Downtown Baton Rouge will be a lot greener in 30 days.The Re-Green Downtown Baton Rouge campaign, started by the Baton Rouge Green and Stanford Group Company, began a campaign Tuesday to plant 178 trees downtown in the next month. The project aims to fill empty tree wells lining the streets in the Downtown Development District. The trees are varieties native to Louisiana and include Little Gem magnolias, East Palatka hollies, allee elms, willow oaks, bald cypress, cedar elms and Chinese Pistache.Diane Losavio, executive director of Baton Rouge Green, said street trees provide a safer walking environment, more efficient storm-water management and better air quality. She referenced a study that said people tend to linger longer and spend more money in businesses on tree-lined streets.Mayor-President Kip Holden addressed a small crowd gathered in the cold weather Tuesday outside the Shaw Center for the Arts.”This is the day we will make all other cities in America green with envy,” Holden joked. He said he was encouraged by the support of the people coming together to be a part of a change in downtown Baton Rouge.Baton Rouge Green is a non-profit organization that has planted more than 30,000 trees along roadways, on school grounds and in parks and neighborhoods during the last 20 years.The Department of Public Works and Baton Rouge Green began talks about a the project in the downtown area two years ago. Two hurricanes later, the tree wells were more barren than ever, and Stanford Group, a global network of independent, affiliated financial services companies, donated the necessary money to make plans become a reality.The campaign is part of Stanford Group’s “Go-Green” Initiative, which started in January to focus on global and regional business sustainability in an environmentally responsible way.”We care about each community we serve and the impact our actions have on the environment, which is why our company is an advocate of green practices around the world,” said Grady Layfield, managing director of Stanford Group Company in Baton Rouge.Other speakers included James Purgerson, president of the Baton Rouge Green Board; Tara Wicker, District 10 Metro Council member-elect; Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Downtown Development District; and Paul Arrigo, CEO of Baton Rouge Area CVB and Pete Newkirk, director of DPW.Of Moving Colors dance group performed a “walking demonstration.” Seven dancers used tree branches and leaves to capture the essence of trees and what going green means.The ceremony ended with the planting of the first tree, a cedar elm, near the Old State Capitol.Tree planting will continue Saturday at 9 a.m. at the intersection of Florida and Third streets. —-Contact Jack LeBlanc at [email protected]