Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS) and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) today announced the spring Clean and Green day of service will be held on Saturday, April 18 in neighborhoods throughout Chicago. This day of service allows residents to come together with City agencies in every neighborhood to help clean and beautify areas throughout their community.

“Chicagoans have a long history of service in their communities to revitalize and beautify their neighborhoods, and clean neighborhoods are an essential component of a high quality of life for residents,” said Mayor Emanuel. “While we work year-round to keep Chicago clean, we are also asking residents to amplify this work by pitching in to help with our spring cleaning efforts.”

Through the day of service, the City will provide the necessary tools to enable community groups and neighbors to further improve their neighborhoods. This year, the day of service will include an emphasis on cleaning viaducts, which are important neighborhood infrastructures. DSS and CDOT to work regularly to address sanitation issues, lighting issues and other structural concerns in viaducts all year long, and the City recently announced that 80 viaducts in neighborhoods across the city will receive much needed infrastructure improvements that will also benefit public safety for residents in those communities.

“Every year, the Department looks forward to continuing the over two decade long tradition of Clean and Green. The day of service a great opportunity for residents to come together for just a few hours to clean their communities and make an immediate difference in the vibrancy of their neighborhood,” said DSS Commissioner Charles Williams.

On top of cleaning and improving viaducts, residents are encouraged to clean curb lanes, vacant lots, parkways and any other community areas that need a good cleaning.

Last week, DSS launched an early overnight street sweeping program to address litter and other debris that accumulated along curb lanes, center lanes and viaducts throughout the winter. The fleet of sweepers will work during the early morning hours to clean arterial streets citywide.

“CDOT is proud to partner with the Department of Streets and Sanitation and residents in neighborhoods across Chicago on the Clean and Green day of service,” said CDOT Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld. “This is a great opportunity for the dedicated public servants at CDOT and DSS to work alongside the Chicagoans we serve every day to make our City a cleaner and more beautiful place.”

To participate in the citywide Clean and Green, call 3-1-1 to register your community group or find a community group to team up with. The City will provide your community organization with brooms, rakes, shovels and bags to get the job done. For groups cleaning viaducts only, the City will provide white paint and painting tools. Community cleaning supplies can be picked up at your local Streets and Sanitation Refuse Division Office. All community groups must register their Clean and Green with 3-1-1 by Friday, April 10, 2015.

To learn more about Clean and Green, visit www.cityofchicago.org/dss or call 3-1-1.

Sponsors for this year’s Clean and Green are Chicago Gateway Green and Keep Chicago Beautiful.

Sponsors for this year’s Clean and Green are: Chicago Gateway Green, Keep Chicago Beautiful and clean energy company Invenergy.

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About Chicago Gateway Green: Dedicated to greening and beautifying the region’s expressways, gateways and communities, Chicago Gateway Green was founded in 1986 to benefit the environment and improve the quality of life for millions of Chicagoland residents and annual visitors. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization, Chicago Gateway Green makes an impact in the community with three key programs: Expressway Partnership, transforming city roadways into landscaped parkways; the International Sculpture Program, beautifying gateways through the installation of public, international art on expressways; and the Tree Partnership, a large-scale tree planting initiative that transforms unused land into green spaces. The nonprofit organization has broad support across the region’s business and civic community and serves as a model for effective public-private partnerships. For more information visit www.gatewaygreen.org

About Keep Chicago Beautiful: Keep Chicago Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, is a nonprofit organization that works with Chicagoland’s business community, schools, neighborhoods and government agencies to improve our environment through education, public awareness and community involvement.

About Invenergy: Invenergy and its affiliated companies develop, own, and operate large-scale renewable and other clean energy generation and storage facilities in North America and Europe. Invenergy is committed to continued innovation in clean power solutions. Invenergy's home office is located in Chicago and it has regional development offices in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe. Invenergy and its affiliated companies have developed more than 9,000 MW of projects that are in operation, in construction, or under contract, including 75 wind, solar, and natural gas-fueled power generation projects and energy storage facilities. For more information, please visit www.invenergyllc.com.