building great memories. Keep America Beautiful, our national network of community-based affiliates and Bud Light hosted more than 50 events ranging from cleanups in downtown areas to trail restoration projects.
GLAD & SXSW Partnership In 2013, at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX, we partnered with GLAD Products to serve as the waste diversion partner of SouthBites, a gourmet food truck destination curated by Austin Chef and Top Chef winner, Paul Qui. SouthBites attendees received information about waste diversion and composting at the GLAD Shack, where trash artist Jason Mecier created a mural of America from materials to be recycled or discarded at the SouthBites venue. We also partnered with Keep Austin Beautiful to activate a Great American Cleanup event with SXSW attendees. The results of the four-day waste diversion program at SXSW included the collection of more than 4,000 pounds of waste, 1,600 pounds of materials for recycling and 1,400 pounds of compost with 1.5 tons of materials diverted from the landďŹ ll.
Greatimproves American Cleanup our community’s environment Each spring, Keep America Beautiful kicks off the Great American Cleanup, which is the country’s largest community improvement program that takes place in 20,000 communities. This national program engages on average 2 million volunteers who take action in their communities to create positive change and lasting impact. Keep America Beautiful and its national network of community-based affiliates execute this flagship program each year by launching service projects grounded in the knowledge and needs of local communities. We work closely with governors, mayors, local government officials and civic leaders to ensure that we’re meeting the community’s needs in a sustainable way. During the Great American Cleanup, our volunteers’ work returns on average $175 million in measurable benefits across the participating communities. The Great American Cleanup provides communities with grassroots service projects that engage volunteers to take greater responsibility for their community’s environment.
Experiential Education
Volunteer Opportunities
Employee Engagement
Each year, I Love A Clean San Diego (ILACSD) spearheads the county’s largest volunteer event dedicated to protecting the area’s coastline and waterways. In 2014, more than 5,000 volunteers removed 150,000 pounds of litter and debris from a record 96 coastal and inland cleanup sites during the annual Creek to Bay Cleanup. Volunteers also conducted storm drain stenciling, landscaping and graffiti removal.
Hundreds of students from the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) meeting gathered in Phoenix for the Clinton Foundation’s Day of Action in collaboration with PHX Renews. PHX Renews is a partnership between Keep Phoenix Beautiful and the City of Phoenix that is transforming previously vacant lots into sustainable public spaces. Student volunteers created art murals, harvested produce, built community gardens, planted trees, and constructed benches and picnic tables, among other projects. Keep Phoenix Beautiful executed this event as part of the Great American Cleanup national kickoff.
Nearly 200 volunteers from Dow’s Propel to Excel executive program transformed a playground at Houston’s Gabriela Mistral school into a nature-based outdoor learning center. Working in partnership with Keep Houston Beautiful, Dow volunteers painted a multi-colored mural, planted more than 70 trees and shrubs, built two butterfly gardens, created a pond, and built benches plus a puppet theater – in less than 4 hours. During the Great American Cleanup, more than 1,000 Dow employees and their families and friends volunteered at 60 events across the country.
Photo above: Max Orenstein / Clinton Global Initiative
“I Wantmotivates To BeAmericans Recycled” to recyclecampaign everyday In July 2013, Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council launched a breakthrough public service advertising campaign designed to raise awareness about recycling. The “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign aims to motivate Americans to recycle every day. The campaign artfully shows that recyclable materials can be given another life and become something new when someone chooses to recycle. Showing that a bottle, a can or other recyclable products have dreams to become something new is a very powerful yet simple way to deliver the message.
Integrated Campaign
Educational Tools
This campaign includes TV (English/ Spanish), radio, outdoor, online, social and mobile. In addition to the IWantToBeRecycled.org website, users can also follow and interact with the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr, where they can share their own stories and receive educational content about recycling. Our social media campaign is engaging a growing community of recyclers. What’s more: Waste haulers are wrapping their trucks with campaign graphics and grocery outlets are putting campaign logos on their boxes and bags.
We are focused on influencing people’s recycling behaviors at work, at home and on the go through education campaigns. On our websites (IWantToBeRecycled.org and Quieroserreciclado.org), people can find educational information about recycling, including a search tool showing nearby recycling locations either at their curbside or recycling center. The website provides tools and resources, including infographics that show the “journey” a recyclable product takes to become something new and an exciting “Super Sorter” game showing how a materials recovery facility works.
Community Engagement The City of Austin has a goal to keep 50 percent of its trash out of landfills by December 2015. City residents can make progress toward this goal by recycling 5 pounds more each month per household. To spur Austin residents into action, the City of Austin and its Austin Resource Recovery (ARR) are localizing the “I Want To Be Recycled” campaign across the city. The City and ARR are distributing campaign educational materials to schools and other civic organizations, and they are working closely with Keep Austin Beautiful to educate and motivate Austin residents to give their garbage another life by recycling.
America Recycles influences behavior to Day ignite action Today, Keep America Beautiful is well established as the nation’s leading nonprofit that executes actionable strategies in recycling education and behavior change. With an elite team of recycling experts based Washington, D.C., we partner with affiliates, state recycling organizations, government officials, trade associations and businesses to identify priorities and further the recycling agenda. We are singularly focused on influencing people’s recycling behaviors at work, at home and on-the-go through awareness campaigns and, most importantly, with approaches designed to inspire action. From our perspective, the environmental impact from recycling remains critical as a measure of sustainable economies. We believe that the public and private sectors must collaborate on effective, cost-efficient solutions to achieve an increase in the national recycling rate. To achieve this goal, in addition to infrastructure enhancements, it’s imperative that individuals are educated and motivated to take the action to recycle. Each November, we host America Recycles Day. Here are some inspiring stories about how we influence people’s recycling behaviors.
Community Collection
Experiential Education
In Georgia, Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Recycling Division puts a clean, green spin on “Happy Hour” for its annual America Recycles Day celebration. ACC residents dropped off recyclable electronics and other items that are not collected at the curb: TVs, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, devices containing mercury, DVDs, VHS tapes, and even floppy disks. Participants received a free Coca-Cola product while they waited to deliver recyclables. The community came out en masse, with a single “Happy Hour” yielding up to 2 tons of material.
In Texarkana, AK, students from several schools came together to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the most individuals wearing recycled paper hats. Texarkana crushed the previous record of 1,891 with more than 2,600 participants donning recycled hats. Although the primary goal of their world-record success was to raise awareness about waste reduction and recycling, it had another benefit as well: uniting area residents. “This community pulled off a massive recycling event that put Texarkana on the global map,” said Brandy Chewning, recycling coordinator for Texarkana. Afterwards, students recycled all 2,639 hats.
Volunteer Opportunities In Santa Fe, NM, the Trash Fashion and Costume Contest is the highlight of the Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival, which is organized by Santa Fe Solid Waste Department and Keep Santa Fe Beautiful. The contest features designers transforming discarded items into runway-ready ensembles. At the recycled art marketplace, attendees perused recycled-material masterpieces created by more than 80 artists and shopped for sustainable holiday gifts. The message to reduce, reuse and recycle is conveyed in an artful way, with volunteers distributing specific information about what can be recycled in the Santa Fe community.
Litter prevention positively impacts quality of community living For more than six decades, Keep America Beautiful has served as this country’s nonprofit steward of litter prevention. We provide the right tools and resources to guide people’s understanding and actions to prevent litter, reduce waste, increase recycling and protect the natural resources of our communities. Each year, our powerful national network of community-based affiliates conducts a comprehensive assessment of the overall appearance of their community using indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, and abandoned cars among others. A team of community, business and government representatives conduct this visual analysis using a scoring system. This proprietary tool, called the Community Appearance Index, is designed to gather data annually by surveying a random, statistical sample of a city or town. The annual results are then used to develop a local plan to change attitudes and behaviors regarding litter and related issues. Our Community Appearance Index helps direct the local education programs conducted by our network while we use the information to identify national trends regarding community improvement. In 2009, we invested in a landmark study, called “Litter in America.” Here are some highlights. Litter cleanup costs more than $11.5 billion each year. The indirect costs of litter are also considerable. For example, the presence of litter in a community decreases property values by 7 percent. Today, there are more than 50 billion pieces of litter on our nation’s roadways with 4.6 billion pieces larger than four inches in size. Tobacco products continue to be the most prevalent aggregate litter item, comprising more than 35 percent of all litter. Our Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) also relies on measurement tools to quantify success. Over the past eight years, the CLPP has consistently cut cigarette butt litter by half based on local metrics. In 2013, we reported an average 48 percent reduction of cigarette litter in the 200 communities implementing our CLPP program in locations that included roadways, beaches, parks, marinas, and special events across the country.
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival Keep America Beautiful attended the 2014 Bonnaroo festival to test and determine best practices to measure and reduce cigarette litter at special events. In partnership with Keep Coffee County Beautiful (KCCB) of Manchester, TN, we strategically placed dozens of ash receptacles to support proper disposal of cigarette butts and cigar tips. We also conducted educational outreach with signage, bumper stickers, and branded t-shirts. Over 2,400 pocket ashtrays were distributed to environmentally-conscious adult smokers in this music-loving crowd.
CMA Music Festival
At the 2014 festival, Keep America Beautiful affiliate Metro Beautification & Environment Commission in Nashville conducted a cigarette litter prevention awareness campaign. Our affiliate’s staff and volunteers distributed more than 10,000 pocket ashtrays and picked up 7,500 cigarette butts. The campaign was further supported by the local newspaper, which ran full-color cigarette litter prevention public service ads during the four-day festival.
Litter Prevention In northern Nevada, our affiliate, Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB), directed teams of volunteers across 17 routes to look for trash and illegal dumping with more routes included in the Sparks and the Reno-Tahoe International Airport area. The Reno-Sparks region had an overall rating of 1.6 (“slightly littered” on a four-point scale) for the second year in a row. The Litter Index provides a baseline when first conducted, which affiliates use to judge the success of their local educational efforts and determine if littering behavior is changing over time.
Community brings naturalgreening beauty to communities We are well established as the nation’s leading nonprofit that executes actionable strategies in community greening. Each year, we work with millions of volunteers in beautification and greening programs that can impact more than 20,000 communities. Our actions lead to native species plantings, sustainable community gardens including fruit and vegetable gardens, tree plantings, urban forestry and youth education – all of which results in positive, lasting impact in communities. In 2012, KAB partnered with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to officially launch National Planting Day, a strategic initiative to increase native species plantings in communities. The initiative focuses on three areas of need: • • •
Increasing native trees, shrubs and plants in public places Greening vacant lots with low-maintenance indigenous plants and trees in underserved neighborhoods Bringing natural, sustainable beauty to enhance communities’ green infrastructure
“Vision for America” Award Keep America Beautiful presents its prestigious Vision for America Award to distinguished leaders of corporations that have demonstrated their commitment to drive positive change and lasting impact in U.S. communities. Through this award presentation, Keep America Beautiful highlights the company’s remarkable accomplishments in leading social, environment and economic sustainability initiatives in communities across the country. For nearly 30 years, Keep America Beautiful has presented this award to deserving companies such as Ford, AT&T, Xerox, Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Wrigley, UPS, Waste Management and Procter & Gamble among others. In 2014, Dell Inc. is the recipient of this award. This event is the annual fundraising event for Keep America Beautiful. Through this partnership, we are enabled to continue to bring people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. It is our intent to create communities that are socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound. Top: Ursula Burns, Xerox chairman and CEO, accepting the 2012 Vision for America Award on behalf of Xerox Corporation. Bottom: From left to right, Timothy Gardner, chairman of Keep America Beautiful and executive vice president of ITW; Pamela Mars of Mars, Incorporated; and Martin Radvan, president of Wrigley, who accepted the 2013 Vision for America Award on behalf of Wrigley.
1
What is the
?
action you take to keep America beautiful
“The most important thing we can do is to respect our planet. At Dell, we are doing this through our Legacy of Good commitments. That is, ensure that by the year 2020 the good that comes from our technology is 10 times what it takes to create and use it. By rallying our teams, partners, suppliers and customers around this shared vision, I believe we’ll have the greatest impact for our planet and the communities we serve.” Trisa Thompson Vice President Dell Inc.
“Personally, I recycle whatever and whenever I can. Professionally, I work for a company whose mission includes helping communities across the country be clean and safe. Together, that’s the one action I take daily to keep America beautiful.” Barry Caldwell Senior Vice President Public Affairs & Communications, Waste Management
“I am privileged to work for Anheuser-Busch where at our core, we are focused on making the world a better place. We do this by bringing people together to improve outdoor spaces like watersheds and parks. Our partnership with Keep America Beautiful is a great example of a shared commitment in making the communities where we live and work more vibrant and more sustainable.” Kathy Casso, Vice President Corporate Social Responsibility, Anheuser-Busch
“Lowe’s enjoys serving our communities with convenient recycling locations for plastic bags, rechargeable batteries, compact fluorescent bulbs and plastic pots from plants we sell. See our progress at Lowes.com/ SocialResponsibility.”
“One of the many things I love about Dow people is their passion for volunteering. I share their enthusiasm and encourage, as well as participate in, activities to help clean-up / green-up and beautify our communities. Many businesses at Dow make products that are energy efficient and help to remind us all to tie good environmental practices into every aspect of life – not just our work.”
Michael Chenard Director of Corporate Sustainability Lowe’s
Howard Ungerleider Executive Vice President Dow Advanced Materials
Visit kab.org or facebook.com/KeepAmericaBeautiful “I keep America beautiful by being very mindful of trash that is discarded on the beach I live near – every weekend, my young son, Finn, and I walk the beach, pick up trash, and put plastics that we find in the recycling bin. Taking small actions to protect our natural world is so easy, so important and makes a big difference.” Jonathan Atwood, Vice President, Sustainable Living and Corporate Communications, Unilever, North America
“In Phoenix, there’s not just one action we’re taking to keep our community beautiful – there are many. Since taking office, I’ve set a goal to divert 40 percent of waste from city landfills by 2020; we’ve invested in 500 miles of bike lanes and paths; and PHX Renews brought together a coalition of 16 local businesses and non-profits to transform the city’s vacant lots into more sustainable projects – a ground-breaking effort praised by President Bill Clinton. Phoenix is bringing residents together to improve our community and make it a more beautiful place for everyone.” Mayor Greg Stanton, Phoenix, Arizona
“I started my school’s first outdoor club. Our main goal is to expose students to the outdoor opportunities available in Alabama in order to foster appreciation for the state and promote caring for our local environment.” Deja Chappell KAB Youth Advisory Member “Teaching my young sons that small actions, taken together, can have a big impact is the best way I know how to keep America beautiful. They love to help out with recycling our bottles, cans and paper, because they know that these items can have another life. I’m lucky to work for a company that also prioritizes sustainable living and my boys are always excited to hear about the work Unilever is doing to create a bright future.”
“For over a decade, I have used my car as a means of conveying the importance of not littering, whether at home or away. From my personalized license plate of “LITERNOT” to the magnetic sign on the back of my car stating that “Cigarette Butts are Litter”, I am able to spread the message daily. Behaviors can be changed and I’m proud of the opportunity to remind the public that they can and do make a difference.” Brenda Ewadinger Executive Director of Keep NC Beautiful and KAB State Leader Council Chair
“The fabric of Iowa is its pastoral beauty and its communities tied together by rivers, trails and roadways. The beauty of this state is important to our citizens and visitors. A clean and attractive state is critical for both the cultural and economic vitality and sustainability of Iowa. I’m proud of our state, the work of Keep Iowa Beautiful and of all its citizens that care through their financial and volunteer support. They will make Iowa even better with a goal of being the cleanest and most attractive state in the nation”. Governor Terry E. Branstad, Iowa
Rob Master, Vice President, Media, Unilever, Americas and Europe
Photo credits: Front cover photo: © Corbis Back cover photo: © Tod Martens Photography Inside front cover and page 1: professional photography by Ann Johansson, Tod Martens and Jim David
America Beautiful public spaces into beautiful places. Keep AmericaKeep Beautiful is the nation’stransforms leading nonprofit that builds vibrant communities. Your community matters. DONATE. kab.org