America’s Leading Lawn Care Provider Awards TruNeighbor Grants to Iconic National Nonprofit Organization to Help Beautify Communities Across the Country

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (April 28, 2016) — TruGreen today announced a partnership with national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful to help fulfill a vision of a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live. Starting with projects in Jacksonville, Florida; Kansas City, Missouri; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Keep America Beautiful affiliates will submit community improvement ideas for a chance to secure TruGreen TruNeighbor grants of up to $15,000, including in-kind services.

TruGreen has partnered with Keep America Beautiful as part of the company’s TruNeighbor program, an initiative aimed to reduce community blight, increase access to green spaces and help more people live life outside. TruGreen launched two beautification pilot projects last year in Lansing, Michigan, and Gary, Indiana. Working in partnership with each city’s mayor and local community leaders, TruGreen helped revitalize a public gathering space in Gary and is creating a public orchard in Lansing.

“We take pride in being a ‘TruNeighbor’ to the communities where we live, work and play,” said David Alexander, TruGreen president and CEO.  “It’s our hope that by improving the quality of a neighborhood’s outdoor spaces we can also improve the quality of life of its residents by helping them to live life outside. Keep America Beautiful has shared in that mission for more than 60 years, and we are honored to partner with them on important community improvement projects across the country.”

Keep America Beautiful recently kicked off its annual Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program. In its 18th year, Great American Cleanup events and education programs help to renew public spaces such as parks, trails and recreation areas; clean shorelines and waterways; remove litter and debris; reduce waste and improve recycling; and plant trees, flowers and community gardens among other activities. Last year, the Great American Cleanup engaged more than 5.4 million volunteers and participants across the country and has delivered, on average, $175 million annually in measurable benefits to tens of thousands of communities nationwide in the past five years.

In 2015, Keep America Beautiful released “Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight: A National Literature Review on Addressing the Community Impacts of Blighted Properties.” The report provides a contemporary snapshot of how researchers, experts and practitioners describe and understand the complex conditions that create blight. The executive summary and full report of “Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight” is available on the Keep America Beautiful website.

“We’re excited to forge a new partnership with TruGreen to forward our mission to inspire and educate people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment,” said Jennifer Jehn, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful. “The support from TruGreen bolsters our efforts to bring people together to transform public spaces into beautiful places and to make a positive environmental, economic and social difference in communities nationwide.”

About TruGreen
Memphis, Tenn.-based TruGreen is the nation’s largest lawn care company, serving more than 2.3 million residential and commercial customers across the United States with lawn, tree and shrub care. TruGreen believes more life should be lived outside and is committed to providing a beautiful lawn to serve as the foundation for outside experiences and lifelong memories. As the leader in the professional lawn care industry, TruGreen helps define responsible lawn care practices, conducts industry-leading education and training for our people, pioneers new application technologies and educates our customers on proper mowing and wise-use watering techniques. Today, there are more than 260 TruGreen lawn care branches and satellite offices in the United States and Canada.  
Go to TruGreen.com or facebook.com/TruGreen for more information.

About Keep America Beautiful
At Keep America Beautiful, we want to ensure that beauty is our lasting signature. A leading national nonprofit, Keep America Beautiful inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. We envision a country where every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people end littering, improve recycling, and beautify America’s communities. The organization is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. To learn how you can donate or take action, visit kab.org. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.