August 2013 Newsletter
2013 LiveGreenLexington Games Winners
Congratulations to all our 2013 LiveGreenLexington Games Winners! Winners were announced at our annual awards ceremony on August 1st at the West Sixth Brewery. The Games’ Overall Winner goes to Good Foods Market and Café who also won the Waste Reduction Category and Water Stewardship Category. Other winners include:
Lexington Habitat ReStore: Small Business Winner
Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital: Energy Conservation Category
Kentucky American Water: Energy Conservation Runner Up
Semicon Associates: Waste Reduction Runner Up
Estepp’s Friendly Shell: Water Stewardship Runner Up
FoodChain: Innovation Accolade
Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council: Education Accolade
Town Branch Tree Experts, Inc: Stewardship Accolade
The LiveGreenLexington Games are a friendly year-long competition between area businesses aimed at helping these groups reduces their bottom line by becoming more environmentally friendly. In order to participate, businesses fill out a survey detailing their practices related to recycling and waste reduction, water conservation and litter, and energy efficiency.
Forty-three LiveGreenLexington Partner businesses competed in this year’s Games, of which, 9 were recognized as winners at the ceremony. After the award ceremony, the crowd also got to enjoy a free tour of the innovative Lexington business, FoodChain.
Special thanks goes to West Sixth Brewing, a LiveGreenLexington partner, for their hospitality that night. If your business is interested in participating in the 2014 LiveGreenLexington Games, please contact Blair Hecker at livegreenlexingtongames@bggreensource.org. The new competition gets kicked off on September 1!
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Popular Energy Tour is Back
Calling all Central Kentucky Teachers who are interested in learning and teaching about Kentucky’s energy sources! Our popular Energy Tour is coming soon and we want you to join us on October 24-25th. But space is limited so teachers must sign up as soon as you can.
Thanks to funding provided by the Department of Energy Development and Independence (DEDI), we are able to offer this two-day tour to Central KY teachers to highlight Kentucky’s developing alternative energy technologies as well as traditional energy sources. One day will be spent touring EKU’s Center for Renewable & Alternative Fuel Technologies (CRAFT), Berea College’s Ecovillage, a Berea solar farm and the KY Coal Mine Museum. The second day will be spent in the Teco Mine in Hazard. Yes, we said “IN” the Teco mine where you will experience first-hand deep earth mining and learn about coal extraction surface mining techniques. Finally, a panel discussion will cover the advantages and disadvantages of different energy technologies.
As a follow-up to the tour, our environmental educators will host a series of classroom lessons for tour participants about the history of coal in Kentucky, extraction techniques of coal and alternative energies. Additionally, participating teachers will have the opportunity to schedule an energy related field trip for their classroom.
If you are a Central Kentucky teacher and interested in joining us, please email Pattie Stivender at pattie@bgGreensource.org for more detail information.
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Explorations in Water
Our Water Quality Workshop for Teachers is coming September 18th. The workshop is designed to help teachers understand how water quality and water conservation can be taught in a variety of ways and across disciplines.
Water resources are of major environmental, social and economic value. We rely of water for our health, ecosystem, farming, fishing and mining, plus it contributes to recreation and tourism. If water quality becomes degraded, this resource will lose its value.
The workshop will include water quality indicators, performing water tests, stormwater mapping, planning a school rain garden and information on Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools Water Inventory. It is open to all teachers in Bourbon, Clark, Owen, Scott, and Woodford counties.
Special thanks to Kentucky American Water for funding this workshop and supporting area teachers.
Date: September 18, 2013
Time: 9:00 – 3:00
Location: Scott County Extension Office
1130 Cincinnati Road
Georgetown, KY 40324
For more information on the workshop and to register, please contact:
Pattie Stivender
Bluegrass Greensource
3120 Pimlico Parkway
Suite 126
Lexington, KY 40517
(859)266-1572
pattie@bgGreensource.org
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Rain Garden Tour
The 7th Annual Rain Garden Tour, presented by Fayette County Public Schools and Bluegrass Greensource, is on Sunday, September 22nd. Six area rain gardens and their native plants will be showcased in the tour from 2:00 – 5:00 P.M.
One of the stops is the Locust Trace Agriscience Farm where you can tour their net zero waste facilities and 3 rain gardens. As part of their Native Plant Program, they will also hold a native plant sale. Proceeds of the sale will go to their education programs.
Three Fayette County Public Schools’ rain gardens will also be stops on the tour. They include:
Beaumont Middle School – 2080 Georgian Way
Henry Clay High School – 2100 Fontaine Road.
Athens-Chilesburg Elementary – 930 Jouett Creek Drive
The tour is open to the public and is a self-guided. This is a great opportunity to see unique rain gardens and talk to experts about rain gardens, their benefits and features. Light refreshments will be provided.
So come, enjoy and learn about what our public school are doing to protect their water quality. If you are interested in more information on rain gardens and the tours, contact: Kara Sayles at Kara@bgGreensource.org.
Keep an eye on our website for upcoming Rain Garden workshops at www.bgGreensource.org
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ReStore Paint Recycling
Whether it’s a fall clean-up or a complete remodel, you might find yourself with gallons of extra paint. Luckily, Lexington’s own ReStore offers a novel paint recycling program as an alternative to the landfill or an overstuffed garage.
The only program of its kind in Lexington, ReStore’s paint recycling program is in its 188th batch; meaning that nearly 10,400 gallons of paint have been saved from the landfill according to Deconstruction Project Manager, Michael Frey.
(Pictured to the left: Michael Frey and Katie Clay)
The paint recycling program was started in 2010 when staff noticed gallons of partially-full donated gallons of paint were not selling and they were starting to amass quite a collection.
“Why not consolidate it?” they thought. Initial attempts at mixing were focused on keeping like finishes together- satins with satins, flats with flats. Today, paints are mixed by similar colors and the end product retains a mostly satin finish, which is water resistant and easy to clean. Landlords, some of the paint recycling program’s most devoted customers, love the high-hiding quality of the paint. Katie Clay, Resource Development Coordinator, shared her own personal experience, “I used two coats to cover my brown living room walls with a really nice light blue-green color.”
The paint recycling program is part of ReStore’s larger Deconstruction Program which also salvages construction materials on-site and collects scrap metals. Full and part-time employees churn out roughly two batches a week, which is roughly 100 gallons of paint that becomes recycled product. Two, 55 gallon barrels serve as the site of mixing and filtering. Batches are poured into 5 gallon buckets that sell for $35 each, complete with “home brewed” in Lexington labels created by another local business, Bullhorn Creative. White and off-white have proven the best-selling colors so far.
Jake Brown (left) and Tatum Lewis (right) demonstrate the recycling process.
Volunteers can also get in on the fun. University of Kentucky student groups, schools, and environmental groups have created their own paint batches, complete with catchy names. “Blue Your Mind,” “OMGreen,” “Pretty in Purplish,” “A-maize-ing Yellow,” and “Check me out, I’m Buff” are just a few of the gems. While seemingly unappealing, “The Milk’s Gone Bad,” a grayish-white turned out to be a great seller. One group from the County Attorney’s Office spent a day moving furniture only to return for an afternoon of paint mixing. Their color creation? “Prosecutor Purple,” of course. “Volunteers are welcome and it doesn’t take a lot of training” says Michael. “A group of six volunteers can create a barrel of paint in around four hours.” School children aged 16 and over can volunteer with an adult 18 or older to operate the mixing drill.
Checklist for recycling your paint at ReStore:
- It must have been made between 1994-present.
- It has never been frozen.
- Paint must be in its original container.
- It must be latex. (Non-latex or other paints not accepted by ReStore can be made landfill-ready by adding cat litter, dirt, paint thickening crystals, or sawdust. Place beside the Herbie with the lid loosely attached on collection day.)
To set up volunteer visits, contact the ReStore Volunteer Coordinator Catherine Trout at catherinet@lexhabitat.org or call 859-252-2224, ext-150.
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Lisa Conley Joined Our Team
Greensource would like to welcome Lisa Conley as our new Outreach Specialist. Lisa grew up in Daysboro, Kentucky and credits her rural upbringing in eastern Kentucky with influencing her concerns for the environment. She states, “I love the fact I grew up in a region so full of natural beauty. I was always outside playing in the barn, on the river banks, and in the hay bottoms. I came to appreciate the peacefulness there and could get lost in an afternoon of bird-watching, catching tadpoles, or just walking the hills behind our house.”
Lisa used this appreciation of the natural world when she moved away for college. While attending Eastern Kentucky University and later the University of Kentucky, Lisa researched issues related to environmental disasters in Appalachia and taught as a part-time instructor for both universities. She is currently finishing her PhD in Sociology at UK by researching motivations of home food production, the intersections of environmental sustainability, and local food economies. She is excited to be the new Outreach Specialist for Bluegrass Greensource working with large businesses to increase their recycling efforts and find ways to conserve water and energy usage. She is a great addition to our team!
Interesting in knowing more of Greensource’s staff, go to https://bggreensource.org/home/what-we-do/our-people/staff/.
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For the latest green information in Central Kentucky, “Like” us on our Facebook page Bluegrass Greensource or follow us on Twitter @BluegrassGreensource. If you have any questions or comments about this issue, please contact us at info@bggreensource.org.
Sincerely,
Amy Sohner
Executive Director
Bluegrass Greensource
Amy Sohner is executive director of Greensource and a graduate of the University of Kentucky in Natural Resource Conservation and Management. Sohner has worked with Greensource since its inception in 2002 and is a Certified Environmental Educator. She is involved with the Kentucky Environmental Literacy Alliance, the Bluegrass Rain Garden Alliance, the Licking and Kentucky River Basin Teams, and serves as vice-chair of the Keep Lexington Beautiful Commission. Sohner lives near the Kentucky River palisades with her husband, two daughters and a multitude of pets.