Over the past year, Indianapolis purchased dozens more fuel-efficient vehicles, began building 14 miles of bike lanes and improved sewers.

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Mayor Greg Ballard held a press conference at the 3 Mass Downtown condo project, which features a green roof that retains water -- one of several green building features the city is encouraging developers to pursue.(MICHELLE PEMBERTON)

If that sounds like an impressive effort to go green, it’s really just a start — and it reflects how far behind the city is. Indianapolis ranks among the least sustainable cities in the nation.

A report released Tuesday charts some of the strides the city has made since October 2008 to make the city green. Among other initiatives are LED bulbs in traffic signals and the addition of sidewalk recycling bins — all positive steps, experts say, toward putting a city that’s environmentally behind on track.

“We’re getting such a late start, and there was so much inattention to the issue over the years,” said Tim Maloney, senior policy director for the Hoosier Environmental Council. “There are some positive indications, but we still have a long way to go.”

According to SustainLane, an online resource for going green, Indianapolis ranked 44th of the 50 most populous cities in terms of urban sustainability in 2008. By comparison, cities such as Louisville, Ky., and Columbus, Ohio, ranked 29th and 30th, respectively. The group’s next report is expected in 2010.

City sustainability leaders say they plan to push ahead with more aggressive moves, including air-quality benchmarks and trimming the cost for recycling. This year’s report was a first step in evaluating where the city stands on the environmental front, and they acknowledge there’s a lot of progress to be made.

“We have our work cut out for us, that’s for sure,” said Kären Haley, who leads the seven-person Office of Sustainability that Mayor Greg Ballad established a year ago. “We’re not Portland, we’re not Seattle. But last year we made a lot of good strides in the right direction.”

Among those is adding 89 hybrid vehicles to the city’s fleet and retrofitting 7,593 traffic signals with LED bulbs. By year’s end, the city also will add about 14 miles of bike lanes as part of a plan to add 200 miles in the next 15 years.

Other initiatives also are under way, including an audit of city buildings to make them more energy-efficient, a push to make building green more accessible for developers and various methods for reducing sewer overflows.

Some of those efforts will mean savings in fuel and energy costs.

Tim Carter, director of Butler University’s Center for Urban Ecology, said those are mostly corrective measures and a “logical first step” in terms of launching a sustainability program. But, he said, to be truly progressive, the city needs to propose innovative ideas that help residents understand the impact of living green.

“That will help change the culture of the city,” Carter said. “Until you do a paradigm shift like that, you’ll either be playing catch-up or keeping things as good as you can, given your political and economic makeup.”

Environmental advocates say there are also more basic issues that need to be addressed.

Among them is recycling. The city charges customers $6 a month for curbside recycling, while some other cities offer it free.

According to the city’s report, a little more than 4 percent — or 11,000 of the 264,000 residences where the city provides solid-waste collection — participate in curbside recycling.

“We still lack in the area of a real viable curbside program,” said Carey Hamilton, executive director of the Indiana Recycling Coalition. “If we were able to get rid of the surcharge, recycling rates would skyrocket.”

Haley acknowledged the need to make recycling more accessible and said her office has been working since its inception to address the issue. The goal, she said, is to come up with a solution by the middle of next year.

“You should pay for trash and not recycling,” she said. “We definitely have room for improvement and being able to provide that at low or no cost.”

Indianapolis also lags in addressing public transit. Maloney praised the city’s efforts at building bike lanes and greenways but pointed to a lack of momentum for IndyGo and other transit initiatives, including a proposed $160 million light-rail line from Noblesville to Downtown.

Insufficient emphasis on transit could be a disadvantage, experts say, as cities such as Denver and Phoenix push those efforts to draw people to their downtown areas.

“Transportation is a big piece of the puzzle in sustainability,” said Anthony Flint, an author at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass. “Other cities are really integrating transportation and land-use planning. That’s a little underemphasized (in Indianapolis’ report).”

Howard Learner is executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, an environmental advocacy hub.

He said Indianapolis’ first-year report shows the city has made progress. But he emphasized that the city needs to be more aggressive in setting goals in such areas as reducing waste and improving air quality.

“The city needs to step up and lead by example,” Learner said.

Haley said this year’s report is a starting point toward establishing both short- and long-term goals, which, she hopes, can be set in the coming year.

Making Indianapolis a forerunner, she said, will take lots of work, but she and others think it’s feasible. In particular, economic factors are pushing more cities to look for ways to operate more efficiently, Maloney said.

That’s a case that Ballard made Tuesday. He said his administration has pursued the issue because it will make the city a draw for young people in years to come, but also because it’s cost-effective.

“We need to raise the public consciousness a little more,” he said. “It’s really about taxpayer savings. It’s common sense at this point.”

How green is Indianapolis?

Tim Maloney, senior policy director at the Hoosier Environmental Council, grades the city’s various environmental efforts:

Energy efficiency

Last year, the city retrofitted 7,593 traffic lights with energy-efficient LED bulbs for about $529,000. That will reduce energy use by 68 percent. The city is expected to receive another $2 million in stimulus funds to retrofit the remainder of the intersections next year. In 2009, the city also purchased 89 hybrid vehicles for $25,770 apiece. Currently, 28 percent of the city’s fleet are hybrid or alternative-fuel vehicles. The goal is to increase that by 30 percent so that at least half of the sedans are considered green.

» Grade: Passing

Positive efforts in making the city’s fleet more efficient.

Transit

About 14 miles of bike lanes will be added by the end of the year. The city has plans to boost that number to 200 miles at a cost of about $60 million for the 15-year plan. A city-commissioned study by a group of business leaders looking at mass-transit options in Marion County also is expected to be released before year’s end.

» Grade: Failing

The city should make IndyGo work and move ahead with light-rail plans, both as part of a regional transportation system. However, new trails and bike lanes are very positive.

Recycling

A little more than 4 percent of Indianapolis residents participate in curbside recycling, which the city charges $6 a month for. Sustainability leaders want to eliminate the cost to encourage more residents to recycle by the middle of next year. That would cost $12 million to $14 million for the 96-gallon recycling bins, plus an additional $6.4 million to $9.3 million per year to provide the services. The city has installed 23 bins Downtown and elsewhere, as well as 28 drop-off containers for glass and other materials.

» Grade: Failing

Need much greater participation in curbside recycling.

Green buildings

The city released a report this week with suggestions for how the City-County Building can become more energy-efficient and serve as a flagship for other green buildings in Indianapolis. About $7 million is spent per year on energy costs for city buildings. City officials are hoping to reduce those costs by about 20 percent. Other initiatives also are under way, including an audit of city buildings to make them more energy-efficient and a push to make building green more accessible for developers.

» Grade: Passing

Report needs more information on making city buildings more efficient.

Sewers and storm-water management

The city’s 100-year-old sewer system was designed to carry sewage and rainwater, causing sewers to overflow as many as 80 times a year. The city must reduce those overflows under a federal mandate with a $1.7 billion, 20-year plan. Also, the city will invest $1.8 billion over the next 20 years to rehabilitate sanitary sewers, increase sewer and wastewater treatment plant capacity, and bring sewers to homes on septic systems.

» Grade: Passing

Problem is being addressed; positive move will include septic-elimination program.