Education Spotlight: Energy Education in Central Kentucky

December 19, 2016By 0 comment

PattieBy: Pattie Stivender,
Education Director

Bluegrass Greensource educators are energizing students across Central Kentucky as we start our annual classroom energy education program! Our educators work closely with teachers to provide lessons that align with Kentucky Academic Standards and are engaging for students. We continue to offer classroom activities that focus on Kentucky’s energy sources, including renewable energy, energy audits, and engaging classroom lessons. However, this year has some exciting changes!

Our educators are working with 12 Kentucky Energy for Youth (KEY) Teams to provide more intensive energy education at the elementary level. These teams will act as energy ambassadors for their schools and will have the opportunity to travel to Eastern Kentucky to learn about coal mining and its history. Students will then plan an energy assembly to share what they’ve learned with the entire fourth and fifth grades at their school.

Bluegrass Greensource_Energy Education_Home Energy
Student assembling an Energy House, a lesson designed to demonstrate to energy savings gained from proper insulation.

Although we have targeted only 12 schools for the KEY program, we still have availability for just classroom energy education for other schools. If you are interested in learning more about this program, please contact Pattie Stivender (pattie@bggreensource.org) for more information.

What are teachers saying about our energy program?

“The energy program offered through Bluegrass Greensource has provided effective support to our science content. They add to the classroom additional information and resources to make learning memorable!”

– Britney Spicer, 4th grade Science Teacher at Westbridge Elementary School

How do our educators feel about this program?

“What I love most about our energy education program is the way that we engage the students in their learning. By getting the students up and moving, we focus on full-body learning and we make sure no student is left out. We give students unique challenges and aid them as they struggle to find the best solutions. Whether they are acting out the flow of energy all the way from the sun to our light bulbs or trying to find the best way to design a blade so that their wind turbine generates the most electricity, students are having fun and learning a lesson that they certainly won’t forget.”

-Danny Woolums, Bluegrass Greensource Environmental Educator

Kentucky Energy for Youth Teams are funded by the Department for Energy Development and Independence. Classroom education for this program is funded by Toyota.

READ MORE

Home Energy Workshop Recap

December 19, 2016By 0 comment

malloryBy: Mallory Johnson,
AmeriCorps VISTA

Our Home Energy Workshop on December 7th was a space for diverse members of our community to come together and learn hands-on energy saving tips to take into their own home this winter!

The technical portion of the workshop was led by Chris Woolery, with assistance from Rachel Norton, both of the How$martKY program, a residential energy efficiency initiative run by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED).

Chris led the workshop, sharing his years of experience implementing energy efficiency measures in homes and apartments. After a brief presentation, participants moved through four stations throughout Embrace Church, our host site. These stations provided opportunities for attendees to receive hands-on experience with some of the techniques they can apply to their own home. They included: duct sealing; air sealing, insulating and sealing attic access points; and a station reviewing how to install the items in the energy efficiency kits that each participant received. Representatives from the Community Action Council and Kentucky Utilities were also on hand to discuss weatherization offerings they have through their “We Care” program.

Because of the hands-on aspect of the workshop, participants helped the good folks of Embrace Church weatherize their building. This will help increase comfort this winter and save the church money, which can then be redirected into their community outreach programs.

With help from our friends at the Central Kentucky Chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, we were able to survey residents on the North Side and East End neighborhoods and recruit 25 individuals to the workshop. The neighborhood surrounding Embrace Church includes many Spanish- and English-speaking families. Because of this, we decided to offer this workshop in both languages, which was a huge success due to the translation and interpretation help we received from Jennifer Hubbard-Sanchez of Kentucky State University.

At the end of the workshop, each attendee received a free energy efficiency starter kit, which we were able to provide through a generous mini-grant from the Blue Grass Community Foundation in partnership with the Kresge Foundation. Each kit included a power strip, four LED light bulbs, a swivel kitchen aerator and a bathroom aerator, a low-flow showerhead, as well as a caulk gun and two tubes of caulk.

We are so very thankful for all of our partnerships that helped this night to be as successful as it was. We also want to thank everyone again for all who were a part of making this night a success and most importantly providing our community with the resources they need to live more comfortably in their homes!

“Small energy efficiency improvements can make huge impacts on people’s lives,” said Chris Woolery. “They don’t just save energy and money, they create homes that are healthier and more comfortable. Most folks can do a lot of these improvements themselves, they just don’t know where to start. That’s why workshops like these are so important.”

READ MORE

Submit your 2017 Sustainable New Year Resolution!

December 16, 2016By 0 comment

Best Wishes for a Sustainable New Year!

AmyBy: Amy Sohner
Bluegrass Greensource
Executive Director

We have realized for a long time that many people make resolutions that they never can keep. I am guilty of that myself.  As an example, I finally renewed my passport, a resolution I made five years ago!

Almost since our inception, Bluegrass Greensource has encouraged Central Kentuckians to think about New Year’s Resolutions differently. Instead of thinking only about personal goals, i.e losing weight, sleeping more, renewing your passport etc., we encourage resolutions that will have, collectively, a big impact on our local environment.

Our resolutions this year are to:

  • Make my home more energy efficient

  • Conserve water at my home or office

  • Improve my recycling

  • Ride my bike more

  • Start or improve my compost practices

  • Get outside more

In addition to offering an alternative to the regular resolutions, Bluegrass Greensource understands that committing to something publically increases its chances of success. By submitting your environmental goals to Bluegrass Greensource, you will be much more likely to actually accomplish them.

Since our mission is to empower the citizens to create a sustainable environment, we also want to know what you are striving to do and learn. By participating in the resolution program, we are alerted to what the needs are in our community, and can target programming to meet those needs.

And finally, as an incentive to participate in the resolution program, we have a drawing to award a $100 gift card! In my opinion, the part of the incentive that makes this great is that the gift card is tailored to what you resolve to do in 2017.  If you choose to improve home composting, you can use your winnings to buy a home composting system. If you resolve to ride your bike more, you can use the money to buy a bike. We hope that the incentive will not only help you commit, but help break down any barriers that are preventing you from being successful.

Each year, we receive many resolutions, and I hope that we can empower you to make 2017 your greenest year yet!

Click here to share your 2017 resolution with us!

how-will-you-live-green

READ MORE

Green Living Lab: 2017 Workshops Announced!

December 5, 2016By 0 comment

green-living-lab-for-blog-post

From gardening to green cleaners at home, Green Living Lab offers something for everyone!

Green Living Lab is a new Saturday workshop series at Bluegrass Greensource, where staff present short, engaging workshops to help you build new skills and learn more about topics to live more sustainably. Green Living Lab continues in 2017 with three more workshop opportunities in January, February, and March!

All workshops are held at our office at 835 National Avenue.

Times and online registration are now available:

Sustainable Table
Saturday, January 21st
10 am – 12 pm
$15 registration

Reduce your environmental impact in the kitchen!
The January workshop will help you reduce your ecological footprint in the kitchen. Cooking as home with sustainable food taste better, is more nutritious, cheaper than eating out, brings friends and family together, and encourages healthy eating habits. Registration includes all food and materials for preparing and enjoying a sustainably minded meal! Click here to register for Sustainable Table.

Winter Seed Sowing
Saturday, February 25
12 pm – 2 pm
$20 registration

Start thinking about your 2017 garden plans!
The February workshop will introduce you to beneficial, native plants, and teach you a technique to cold stratify native seeds to get a head start on your spring and summer gardens. Each participant will receive a Monarch Waystation Seed Kit, and learn how to start the seeds that help to create, conserve and protect habitats of Monarchs and other pollinators. The $20 Registration includes all materials. Click here to register for Winter Seed Sowing.


Homemade Green Cleaners
Saturday, March 25
10 am – 12 pm
$15 registration

Keep your home clean and green!
The March workshop will introduce you to cleaning methods that are as safe and effective as commercial cleaners, without the environmental impacts. The $15 Registration includes all materials, including cleaners to take home. Click here to register for Homemade Green Cleaners.

 

READ MORE

What Do 96, 55, 15, and 29 Have in Common?

November 21, 2016By 0 comment

What Do 96, 55, 15, and 29 Have in Common?

enews-gggchallenge

Do you believe in the importance of environmental education? Do you think it should be taught in every school in Kentucky? If you do, you share the same core value as 96% of your fellow Kentuckians who feel the same.

However, if you do share this belief, you may be one of the 45% of Kentuckians who cannot answer basic questions about how our natural systems work.

Bridging the gap between the 55% of Kentuckians who have a basic understanding of how our natural systems work and the 96% who believe that environmental education should be taught in our schools requires a collective, community effort to reach both youth and adults as early and often as possible.

For 15 years, Bluegrass Greensource has bridged this gap in Central Kentucky communities by working to empower individuals who want to create a more sustainable environment. Each year we work in more than 4,000 classrooms to provide standards-based environmental education curricula on the science of water, waste, and energy. We work in communities throughout Central Kentucky to help adults and youth take the small steps in their daily lives that will add up to big impacts on our shared environment. But providing this service comes at a price.

good-giving-guide-logoYou can help! From November 29th through December 31st, Bluegrass Greensource will be actively participating in the 2016 GoodGiving Challenge. We will be raising funds to support our educational and community outreach, funds that will allow us to provide services throughout our 20-county service area. We have a lot of exciting activities and information to share, as well as some great events that you can participate in!

So stay tuned, check in with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and help support our efforts to educate and empower Central Kentucky communities to become more sustainable! Click here to bookmark our GoodGiving Challenge profile, where you can make a donation to directly support our work starting November 29th. 

Help us celebrate our 15th anniversary and show your belief in the value of environmental education by making a donation during this year’s GoodGiving Challenge!

READ MORE

The Recycle Challenge is Underway!

November 21, 2016By 0 comment

By: Danny Woolums,
Environmental Educator

Working for Bluegrass Greensource is always full of surprises.

Sometimes I get to tour landfills or visit state parks as part of my work. And sometimes I’m working at 4am doing an audit of neighborhood recycling bins trying to beat the recycling trucks. Yep, the Live Green Lexington Recycle Challenge has officially kicked off and Arlington, Harrison, and William Wells Brown Elementary Schools are on their way success.

For anyone unfamiliar with the new program, the City of Lexington has been looking for innovative ways to increase recycling throughout their service area. After identifying key areas with the most room to improve, LFUCG developed a program to help three well-deserving schools each get $12,000 to use for their students. The goal: increasing the rate of recycling in each school district by 50%. LFUCG, working in tandem with Bluegrass Greensource and the STEM Lab teachers from each school, developed the Recycle Challenge curriculum to reach these important goals and secure some seriously great benefits for each participating school.

Recycle Challenge Kickoff:

recycle2-e1475692589534-300x225recycle1-e1475692485857

The official kickoff event was at the Lyric Theater on October 4th where acclaimed children’s education performer Billy B came and sang about environmental impacts. Our Outreach Specialists have been working with businesses in the area to do waste audits and connect them to the Challenge. Meanwhile, the STEM lab teachers are finding unique ways to incorporate recycling into their lessons such as making instruments out of recycled materials!

How to Get Involved

img_3505The students are getting involved beyond the classroom by doing community walks through their neighborhoods. Kindergarten through 5th grade students marched through their community identifying who had a blue recycling bin, where there was litter, and sharing with passersby about why they thought recycling is important.

Beginning in January and ending the last day of March, LFUCG will begin recording data on how many more people in these three school districts are participating in the recycling program. If you live in the neighborhood or know someone that does, please remember to recycle! It’s great for the planet, but it also helps the schools and students in your backyard!

To learn more about how you can support these students and schools, including partnership opportunities, please visit: https://www.lexingtonky.gov/recycle-challenge

 

READ MORE

Bringing Hope through Home Energy Workshops

October 27, 2016By 0 comment

malloryBy: Mallory Johnson,
AmeriCorps VISTA

As an AmeriCorps VISTA member, I have committed a year of service to help individuals and communities in Central Kentucky move out of poverty. One of the projects I am working on at Bluegrass Greensource is a series of three sustainability workshops. This series will take place from the fall through spring and will include one workshop on each of the following topics: Energy Efficiency, General Sustainability, and Urban Gardening. Though the workshops are open to the general public, I am hoping to reach at least 100 low-income individuals or families. Each workshop will include information on how the topic can help participants save money, while also creating needed environmental benefits.

energy-workshop-website-slider_11-1-16
The first workshop in the series is focused on Energy Efficiency and will be held at Embrace Church on December 7th from 6-8pm. Rather than listening passively to a presentation, the workshop will be hands-on so that participants get to practice the techniques, use the tools, and receive feedback from experts.

We are so happy and fortunate to partner with Chris Woolery and Rachel Norton from the How$martKY program, a residential energy efficiency initiative run by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED). Chris and Rachel will lead the workshop, sharing their years of experience implementing energy efficiency measures in homes and apartments. Our friends at the Central Kentucky Chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth are helping us survey residents in the North Side and East End neighborhoods to recruit attendees for the workshop and to help build our understanding of the energy needs our friends and neighbors in Lexington have. We will also provide a free dinner for attendees, as well as child care and energy-related educational activities for children ages four and up. Best of all, through the hands-on learning of the workshop, we will also be helping the good folks at Embrace Church weatherize the parts of their building that get the most use, thus helping them increase comfort this winter and save money, which they can redirect into the community outreach programs they offer.

If you are or someone you know would like to attend the workshop, please sign up at the link below, or call our office at 859-266-1572. The information is available in both Spanish and English:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/home-energy-workshop-tickets-28891654717?aff=es2

Whether helping a family become more comfortable in their own homes this winter by saving energy, or helping people set up a garden next spring, my main focus through this series is to bring people hope and connect them with the tools and resources they need to take action. It is MY hope that these workshops will empower others to make small changes in their everyday lives that will have a big impact in our local environment.

READ MORE

Thanks to our Donors and the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, Some Exciting News!

October 2, 2016By 0 comment

14462966_667606583387824_6522892022385815922_nBy: Chris Porter
Bluegrass Greensource
Development Director

At Bluegrass Greensource, we try to make all of our K-12 educational activities as tactile as possible. Fully engaging all of a student’s senses helps them grasp ideas and retain information, all while deepening their understanding of a given lesson.

Animal pelts and skulls are, by far, the most popular hands-on materials that we bring to the classroom and make available to teachers. These pelts and skulls supplement lessons on local wildlife and are used to help children understand animal biology, habitat and how it is affected by various factors, and animal adaptation to weather, climate, and changing seasons.

“Having hands-on materials like pelts and skulls is so important for enhancing student learning,” says Pattie Stivender, Bluegrass Greensource’s Education Director. “A teacher can describe the differences between the teeth of a carnivore and an herbivore. She can have students read a book or complete a worksheet. But when a student is able to touch and experience the different animal teeth first hand, you can see the moment on their face when they connect the dots and the concept comes to life. Nothing compares to that moment.”

The pelts and skulls that we have been using are 10-years old, and because of their popularity and near constant use, they had begun to fall apart. As part of our spring fundraising drive, we reached out to our friends and supporters to raise money to replace this resource. In addition, we applied for and received a grant from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels. Thanks to the generosity of the Colonels and our supporters, we are excited to share that we have been able to replace all of our pelts and skulls.

These materials not only bolster our own efforts to provide high-quality environmental education, they also support individual teachers throughout Central Kentucky who access them through our Community Resource Library. “For an individual teacher, the cost of these materials can be a barrier, particularly for something that you won’t use every day,” says Pattie. “So having access to them through our library is such an important resource for the teachers we work with.”

Thank you to our wonderful supporters and to the many good people at the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels! Their generosity and investments ensure our ability to continue providing the first-rate environmental education that we need throughout Central Kentucky.

READ MORE

It’s Official! Green Check Certification Program Launches for Fayette County Businesses

October 2, 2016By 0 comment

Lexington launches Green Check Program and recognizes inaugural businesses

From the City of Lexington

Last Thursday, September 29th, the City of Lexington launched the new sustainable business certification program Green Check. Green Check recognizes businesses for their green initiatives and helps them expand their sustainability efforts. Six businesses were recognized for their role in piloting the program: Bullhorn Creative, Good Foods Coop, Habitat for Humanity, Lexmark, RossTarrant Architects and Trane.

Pictured: Back Row, Left to Right: Bridget Abernathy, Bluegrass Greensource Outreach Specialist, Sheryl Gray, Good Foods Co-Op, Dowell Hoskins-Squire, Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works, Vice Mayor Steve Kay, Brad Flowers, Bullhorn Creative, Brian Buckner, Ross Tarrant Architects. Front Row, Left to Right: John Gagel, Lexmark, Rachel Childress, Habitat for Humanity, Suzette Exum, Trane, Amy Sohner, Bluegrass Greensource Executive Director, Rob Gates, Bluegrass Greensource Outreach Specialist.

“We are excited to see such diversity represented in this inaugural class of Green Check Members,” says Dowell Hoskins-Squier, Lexington’s Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner.  “The certification process is rigorous, but flexible, to ensure that any business who wants to make a greater commitment to sustainability can participate. We can’t wait to see Green Check Member stickers in business windows throughout Fayette County.”

Becoming a Green Check Member business begins with a personal consultation and completion of the Green Check Sustainability Scorecard. The Sustainability Scorecard caters to organizations across a variety of sectors, including restaurants, non-profit organizations, retail, and manufacturers.

Based on their baseline Sustainability Score, the business or organization is awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Member designation. Although the certification is valid for three years, member organizations are encouraged to pursue higher tiers through continued participation and achievement.

The six inaugural Green Check Member businesses all demonstrate a commitment to increased sustainability within their facilities and operations. Examples initiatives from the pilot businesses include parking lot renovations with permeable pavers, installation of rain gardens, upgrades to energy efficient lighting, office compost programs and promotion of alternative transportation. RossTarrant Architects, host site of the Green Check launch, renovated their office space to earn LEED Gold and ENERGY STAR certifications. Beyond these high-impact features, there are lots of actions individual team members can take to improve sustainability in the workplace.

“You have to start somewhere. The Green Check certification process, using the Sustainability Scorecard, establishes a baseline,” says Brian Buckner, Project Manager at RossTarrant. “Our renovations made energy saving a priority, but there is always something more we can do. For example, we drink a lot of coffee in our office and realized the hot water element was keeping the water hot all of the time, and wasting a lot of energy. By placing it on a timer, we calculated that we can save almost $1,000 every year just by making this small change. We’re also looking into composting at the office again. Every energy-saving change has economic and environmental benefits.”

Green Check is a program of the City of Lexington, managed by Bluegrass Greensource. For more information, including how to become Green Check Certified, please visit www.LexingtonKy.gov/GreenCheck.

READ MORE

The Recycle Challenge Kicks Off October 4th!

October 1, 2016By 0 comment

The Recycle Challenge, a program of the City of Lexington, is designed to increase participation in the city’s residential, curb-side recycling program, by working through the local public elementary schools. Students at Arlington, Harrison, and Williams Wells Brown elementary schools have been challenged to increase recycling participation in their school districts by 50 percent. In the process, they can earn rewards for their school worth up to $12,000!

In celebration of the kickoff assembly on October 4th, our educators made a short PSA to inspire students to get excited about this year’s challenge. Look out for similar PSAs coming from Lexington elementary schools participating in the Recycle Challenge!

Click here to learn more about the 2016 Recycle Challenge, request a recycling cart, and learn more about how you can support the participating schools!

READ MORE