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Who knew that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner? Considering the overabundance of Easter décor already at the local Kroger, I had forgotten the day even existed! But whether you’re celebrating Galentine’s Day Leslie Knope-style, spending a romantic evening with your partner, or enjoying a special evening with a spoon and a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, there are a lot of ways that you can show your love of the Earth this February!

Consider a Hike through the Woods!
Hug some trees while hugging your partner this month and check out some of the beautiful wilderness Kentucky has to offer. From the Dupree Nature Preserve in Garrard County to McConnell Springs in Lexington, there are many places you can visit on a date to stay outside and off of screens or using electricity. And, consider this post from Harvard Health reminding us of the tremendous health benefits from hiking!

Shut off the lights. Light up a candle.
Besides the obvious increase in romanticism that comes with food by candlelight, consider the energy savings as well. Shutting off the lights in your house and turning off the screens are great ways to get your body ready for bed while also being romantic and energy-saving. And once you head to bed, turn down the thermostat! Let the coolness overtake your house while you find other ways to keep yourself warm…like an extra blanket.

Make Your Own Candles!
If you’re worried about all of the things in candles or about the environmental impacts of transporting them, then try your hand at learning to make your own. Wax can be lots of fun to play around with on a date and it’s a great skill that you can use for years to come. Check out some of these videos on YouTube of other crafty people and send us some pictures of your finished products!

Eat Local!
Besides the incredible benefit that eating local provides to our local economy, remember the eco-benefit as well. Eating local means less carbon pollution from transporting meat from South America or shipping in your cheese from France. Consider the local vineyards for your evening wine selection! Try out Lexington Pasta for some local sauce and noodles! Check out Marksbury Farms for some local beef! Dive into Boone Creek Creamery for some delicious cheese! I basically just planned your dinner for you, and I didn’t even leave Central Kentucky to get my supplies. Many grocery or liquor stores do a great job of designating what’s local and some Farmer’s Markets have indoor seasons during the cold months.

It’s easy to shrug off Valentine’s Day as an over-commercialized gimmick to increase consumption. But, there’s never a bad reason to love ourselves and the people around us. Enjoy yourself this February and remember to love the Earth every day as well.

On February 4th at the UK Gatton Student Center, nearly 30 presenters spoke to almost 200 attendants about sustainability issues in and around Central Kentucky, inspiring them to take action in their own communities. The Sustainability Summit’s Keynote speaker, Mark Fisher from the Cincinnati Zoo, told the audience about the incredible transformation the zoo went through to become sustainable and efficient after he became Senior Director of Facilities and Planning. We then heard from three Regional Success Stories: Green Umbrella, the City of Cincinnati, and Maker’s Mark Distillery. Each speaker sent a clear message that, while sustainability may sometimes seem like an uphill battle, it is always worth the climb.

After hearing from the Regional Success Stories, our audience broke up into four groups and chose to learn about one of four tracks: energy efficiency and climate change, sustainable agriculture and local food, waste reduction, or water quality. Each track had three panelists presenting about their unique struggles or accomplishments in that track, providing important insight to the issue for the attendants. Some audience members would later choose to join that track’s Action Team or another, depending on what they felt most passionate about.

A local lunch was provided by UK Dining, and it was a hit! Luckily, we were able to coordinate just the right amount of food with the chef so we had very little food waste. During lunch, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate read some of his poems that reflected his passion for sustainability. 

Attendants then heard from our final three Regional Success Stories: the City of Louisville, Midwest Clean Energy Enterprise, LLC, and the City of Bowling Green. Each presenter demonstrated sustainable initiatives in their community, inspiring Central Kentuckians to enact change in their own communities. The audience then went to learn about one of the four tracks again, and made plans to join an Action Team.

Finally, Action Teams were formed and set goals with the help of EKU’s Facilitation Center. These Action Teams will meet once a month or every other month for one year, carrying out goals they set at the Summit in Central Kentucky communities. If you are interested in joining an Action Team, check out the events page of our website for locations, dates, and times of each meeting. These meetings are open to the public; we want everyone who is passionate about the environment to be able to make sustainable changes in their community!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored, presented at, or came to the Sustainability Summit. We could not have done it without you, and we look forward to hosting this event next year.

BGGS will host an exciting event this coming February: the Inaugural Bluegrass Sustainability Summit. On February 4th, 2020, the Sustainability Summit will empower attendees to create change in their businesses, homes and communities. After hearing regional success stories and from local experts, attendees will split up into Action Teams and take on local opportunities and challenges in the areas of Waste Reduction, Water Quality, Sustainable Agriculture/Local Food, and Energy Efficiency/Climate Change. To be held at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton Student Center, the Summit will be a historic event for Lexington.  More information regarding the event, agenda, and registration info can be found here.

At our recent Fall Open House, our Board Chair, Tresine Logsdon, presented four of our staff with awards for length of service. Maxine Rudder, our Deputy Director, has been working tirelessly since 2004 and is an inspiration to all she interacts with. Pattie Stivender started in 2007 and has lead our award winning education team with passion and skill. Kara Sayles joined the Education team in 2008, and continues to empower the middle and high school students she works with while providing a calming and supportive atmosphere throughout our office. Deb Larkin started in 2010, and reinvigorated our preschool program and continues to shape learners throughout Central Kentucky. All of our staff benefit from the experience and historical knowledge these four have, and we are a much better team because of them!

By: Chris Porter

Lexington is and has mostly been a community of transplants – most Lexington residents arrive here from other places. This makes educating people about recycling extremely important, and also somewhat of a challenge. We often begin conversations about Lexington’s recycling program by saying, “All recycling is local.” This simply means that how we recycle in our community will be different than it is in other communities. 

People are often surprised to learn what items we accept at Lexington’s Materials Recovery Facility and even more surprised to learn about the items that we do not accept. This is particularly true of people who have come here from other communities, where accepted items often include a greater array of plastics. 

But what many Lexington residents don’t realize is the large number of refugees that are re-settled here each year. One community organization that works with this community is Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM), and for many years, Bluegrass Greensource (BGGS) has worked with the City of Lexington to provide KRM’s Citizen Orientation students with basic education on recycling and water quality. 

For many of these students, living in Lexington is the first community they have lived in where recycling is a common practice. The problem, from Bluegrass Greensource’s perspective, is that the type of education we provide tends to be a bit abstract. We have lots of photos, information, and distribute educational materials created by the City of Lexington. But if you are a new resident to Lexington, do not have a solid grasp of English, and have never recycled before, will this information make sense to you? 

This summer, BGGS worked with the City of Lexington and KRM’s Angelique Bell to brainstorm a different way to bring this education to life for her students. We realized that providing an up close, first-hand experience of the Recycling Center might be the most direct way to connect the dots and introduce this subject to new residents. 

Early one June Friday morning, 28 people representing six different language groups gathered at Lexington’s Recycling Center. After a brief presentation about the basics of recycling in Lexington, the group toured the Center and saw each step of the recycling process from the tipping floor where the trucks deliver recyclables after collection, to the series of conveyor belts, machines, and human labor that sorts the materials, to the balers that process the materials to be shipped after a buyer has been secured. 

The tour also provided an opportunity to demonstrate the many challenges facing recycling in both Lexington and the rest of the United States. Seeing the materials being processed really drives home the impact that contamination – materials that should not be recycled – has on the workers, the machines, and ultimately the Recycling Center’s ability to successfully re-sell the materials.

“Today was really a lot of fun,” said Angelique Bell, KRM’s teacher for the Citizen Orientation class. “It was really nice to not only get the information about recycling, but to also see where everything is processed. It was really a good lesson for the group!” 

In Lexington, we have a robust system of municipal services that help to make our community the healthy, vibrant place it is. But these services require residents do their part to make sure they function properly. For some of Lexington’s newest residents, this education helps them understand how our community works, what services are available to them, and what they can do to ensure their ongoing success.
If you and/or your group is interested in touring Lexington’s Recycling Center or learning more about recycling in Lexington, please contact Chris Porter, Outreach Specialist, at chris@BgGreensource.org or call the office at 859-266-1572.

Over one-hundred students, teachers, and parents from Central Kentucky schools visited Harlan County to learn about Kentucky’s main energy source: coal.  The trip was the culmination of six months of studying about energy resources and their differing environmental impacts.

The fourth-grade students travelled around Benham and Lynch, two communities that have been significantly influenced by coal, to learn more about Kentucky’s mining history.  The Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, located in the former coal camp town of Benham, offered students the opportunity to experience the conditions of mining in their mock coal mine.  The tour, led by a retired miner, detailed the history of mining in the area.  Portal 31 Mine tour in Lynch presented a unique opportunity to tour an actual coal mine and learn about the process of mining.  While touring the church, train depot, and enjoying cocoa at the Lamp House Coffee Shop students learned about the many nationalities that came together to mine in the area during its heyday.  It’s hard to imagine these small towns teaming with over 10,000 people in each community.  As coal jobs left so did the majority of the population.  Our group toured a mushroom farm located in the old coal bath house.  Just one of the many business enterprises now sprouting in the area.

“This type of learning experience is extraordinary! Often times these types of learning opportunities are
what impact student learning in a way that is unmatchable. My energy team students will return to school
and use their experience to teach the entire school what they have learned. They will become the
instructors to help educate an entire school on the importance of conservation of resources, recycling,
reducing the amount of damage(human footprint) we leave behind on our planet, as well as the history of
coal, and the uses of coal. This fieldtrip/program allows students to not only learn about energy
resources, alternative energy resources, environmental issues, but also empowers them to become
active in protecting our environments as well. I hope this opportunity will be possible for many more
students!”

-Emily Manier (Crab Orchard Elementary)

The highlight of the trip was the presentation from Kentucky author Mary Knight.  As KEY team members, students received a copy of Ms. Knight’s book Saving Wonder and participated in book discussions throughout the year with Bluegrass Greensource educators.  As students discussed the life of Curly Hines and his love of the natural beauty of Eastern Kentucky, they also examined the trials and benefits of coal mining.  Ms. Knight engaged the students in a touching conversation about coal, jobs, the environment, and the local people who cherish the area.

“This program is so rich in experiential learning. The students truly love the program, from the lessons and
book study with Mr. Danny to the field trip, they are honored to be a part of it all. It is amazing that you are
able to have Mary Knight come speak to the kids—what an opportunity! I am so thrilled to be a part of the
program, as I believe it offers invaluable instruction across many content areas and using many skills
(critical thinking science, history, social studies, social skills, language arts, and careers). It delights me to
see the kids engaged in listening to oral history from wonderful people who serve as living encyclopedias
(and not to be staring at their phones). As a Kentuckian (a native eastern Kentuckian at that), I’m truly
proud of the work the people in Harlan County are doing to try to keep their towns alive and to ultimately
thrive as they adapt, from their tourism to agribusiness. I want your program and the work of the people in
Benham and Lynch to gain as much notoriety as possible so that it continues indefinitely. I also wish I
could take more students from my school. It’s also worth mentioning that your program does a fabulous
job of presenting information from a variety of sources with respect, without obvious bias, and returning
responsibility to the students to consider the complex issues related to energy production in Kentucky,
and its use nationwide.”

– Bianca Bargo (Southside Elementary)

Now that the students have returned, they are busy preparing presentations about their energy studies and trip to Harlan County.  Each team, spanning all across Central Kentucky, will share this information with their classmates to further their understanding of this polarizing topic. 

Reflecting on the trip: Jack from Kit Carson

By: Ashley Bryant-Cheney, Program Specialist/Volunteer Coordinator, Bluegrass Greesnsource

From Saturday April 14th to Friday April 27th, over 1,050 volunteers came together around Earth Day to participate in 20 community-led litter pick-ups throughout Central Kentucky. Community members came together to clean-up and build community pride in the Bluegrass. Event participants received t-shirts, gloves, trash bags, and litter grabbers, and took to their downtown storefronts, roadsides, parks, and other public spaces to help beautify their community and protect local water quality. Through these community efforts, volunteers throughout the Commonwealth collected approximately 9 tons of trash this year! WOW!

Check out the story map from this year’s event here. 

Thank you to all the volunteers and to this year’s sponsors. Main Street Clean Sweep was presented by Commonwealth Credit Union and in partnership with Betchel Parsons, PNC Bank, Republic Services, and Valvoline.

Participants in Cynthiana