Good evening. Welcome to. FEBRUARY meeting of the Environmental Sustainability Committee of the Indianapolis City-County Council. Let's get started by introducing counselors. Let's start with cancer. Robbers. Thank you. MISTER Chair McRoberts district 4. Thanks. MISTER Chair Jesse Brown District 13. Thank you. As chair Mike district. 24. Thank you, MR. Chair Michael Paul Hart representing District 20. Thank you, MR. Cherry and Illini representing district 2. I think it was a chaired up to Carlos Perkins District 6. CHAIRMAN. And, you know, Andy Nielsen District 14, thank you. Have players named John Birth. Chair of the represent Council District 7. Okay. This evening. We have to presentations. One of has the potential to be an ordinance
depending on the will. The interest of the committee were going to start with a presentation from the Marion County Health Department and Cindy Granlund. If I got that right will give the presentation will turn it over to you. I think that this my first time here. So thanks for having me. My name is Sidney Granlund and the planning and collaboration coordinator in the Chronic Disease Department at the Marion County Public Health apartment. I've been in this role since OCTOBER of 2023, but I come from a sort of planning and zoning sustainability background so that is mindset going into this presentation. So I have an overview we'll cover today. Just a general. I feel like I'm talking experts. You guys on community so well. But all just kind touch upon the
social determinants of health and what the concept of moving upstream health all policies sustainability in public health and how they are one in the same different health know policies models throughout the country as well as some opportunities that I think exist in Indianapolis. So I like to start out with this map. It is the life expectancy map. For Marion County. And you can see the darker areas have a longer life expectancy at birth the lighter areas have a shorter life expectancy at first. And I think this map does a really good job of introducing the concept of the social determinants of health. You know, why is the life expectancy so much different in? On near East side compared
to the Geist area. For example. And it's not necessarily that there's not doctors offices around there. It's not that those people don't go to the doctor. It's really about the environment that they live work and play in. So the federal government and healthy people 2030. Breaks down the social determinants of health into these 5 overarching categories. I won't go into too much detail, but they are education, access and quality economic stability. Social and community context, health care, access and quality and neighborhood and built environment. And I think this graphic itself is really insightful because you can see that healthcare access and quality is only a 5th of a person's health here and that's not the exact number that it comes down to. But you
can see it's not everything like there's a lot more that go into someone's health and well-being than just do you go to the doctor? Yes or no. So I think the big question from that is kind of like, okay, what do we do about it? I think we've thought of health sort of this like individual responsibility. And if if you're not going to the doctor, you aren't going to be healthy. And that's kind of on you. With the social determinants of health and looking at it through a health in all policies, lens and realizing that so much more in your environment impacts your health. There's this concept of moving upstream. And the way this was explained to me when I entered the public health world was if your standing downstream and you keep having to pull people out
of river and they're drowning incentive to standing downstream in continuing to pull people out who were drowning. Maybe you go upstream and you ask, why are people drowning in the first place? Why are people falling in? How do we keep them from falling in? So that's kind of the concept of health in all policies and moving upstream. So I have this quote from nato, the National Association County and City Health officials, which I think is just a really good overview of health all policies. But it's basically a change in systems. An approach to governance and just an overall shift in the way we think about decision-making and implementing these programs and policies. So. Health know policies emphasize the need to collaborate across sectors to
achieve common health schools, which I think is why this topic is so relevant to the Environmental Sustainability Committee because I think I mean, I'm so grateful for our partnership with the Office Sustainability and we just know we can get so much more done when we realize our shared goal of improving lives in Marion County and working together to do that because we all have the same goal really at the end of the day, we might just be talking about it differently. So I work too. Break down. Silos released throughout City County enterprise and the health Department. This is just kind of. I took. I went through thrive in on the sustainability programs that are offered to the city. And I just wanted to highlight how
much overlap there is. So I won't read all of these, but, you know, no zone is a climate strategy, but also when we improve air quality, that improves health outcomes and something that the office of sustainability I've talked about a lot is the communication that a lot of people are considered a vulnerable population on these no zone action days. So there is a lot of overlap there. Obviously recycling and composting renewable energy. All of these things. You're if you're talking about it as an environmental goal, which is viable in itself. But I think it's important to talk about the cold enough. It's and how this really can improve people's health and well-being in Marion County as well. And then this, quote, I just really wanted to point out
that health all policies explicitly called out thrive. And again, the office of sustainability such a good job of working across sectors in across departments and the health Department is just happy to support that with this health in all policies initiative and I and happy it's in thrive. So I'm working on that. And then again, here I point I pulled out all of the thrive actions and I specifically called out how it overlaps with health all policies or a health all policies approach to government. So. We really focus on the built environment as something that can make the healthy choice. The easy choice for people. So if you want to walk to work, you should be able to do that. If you want to ride your bike to the library you should be able
to do that. If if you want to partaking active transportation and we want that to be easy for you to choose economy. We know that financial security is a social determinant of health. Energy food in urban agriculture. That's another thing the chronic Disease Department is really focused on is access to healthy foods, Weir Fresh books program for Marion County. Food Medicine kind of program as well. And then obviously public health and safety speaks for itself. Transportation. I think that transportation and land use. It's really important to talk about. Public transit and the land uses and like the concept of a 15 minute city sort of that you have access to. As a public health issue. You know, if you can take the bust, obviously reduces emissions,
which is great for the environment. But it also Kind of like a peace of mind that you can get where you need to go. If you don't have a car, if you don't want a car on if you're living in an area where small commercial uses are not permitted nearby. And, you know, corner store can't really common something like a mom and pop shop like that. That that affects your health. You know, being if. If you can't access that from where you live the new, you can't really access that. And that. Has implications. So basically health all policies is not one thing. I think we're doing a lot of health all It's just really hard too necessarily find. It because it's not you're not like I'm this is health know policies. I'm
doing this right now. It's just, you know, considering health and all the decision-making in programming in policymaking. But some examples are like a a special resolution. And I have all these green things are links. So I'm happy to send this or posted whatever. The more the merrier, click away. But so then there's also the concept of a health all policies, task force that publishes progress. Reports. So this is something we kind of started working on. But just basically. Cross-sector collaboration viewing everyone's works through a health lens and then similar to how the Office of Sustainability reports on Thrive. Reporting on the goals
of that group are similar Vision 0 or something like that. Another kind of of implementing health in all policies is like health impact reviews, health notes, health impacts statements. They're all a different way of saying the same basically doing some level of health impact assessment. 4 developments in policies and programs. Anything like that. It's very broad. And then on a bit of a smaller scale, the stool that I really like is the health impact checklist from the Kansas Health Institute. Things like decision support tools that I recently found from the city of Chicago. So just kind of a way to slow down and know that you explicitly looked at the health implications of whatever is in front of you
and kind of having that accountability aspect, sort you know, proving in showing that it was considered. I have a few screenshots in your front of the health impact checklist. I really like it because it has this kind like summary page, which I think would be really impactful for breaking. Down. I feel like it's. Kind of challenging sometimes to look at a topic outside of. Like explicitly public health, you maybe in zoning or something and think why doesn't matter if there's a bus stop near my house for my health. So I really like the summary page that breaks it down. I think it's really impactful and easy to understand. On the next slide. I just screenshot id, some parts of the checklist where it. Specifically calls out social determinants of health. That might be impacted by a
proposal or a policy so I think I like that because it does a lot of the thinking, I guess I would say, you know, maybe you're like I would have never considered how this impacts housing quality, but going through those checklists, you have to kind of sit down and think, well, does this impact housing quality? And then in the speech on the right, you can see how it kind of asks you to go through the impact on the social determinant of health and then how that will impact health. Anything. Yes, on the on the far right side, it really forces you to come to a conclusion on the overall impact of health. So you have to write is, is this positive negative next 9 or unclear? And ideally, the goal of health all policies is we're not moving forward with anything that has a negative
impact on health. So if if there's something here on the checklist that is determined probably have a negative overall impact on health in it would ideally be revisited and you know, fixed before it. Actually went through. So. I would think of these next 2 slides as like a. A menu of sorts. I think there's lots of really cool opportunities to infuse public health in 2, the nonpublic health offices throughout Marion County. And again, I think we are are doing this and I think we should lift up where we're already doing that. So that's kind of where this first one comes in doing a sort of inventory of where this is already happening and where there might be natural next steps. The office of Sustainability does a really good job with this of incorporating public health data into plans reports and press releases. So, you know, when you say we're
implementing this program like maybe don't stop there and you can see we're implementing this program because research shows that it will have this impact on health just like talking about it more I think, is really a good first step to. Updating zoning and land use standards to promote public health. That's definitely option. All the larger undertaking for sure health all policies working group, health impacts statements or health impact assessments for relevant topics. The health department does engage and health impact assessments. When asked for, you know, by community members or for important projects or anything like that. So that is option to explore as well. I think it's important that the
health department, mean, teens and has in the first see on advisory groups, committees and boards. I thought it was really important that the Vision 0 action plan added that as something that is a a goal for this upcoming year. So I think that's exciting. Just to have someone in the room and that's kind of what I've been like departmental meetings and advisory groups and things like that. Someone in the room where you look at them and you're like, ok, they're going to ask about health like the they are reminding me that need to think about health right now. Another cool thing could be adding a healthy communities on it to comp plan to further invite health into Marion County's long-term vision. Because like I said, we're doing, we're doing this.
People are thinking of this. I think it's just important to explicitly call it out and reassure people that this is top of mind. And goal is to improve health outcomes in Marion County. So then my last few like options here are I gave a presentation like this a little bit more in depth into the social determinants of health and yeah, just it wasn't a little bit more death how your how the built environment impacts your health. I've given a lot of those presentations to various city departments. And if you neighborhood groups so I think it would be interesting to continue that for sure. Just make sure as part of, you know, annual trainings are or who knows what that everyone knows. How to talk about their
position through a health plans and understand the impact that they can have on public health. And I think there's also an opportunity 4 presentations on social determinants of health for sort of like boards and committees like this as well. Also. Health reviews of city programs and policies. So the the health impact checklist can be fully customized to whatever Indianapolis wants it to be. If that's something we wanted to move forward with. So I think that's really cool. There's also the concept they know of budgeting for equity. There could also be budgeting for health and sustainability. Sort of thought about like, what would it look like to have a health review as part of the contracting or did process? So that's public document where, you know, the
contractor would have to say like is, is this good for health? Do it? Do I know what I'm doing in terms of health outcomes. What I think is most interesting is a health review for all projects seeking Board of Zoning Appeals or Metropolitan Development Commission approval and admittedly, this was written with like a little bit of a data center view on because that's just times we're in right now in Marion County. But I think really it. You know, people just want to know that decision makers are considering their health. And if there's a way to explicitly say yes, health was considered. This is what we. Expect to happen. I think that would go a long way. And it's a really good first step
towards accountability and just transparency between decision makers and the public. So that counselor, heart. I hope you don't mind. I took this quote newsletter. But I think you really summed up health in all policies here. Indianapolis talks about health like it is only a doctor visit problem, but the healthiest communities treat health like infrastructure. The same way we treat roads, public safety and utilities. And I think that is a perfect encapsulation of health all policies and the same way we would. Street. I think we should. We should treat public health and health outcomes at the same level holding up to that same level as streets and policing and utilities and things like that. And just being really clear that it was considered and that is something decision makers in
Marin County Carrabelle. I think that would go really long way. So my last slide here is a bunch of resources because, again, these are all clickable. So I don't no how you have access to this. But if you emailed me, you would have access. We received it. Or people who are watching MAY be Okay. So yeah. I feel free to click through all this lots of really good health, not policies, resources from other communities and held no policies, implementation and also just kind of larger overview of. The social determinants of health and maybe what decision makers do to address So and I email and my name and I am always on the lookout. 4. Projects. Anything. Presentations on there so feel free to reach
out if you have any ideas or brainstorm or anything about what health all policies could look like in Indianapolis. They talked to a lot of practitioners from other So I have lots of lots of thoughts. There is lots of options here. Thank you. That's I have. Thank you, city. Job. So I'm gonna see if anyone has questions. But let me just a have a asked number one. I also want to congratulate cancer heart for giving him there had to work your way in so social determinants of health is something I've worked on pretty much my entire career. It's major component of health care. And if I'm understanding you correctly, health know Poly social determinants of health. Are elements that need to be adjusted for ing addressed in
policy. In your point with health all policies is trying implement or bring elements of policy that address those as you age items through the public policy arena, sort of further along on. So it's built into the process. Is that and understand you correctly. Yeah. And I think just understanding that. You know, even like seemingly small decisions eat like as to whether or not there's going to be a sidewalk or a bike rack something like that really does have a huge impact on how people can have control of their health. So just bringing more awareness to the fact that pretty much everything is public health. And with that, we should be doing everything we can to
make sure that whatever we're moving forward with highs positive or at least neutral outcomes for people. Yeah. And one of the things is the most challenging is when you have a big enterprise like the one that we're navigating in. Where you are, which is part of the enterprise. But some of really a separate entity as part of units corporation getting those policies sort of blended in and addressing all these silos is really challenging. That's something I really it's it's a it's a it's not going process. That's not easy. And most people can't see it happening because that change more slowly than some folks would like to see. That's especially true in some that can meals. And I've been
doing on missions. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about how so is your position? Part of how the health department is trying to make that happen across the enterprise? Is that part of what what you're doing in your role? Yeah, I my miral is brand-new and 2023 is funded by the public health infrastructure grant from cdc and really it's I would say it's one the first rules we've had that it's really like a lot of my position is emailing people and Andrea and saying, what are you up to? Can I be there? How are you considering health? So I think a lot of it so far has been education and just showing that the health department is a willing partner and all of these
things aren't traditional public health issues and yeah, that's really what I've been focused on so far. So now it's kind of you know what, what comes next? Inserted myself into a lot of enterprise activities. So then just the next step sort of, well, that's house and say the most important thing for you to do is don't be shy about trying to insert yourself into those things. Because the I think the biggest challenges that when people are going about their day-to-day lives and executing the responsibility of other job, they won't always think about these matters right? But if you're sitting there and they can see you, you're bringing this up that really matters. So you're doing the right things. So don't hesitate to continue showing up and sending e-mails because I think that's important work. Members of the
committee, any any questions? Let's see if this makes in his letter. I was obligated to speak at this point one. Thank you for reading the newsletter. I love it. I'm a big fan. Grateful for that. I will say that. You know where this came from actually a result of what was going but actually going on right now with the ymca on the east side of Indianapolis. And been doing a lot of research and bring a lot of stakeholders together on that topic it's all laid out in the. And the Sunday post. But I think it is an opportunity where you know what, we're not even getting into here. But I mean, where we have a major stakeholders, the city of Indianapolis. And we look at. How are ensuring the people for the I mean, it's 10,000 employees for the city. That was a county wide
and how we can help improve Their health and well-being. But looking at how we're doing that is a part of it. And you know what that's translated to also from these conversations is that public health is also public safety. I mean, we're looking at again using the ymca is an example. You know, I've had conversations with the Volunteers of America where, you know what happened to the seniors that don't go that don't to go there anymore and their mental health and that conversation, you know, what happens to the, you know, hundreds of juveniles to go there and play basketball as it pertains to their ability to have a place that's that's safe to to, you know, play sports and interact with others. Those are all components health is maybe not. In an office clinical setting. Right? And I think that's which has you know,
shown to me over experiences last couple of weeks is that it's, you know, health is like infrastructures like public safety. It is. It is a pillar that I think detriment to the success of Indianapolis. And what's interesting is the first slide in this presentation shows where we are met. But if we look at our peers around us, they're expelling faster and, you know, I don't discredit that. You the makeup of the demographics of counties with different, but we have an opportunity 60 because we're seeing others. I'm seeing others succeed. And so I'm grateful that to see this presentation to hear from you this you but you're working on a Sydney and would probably reach out knowing that you're doing this and if you join the board's smart and he's going head to health and the topic but would also like to continue the conversation with you dawn on health know that it's a the topic with your
heart as well. Yeah, I think it has are yet to. It's a big issue for me. Just Personally, but also it's been my entire career as low-income health care. So think about these issues actually doing something about is what matters. And I think you just made a really great point there. Some of these you don't necessarily think of like, for example, one of the biggest risk factors for someone going into a long-term care is like loneliness or disconnection from the community. In your point about the ymca is a great one. That's where some people find social connection right? Other questions from the members of committee Kuzma. They was chair. Just appreciate presentation and so far which I agree with all of that. One thing that I think has come up frequently, even when I've seen health outcomes acknowledged in specifically zoning. Let's talk data centers right? You have people
that say okay, sure. 36, diesel generators down times. Yes. Running of children under does have a negative health impact. But that's barely ever going to happen. And, you know, it feels like sometimes becomes an apples to oranges conversation where we haven't done a great job as a society of translating the cost of low health outcomes into dollars and cents. And so it's really difficult to say what people's health is at stake. When the alternative is governor bring x number of dollars that you could then spend on fixing people's health care and so that it becomes this kind of a. Yeah. You're comparing subjective and objective information and I thought that makes it harder. So I don't know. I'm sure can see as not
in a long and familiar with this concept. What what have you seen be successful getting like metrics to show the needle moving or some way of quantifying the dollars that it cost people to have lower health outcomes. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. It's certainly something that I wanted to look more into this year because like you said, it's it is about the messaging and making it makes sense to people. And I think that is what makes a lot of sense. And that's not that's just really not something I've focused on up to this point. So I think it's important something definitely gonna look into so, yeah, I don't really have an answer for you,
but yeah, I totally agree with your saying had asked just because it's odd at all. But yeah, something we Akaka work on What was your question about? How do you judge to finance it? Quite right. That when, you know, like certainly to use putting aside walk or a bike rack has huge impact on whether you know places now able to be chosen as an active transportation route or destination. How much is that worth right? Compared to a developer who's telling you what? We just can't afford to build it. If you're going to insist on sidewalks. We know developers are going to say that regardless and so having dollars and you having more quantifiable metrics to point to I think can help us better argue those points. Yeah, point. And I think it's also to the to your first slide of thank you. Trying to think about things more systematically like a short-term gain and for one budget is a long-term negative for another budget and had had
more effectively manage that. Anyone else. Cancel Thank you, MISTER Chair. I just wanted to point out it feels like it's a council is a body or just as a city. We are doing things that sort of fit in your health in all policies from whether we're trying to allocate money towards tree preservation. Order Vision, 0 or we're doing our new County comprehensive plan. There are bits and pieces of things that we're doing all across the city enterprise that fit into that. We're just kind of missing the umbrella pull it all together. Just to tell our story. So like council Brown said with the metrics like being able to say, we're doing this here this year, this here and you know that then you can say, ok, well, here's where we're going to improve psych. I kind of see. You know, we've been working at it for a while now, but just kind of like in little silos and not under the whole umbrella. So thank you
for your presentation. Thank you. CHAIRMAN. Mentioned presentations for H.O.A. Groups. Can you kind of expand on what I mean? Do you get do research on that group or is there one presentation that all are I guess, just kind of elaborate on it. Yeah, I've definitely focus on my first year here 2024. Was really big on city Department Education and outreach. And then last year trying to branch out a little bit more to neighborhood groups. So I gave an info session with us. The neighborhood Resource Center that reached a good amount of people from across Marion County also presented to the Community Council I think it's and that's a huge goal of mine in Twenty-twenty 6 is to get
more into the neighborhoods and talk about what actually matters in their neighborhoods. I do try to change my presentation every time I give it to make it more relevant and impactful to whoever and giving it to. So. Yeah, it's it's totally flexible. I just want people to know that where they live impacts their health and that they should feel empowered to talk about it. Thank you. I think that's something I'm going to try to reach out see if we can do choice. But I think as far as grassroots and to be canning, that's a great place to start. Thank you, CHAIRMAN. Yes, Robert, you have any, Great. Well. Thank very much to our friends from the health department, both for coming tonight and putting on the presentation. Thank you
for speaking at a great job and will. We'll stay in touch. Thank you. Okay. Now move on to our agenda item be hearing from the Audubon Society who will be speaking for MR. Greene, ok? Wonderful. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for for having us is my first time visiting you I live on the on the north side. So it must come down to the city might just green and the community outreach coordinator for Birds safe in I'm joined by, we'll Who is our head of surveys for Birds safe in d and verse 8. Indy is a committee of the most popular Audubon Society which oversees as the local out sight for our area. We're here for 1, one clear reason. And that's because large quantities of birds are hitting windows in
Indianapolis. And there's a lot we can do to prevent it. And when we prevent it, it's not only a good for birds, but it's going to be good for the city of Indianapolis as well. So to start quickly, just explain a little bit more about who we are and how a couple different organizations and how we operate. So I am. So it was Our mission statement is to promote the enjoyment and stewardship of birds in central Indiana. And then birds safe in d is too work with building owners, managers and municipalities to save birds by mitigating windows. Strike mortality risks wherever feasible. Most people teams, community members, communities. I don't know that this is an issue until we've pointed it out. You MAY had a wind gust right
at home. You MAY have had one of your office building, but especially as we look at scale, I think I'm gonna open eyes today just how big of a problem it Our goal here today is to be a helpful partner and to bring workable solutions for you. And with that in mind, here's what's happening in our in our cities. Copy the couple maps here for you. The one on the right is a projection map. And I encourage you to look at it this spring. It shows how many birds are projected to fly over the United States on a nightly basis on the one pictured on the right. That is 420 million birds will pass over the United States in one evening during migration. I mean, see on the left that's
actually a radar view of the birds actually migrating during migration. So it's not just a couple birds. I can't count to over 400 Million. So a lot of birds. It's I will always think of the satellite view of of the night time. When you see all of the different light pockets across our country, you could probably name each city just by the lights without any labeling at night, which cities are which I can tell you where Chicago is, but because of the lake and how bright the lights are. But I can also tell you where Indianapolis is where Cincinnati is all of our surrounding cities. All these birds are migrating at night and they get disoriented by all of the artificial light that they're saying. We see huge pockets of birds to get drawn into downtown Indianapolis in particular because of the light
pollution. Once they're down in Indianapolis and they get extremely disoriented. I'm going to show you a little bit of a bird's point of view. Once they're down in Indianapolis, windows can reflect, as you they can reflect nature that could be skies, trees, green areas, stars, and they can confuse birds. I mean, gets to disorienting. Think I've seen lots of it is I am I think smart enough not to go into these regular covid of those rooms of mir's are those mirror maze is you'll see videos online. People running and smacking their heads into them. So imagine you're running full speed through and you have to get through it. That's your only way out. I think all of us can safely say we're left at least sort foreheads before we got out of there. So similar picture
there that these birds are experiencing. If you think about Indianapolis, lots of glass lots of reflections and they don't have the ability to perceive. When do they see, as you can see in that picture here, reflection, they see sky to see the flowers. They see the greenery. They see other nature or other buildings and they cannot escape. So with that in mind, I want zoom out a little bit look. The national picture and things are going on around the country. One example in particular is McCormick Place in Chicago. And they've documented since 1978 40,000 bird deaths and windows strikes. Just that one building since into their largest total. That has been counted as 1000 birds in one night and one building were documented flying into the
windows. Imagine being the one that the first one there in the morning and seeing thousands of birds lay outside the building. Luckily, have found some remedies to resolve that. I think up to 90% decrease and Bird s and we'll get into our partners that actually help them do that. But we have lots of buildings that are are still on treated. On a national level. We estimate that there are over 1 billion birds that are lost 2 window strikes each year. 1 Billion. The journal Science reports in North America. We have lost 29% of our bird population since 1970. Then that 2025 state of Birds reports say that that trend is still ongoing. This is why we're focusing on windows strikes today. This is a
common comment. Unfortunately, but preventable. Fortunately, problem. Both bring it back home. Here's what we're seeing in Indianapolis. Lots of local evidence while we don't have the man power that some of our surveyors and maybe Chicago, Philadelphia, some of the bigger cities have we still do surveys? We still collect our own data and in we have found since we've been serving thousands of birds just in Indianapolis alone. These are actually pictures that we have found on the route. I have thousands of pictures of law alone of just individual birds. I tried to pick some of the less gruesome once, but shows and these are actual pictures of the windows that are flew into. Wes. Actually, he's one of our lead surveyors and that he has found on one
day. And this isn't just a anomaly over 30 birds sometimes well over 30 birds just on one route in Indianapolis on a on weekday morning. So I think I think we need to the importance of birch. What? Why save birds? I can tell you Because I left to go bird watching. But there bigger impacts and just my love for birdwatching or your grandma's. A love for birdwatching or whoever it MAY Overall quality of life, it in this titans. But with what we heard earlier this this evening. But but birds matter to our community, I think when I start to think spring or outdoors in Indiana and I think about our parks, I don't know what the sound would be like without the sound of birds calling. That's that's kind of where my had in my heart go. And I start to feel
like, ok outside of the workspace, I'm getting my mental health. I hear the birds with our love birds or not. I think that's a staple in our environment and into outdoor mental mental health. And that could be anyone from the casual birdwatcher to that. I'm competitive. Big year. Participants that go around Indiana trying to see how many birds they can see throughout the year. Great movie. By the way. And then we have that ecosystem services that birds provide from pollination, too. Pest control. 2 seed dispersal, I believe and I don't know the scope of but I read that they provide services birds up to a billion dollars and you sorry ecosystem services to our community. The good news is, though, what we're asking for what we're doing. We're not pioneers. We are not be. We
are not the first ones too come up with this. Thank goodness. Because I would not be able to do it alone. Neither would any of us. But there have been at least 29 agencies, government or otherwise and initiated bird friendly ordinances or legislation. I've listed them for you. What this means for us is that there's a proven path of where he examples learned lessons so Indy can start smarter and move faster going off of the success of other other agencies. And along with the environmental side. I do recognize that needs to be somewhat of a business side as well. To kind of nail home. The impact that we are are looking for. And I think just to get more people
on board as well. Overall, economic impacts birds are part of the bigger outdoor recreation economy, both here in Indianapolis and on a national level sporting major jobs spending and even tax revenue. An estimated 108 billion nationally annually. Revenue driven from birding trips. 1.4 million jobs. 38 billion in tax revenue. 279 billion in total economic output. That's not small change. It is a big, big business with nationally and I can name a partner to hear that thrive off of recreation and Indianapolis. But protecting wildlife strengthens image as a clean, healthy, well-run place to visit and left. There's also. A downside if we don't address the. Problems. Frankly, it's bad for business. I'm a big sports I participate also
through working lots of expos conventions. So I get to experience all the different sorts of great things. Indianapolis has brought into that to the so anything for Gen Con 2, the ncaa Final 4 Big 10 Championship swim trials conferences, trade shows. I know there's a bunch of things we're working on now to bring to the city that we haven't even announced yet. So lots of opportunities here and When when and I can't wait for the final 4 to come here, too, Indianapolis, I think we're all fairly excited about that. But I think about when I come into town, what my experience is going to be, we have the murals. We have we decorate. We at the airport. Looks phenomenal. We fly it. But when I get up in the morning from my hotel, I go off to get
the coffee. Don't want my first visual to be something like this where I'm seeing 30 dead birds before the city streets. Department has a chance to come and get it and clean it up. Like is that the image we want? We invite all hundreds of thousands of people to Indianapolis. And frankly, I don't think it's great for business. It's not the image we want, especially if the first thing in the morning in Indianapolis before we head to FanFest. I know talked a little bit about some of the organizational interest we've already had. And this mainly here in Indianapolis, Eagle Creek, Great but they're also working on getting their windows treated. They don't have any new building projects coming up, but recognize that there's also things we can do after the fact to treat their windows, especially with the type of park and type of consumer that they attract. They realize the importance.
So they've been fantastic partners. We've started their Windows 10, you to do more. The ncaa, they they've been working with us. We're working on solutions. They're building has been. We've found issues with their building and they've been great at communicating with us, still working on resolutions with them. But we appreciate their support and interest. The dnr is formed a working group to work on government buildings in particular. There's been a number of government buildings that have been identified as problematic. You know, through surveys or research. So there's a working group there to figure out how to both corrected and fund issue. And the iu, Andy has been doing research on their campus and doing their own surveys. They've identified problematic windows as well. So they're currently working through solutions. The one of my partners is feather friendly. They have been great in helping us with education,
something U.S. Materials. They do a lot of the treatments for windows that are pre-existing and can treat those. They've great. And then the American Bird Conservancy Conservancy. We're going to get into that because they're gonna help us a lot as we move forward with their great partners as well with local governments. I'm gonna talk about what we 3 pillars here. We're going to focus on the last. Going to tell you about the other 2. We say lights, windows So I I like to think pretty catchy. But we we what we asked several turns off the lights at night. And especially during migration both spring and fall. We want to decrease that pollute light pollution what that will decrease the amount of birds that are
disoriented and something that everyone can get involved. You get your lights out at home, your business can turn their lights out. The government agencies, they can This building is a participant and they do turn their lights out. Just I think you actually helped us with side. Appreciate that. This bill a participant and that we love energy-saving. So lights out means consuming less energy as well. Our second pillar, as I stated, is action. Her story is when dust windows are the long-term fix, especially for new commercial buildings. The best time to prevent windows strikes is going to be when the building is designed and built. We have found working through the partners. I just listed it can be a challenge to treat windows that are already built because we're either putting dots stickers, film and it can expensive to be frank to treat the existing
windows. So we've learned that proactive easier than reactive and building using materials that are birds safe using Bird smart design. Built from the start can be a huge help. Next is going to be and being Frank, we are newer in Indianapolis to the actions phase. But as I said, there's been leaders across the country. Have a lead and we just are following in their footsteps. And the mayor had a bird safe proclamation. I believe it was last year and I believe that's the picture of it. There. Encouraging people to turn lights out during migration. So that was a great first step for us. But we are asking a little bit more today to keep ball rolling. We're asking for a bird safe building policy and
legislation ordinance for Indianapolis that focuses on new commercial construction in particular. We are going to utilize the American Birding Conservancy, which is the best place. That's just the best place to start. Is using their model ordinances that cities can adjust to fit your local needs. So they have models that they use and they have been great support systems for other cities, towns. Even a couple states that have introduced legislation. They have models to follow. I believe it should have been sent to you. If not, I can send it to you, but it's a good place to start and then we can go from there and build something that will fit and we can get past. And Indianapolis and they suggest the 1010100 model. And that's 100% of new buildings, 100% but friendly materials focused on the first
100 feet where many collisions happen. So not necessarily your skyscrapers all the way out. We're just looking at that first 100 feet because that's where we believe that the collisions happen. Request is that the council supports moving Indianapolis in a direction with the birds. Safe standards for new commercial construction. As I transition to close on a leave you with that image. And I'm gonna tell you really why it matters. I walked down Indianapolis a couple times a year, but I want to you to just envision angel and what what the civilization of angel means to to our community. Generally. It's a sign of hope. It's a sign of promise and even a sign of protection. Unfortunately, the signs of angels in Indianapolis are something other than that are signs as we walked through. I think I took my first serve a year ago and I counted 40 angels on buildings around
Indianapolis. And if these angels are not the the reminder of promise and protection but more so a preventable manmade loss of life. So ask is simple. Today. It's how do we move Indianapolis from cleanup to prevention. Everything that we have shared with you today is backed by a lot of research. Lots of support. Happy to connect you. I think you have these resource to happy to connect them to you. They're fantastic resources. I learned a lot just preparing for today from these resources like urge you to die and to them. But I like clothes I want to make sure, you know, one how to reach Data is our chair, as you can be here with us today. And then our e-mail address is listed but feel free to
connect with both myself and Wes, we're all on this e-mail together. So any message you send will go to all of us and if there's any other contact that's better for you. I'm happy to connect you. We are ready to partner to support and connect with you and connect you to any resources you need to help push this through. We are just volunteers but can't connect you to the experts with proven resources we'd like to coordinate if anything I've said to you, it's home just a little bit where you see any value in Wes is surveys. He's fantastic training them. But they are also very educational. So I this spring to catch up with us. I would love to have less walk you down down the street. See what we're talking about. See the
birds sea, sea, the building. See the cars and the fact some of the things I've said today, while it's it's one thing to see it in person. It really gets to you when you see down on the streets and the imprint on the building itself. So I encourage you to take us up on and take a look around town and then you take a step forward. If you know he wants to volunteer, we need more resources as does anyone. But I think you guys again for the opportunity take any questions. So is Wes and then definitely hear from you guys on first realistic step looks like and what mile. So it's gonna look like that way we can. I think cleaner city up and make it safe for Birds. Thank you. I really appreciate your time. Okay. Well, thank. Thank you both for being here. And MISTER Green for the presentation West when it comes to the survey time I would suggest coordinating
through. That was a sustainability and we can let the committee know when that when the timing is because i think you probably have some interest in some participation. That's one. And number 2 is on a the bird friendly building policies that you're 100 100. How come is any of that? Not just and or why just standard building practices now? Why? Why would we? I'm just trying to understand why that would just be built into a natural part of the development process. There an expense that that's greater than we would expect or was there some element that that is outside of the traditional building process? That's problematic for developers. Then there has just read. It just seems like a natural thing you as a as a building building a good building. Just your swing with what? Take a shot and engineering was not my degree
in high school or college saw give my volunteer understanding. I think in the past a lot of this research is newer. And I think a lot of the passion from the community, it's relatively in some of the older studies I cited were still are 30, 40 years old. And those are the older ones so when there's not a demand for they are not produced. There now in the companies that produce and there are treatments that you can do better preventative. That can be applied. I have not gone through that process. I'm not a developer. And so beyond that, I would need to refer to developers and the abc to help answer some of those questions and some of the rebuttals we're going to get as we push this because I also I respect where you're
going. I know we would get a lot of pushback on. Hey, this is this is going to be a different process for buildings Could there be additional expense? Very well. So, thank you. I mean, I mentioned together and to engage with you on this. But my process is to do a 3.60, and really engage everybody was impacted by a particular policy. And so and this and he's putting sort of the feedback that we would get. But with that, let me turn to the right. Any other members of the committee want to land. Because of cost of rent. Thank you, MR. CHAIRMAN, do you have anything we've been focusing on buildings, but I know residential homes just last week. We had a rental property Cardinal shattered the window, went into the House and I yeah. So these are things as residential homeowners. We can
look at to try to help prevent that. Yeah, I appreciate that. Feather friendly as one of our has been a fantastic partner and they focus on window treatment. So they don't make the windows. They don't make the But they have a couple different options. And there's lots of companies out Handful that do. But from the front is on familiar with and they have a window tape their little dots and some people say I don't want this on my window you tend not to notice them. One of the more well-known photographers in the area takes pictures everywhere. Just put them on their home and said you didn't even know some after a couple days. So,
yeah, those are terrific. And they reduced when strikes from 95 to 99%. 99.9% and the science behind it. They are. I want to say 2 inches apart. The dots and that breaks up the window reflection enough. Some birds can't fly through it. The downside about some of just the dieckhaus as it still leaves path was the birds believe they can fly through it. And while that is a step in the right direction, we recommend treating the entire window to break up the reflection of the sky, the trees, the but yeah, there are. There are a lot of solutions out there that you can do to that. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. If I can just add beyond stickers, there are
plenty of other options depending on the homeowners are building owners, budget and ability and a static So there's films you can simply just use some chalk or markers. If you want to go really low budget strings, other textiles. Mash. You know anything that's external. It's going to break up that visual for the birds. So just kind of depends what you want to do. But are plenty of examples. Thank Thank you. Jessi for that presentation is great. I Echo CHAIRMAN Bart and expecting that we'll probably have some sort of bears put up by developers either the complexity with a cost and then and my friends that I've tended to hear a lot of is like. What we heard it, for example, last budget you know,
Department Business Neighborhood Services. Very minor Lee increase some peas. And we had a lot of developers say will this will stop home building and Indianapolis where or significantly slow it down. And so it to yeah, we get like very large sounding words without a lot of dollar impact. So be really interesting to what percentage of 100 foot tall building with glass walls. Like what percentage of the projects cost would this treatment would less than one percent. But having those kind of numbers that handle be helpful. And the other point which I know Wes and I have talked at length about is trying to create some sort of incentive structure where, you know, for example, a lot of our more successful developer, guidance systems in the city offer some sort of what's in
it for me to the developer either you all have higher access to city funds for things you will have to beat every strict criteria in another area. Or yeah, some some other reason why someone would participate. And so I'd love to get your thoughts on how we could better incentivize that. Yeah. Even like low-cost things we talk offices, state ability people about just highlighting yeah newsletter or with little like gold. Starting to put your wind about people who are doing good work without much city backing just try to help with the marketing of nothing else. So. I think first and foremost, our world needs to be connecting with those who've gone before us passed it through so I think we can help connect you with all of those. And I'm sure they're happy to share their numbers and how they've incentivize
and how they've worked with developers. So I don't I don't want come across that. I'm the expert there, but I can definitely we can definitely connect. I think that's while we're very early in for me today. This is an awareness, word that that definitely is going to be the next step for sure. I do know just in my small, my small world of marketing. We do have to find other aspects where they get value, whether that's the developer or the company that's going to be taking over the the building. There is a lot of public positivity and publicity that comes from some of animal saving initiatives. And then I think the challenge for us assigning a dollar amount to So I appreciate
Accountability. Thank you. MISTER Chair. Want to take this time just to bring up the fact that the holiday Park Nature Center a box spring Mill Road does have. Birds safe dots all over the windows as they're out the back. And that was the first time that I had to ask the quarterly stops for. And so I think is the government. We have an opportunity to, you know, out that our own buildings and our parks and other buildings just to help educate people. That was the first time I had ever become aware of what those were and what they're for and how they were used in. So I just wanted to bring that up that the city does have a great example of windows. If anybody wanted to go check them out. Just to add to that
couple other more famous ones, Eagle Creek Park or thought center the Nature Center at the new Fields, Fairbanks part, some good ones to check out as well. Yeah, it's funny that you mentioned the new Fields, one because walk there frequently in I didn't even I just accepted those. The what's in I never even thought about it for the reason that they're there. I just thought they were a clever design. And it's just it's just sort line MAY lead mini. Walking in by building. But I'm realizing what that's what sports. Okay. Well, listen, thank you very much. Your presentation that there's a lot of interest from the committee. I think we have some follow-ups both with your survey just keep thinking about what the council can do to be support these issues.
And so there's there's more to come. But thanks for the work you're doing it, but volunteers or employees. I got us on Well, thanks for your work in this area. We appreciate it. And thanks for being here today. So I just wanted to take a moment to. Remind everyone that we have the funeral today for officer bring Ali, it and that's been heavy on my heart. He gave his life for the citizens of Indianapolis in Beech Grove. And I just wanted to take the time public record to honor him and his sacrifice for our city. Thank you, MR. Checked. Yeah. Thank Catch it early bringing that up. I know capital Lenny was able to attend the services. They don't know if anyone else was. But thank you for doing that. Representing us in council hurt both. He's representing Really important to remember that today. And thanks thanks
for letting With that. I'd like to go ahead and adjourn. The meeting for a FEBRUARY and we'll see everyone back in