YPAL – Green Team

Mid summer heat getting to you?  Try out a few of these events to learn about being Green and saving energy during the mid summer heat wave!

An Energy Pros Home Seminar is from at 6:30 to 8:30 Tuesday at 11608 Electron Drive.  Find out more about the ways to make a more energy efficient home.  The website for more information is www.theenergypros.net and Kelly Doyle is the contact person.

Also on Tuesday: From 7:30-9 pm The Green Convene meets at The Clifton Center, Louisville, KY 40206.  Heine Brothers provides the refreshments, the rest is up to the participants.  Hear about their efforts to increase Green efforts across the community!  The meeting is downstairs at the Center. 

Thursday features the 15^th day event as that will mark the 15^th day in July.  This month, the 15Thousand Farmers Vision presentation will occur at the event.  The Farm to Fork folks will provide appitizers for you to munch on.

Ready for a reduction in the emissions from cars?  There are three events this week to help educate you on the effects and ways to combat them. 

A pair of Cleaning the Air Seminars will focus on the emissions.  The Air Pollution Control Board Room at 850 Barret Avenue will host both events.  The 11:30 AM session will focus on idle reduction on automobiles.  This will help with cleaner fleets of cars.The 5:30 PM session will focus on fuel efficiency efforts for personal cars.  The seminar lasts 30 minutes and will feature a question and answer session afterwards. Erin Vachon is the contact for both at the APC Board. 

Dragon King’s Daughter Japanese restaurant near Grinstead and Bardstown Road will host a happy hour for bicycling enthusiasts.  The happy hour will also include discussions on items here in town that are being done to encourage use of other methods than cars.  To get in on the discussion, show up between 5:30 PM and 8 PM.

This week’s event highlights have a unique question.  What can a mushroom do to prepare me for the 21st Century?  Don’t worry if you’re not quite sure, I’m sure your not the only one that would have trouble answering that.  Brandon Pitcher, Green Entrepreneur of the Year, will have some answers to that question at a Thursday event on the University of Louisville’s Ekstrom Library Chao Auditorium from 6 to 8 pm.     

For those that want to learn more a sustainable life, an entire fair is decidated to the purpose.  The fair runs Friday, June 25th from 4 to 10 pm on Rastetter St (between Frankfort & Payne). Vendors and food will be available, along with ideas to continue living green. CUU’s Todd Eklof along with other sustainable groups here in Louisville will be represented there. 

A Nature Explore Summer Camp focuses in on helping the Earth will go all week long from 9 am to noon Monday to Friday.  The camp is at the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center at 1924 Newburg Road.  The camp is open to grade school students from first grade up.

Middle June approaches and the green events keep coming!!!

Ever wanted to raise money for a good green cause by having your favorite drink?  May I suggest an event Monday at Flanigan’s Ale House on Baxter Avenue.  The Monday FUNDay for this week involves the Kentucky Waterways Alliance.  The Alliance helps to keep the Commonwealth’s waterways clean.  Their website is at: http://www.kwalliance.org/

Perhaps something to eat with your beverage?  Tuesday has you covered as “15th Day” at Fresh Start Growers’ Supply (1007 East Jefferson St.)occurs then.  The group looks for ways to grow your own food and sustainable community efforts.  For this Tuesdsay, a mushroom cultivation workshop topic will be presented by  Eric Osborne of Magnificent Mushrooms.  The event is between 6 and 8 pm.

Finally, the Greater Louisville Sierra Club meets on Tuesday as well to go over LEED Certification efforts here in Louisville.  A presentation by Patrick Nall, an architect with TBD+ will include the latest on what’s being done here in town to get more buildings the LEED Certification and how owning a certified building can be benefical.  The meeting is at Clifton Center at 2117 Payne Street and is open to the public.

For the week of the 7th to the 13th of June, a couple of events require a small amount of money and time but that investment could pay off in savings down the road for you or your business.  Here’s this week’s line up:

Wednesday, June 9th brings a Save Energy Now Workshop to the University of Louisville’s Shelby Campus (Shelbyville Road/Hurstbourne Parkway area).  The Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center is hosting the event to show companies how they can make their industrial or manufacturing facility save on energy costs.  More information at this web address: https://louisville.edu/kppc/news-and-events/kentucky-save-energy-now-workshop-louisville.ics

On Saturday, June 12, the Tour de Olmstead winds its way through Iroquois Park.  The day long event involves bike rides and running in the park for a wide variety of skill levels.  The event also helps raise money for the Olmsted Parks Conservancy.  8 am is the start time for events, but professional Circuit Cycling racers get their chance through the park in the early afternoon.

Also on Saturday EarthSave Louisville is hosting a Cooking Class Presented by Tasha Timbrook.  The class will show an Earth friendly way on a classic side dish: Sweet Potato Salad.  The German-Paristown Neighborhood Association  at . 1094 E. Kentucky St. (next to St. Therese Catholic Church). For more information the EarthSave website has more at: http://louisville.earthsave.org/CookingClassESLJune2010.html

The week of May 31st (Memorial Day)-June 6th has events aimed at keeping Louisville green…Think very very Long Term!!!

The Louisville Sustainability Forum will aim to encourage discussion on the green movement and social change on Wednesday of this week.  They meet at the barn behind the Passionist Monastery on 1924 Newburg Road.  Heine Brothers will be providing coffee for the meeting so be sure to thank them!!

Thursday Evening will feature results from a study on the Rubbertown area and its Economic Development Strategy.  Find out about what is being done to develop parts of one of the highest emissions areas of Louisville Metro.  Consultants on the strategy will be available and people at the event will get to view a draft of recommendations made.  The meeting is at NIA Center, 2900 W. Broadway and will begin at 5:30 P.M.

And Overnight Friday night into Saturday, an event is designed to help you NOT leave your mark….in the great outdoors.  Jefferson Memorial Forest will host a Leave No Trace event from 1:00 PM Friday-11:00 AM Saturday Morning.  Participants will learn about the principles of leaving no trace of themselves and items they bring outside.  If you are curious about how you can get going even before then, http://www.lnt.org/ has the organization’s main information for you to view!

Two Cleaning the Air Seminars headline this week’s activity as we approach Memorial Day.  Learn about ways to keep our air clean and help avoid the dreaded OZONE ACTION DAYS!!!   Both are held at the Air Pollution Control Board Room, 850 Barret Avenue, 1st floor on Tuesday, May 25th.

At 11:30 A.M.  Managing Buildings and Grounds for Air Quality 101…The Kentucky Pollution Prevention Center will have a speaker talk about ways to make this happen.  Their group is based over on the University of Louisville’s Campus at the J.B. Speed School of Engineering.  The website also provides some resources on how to be friendlier to the enviroment.

At 5:30 P.M.  Lawn Care for Cleaner Air.  Let me guess, you still have a mower from 25-30 years ago that has oil leak every now and then.  Maybe your using Weed-B-Gone too much to kill weeds (and by accident actual grass nearby).  Or several other similar examples.  BAD IDEAS!!!  Come out to find out a better way!!!

For either of these events, Erin Vachon, (502) 574-7262, is your contact person at the Board.

Also this week:

* Tuesday, May 25, 6:30pm. Petersburg Park Master Planning 2nd meeting. Newburg Community Center, 4810 Exeter Avenue.
* Friday, May 28, 8:30am – 3:30pm. Living Building Challenge. Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest.
* Saturday, May 29, 10am – Noon. Explore Native Plants. Cherokee Park.

Green Events for May 17th-23rd

This week’s listing involves several events to where your voice on Green items could be heard.  Of course the ultimate way to get your voice heard is via elections on Tuesday the 18th with Louisville and State Primiaries on that day.

Perhaps you would like to see more of a focus on Green ideas by our mayor and other city leadership?  The Mayor’s Community Conversation for May is at Butler High School on 2222 Crums Lane.  http://www.louisvilleky.gov/Mayor/Community+Conversations.htm has details on the format of the program.  Several other department heads along with some Metro Council members attend these events and is a great chance to directly speak with them!!

The Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control Board will hold its regular monthly meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in the Board Room, 850 Barret Avenue, Louisville. If you need more information on what the board does, feel free to hop on over to their website at: http://www.louisvilleky.gov/APCD/

And finally, last but not least, another restoration event in the Parks occurs on the 22nd at Cherokee Park:

Volunteer Event: Chickasaw Park
Saturday, May 22        9:00am-12:00pm
Volunteers meet at Main Lodge. Register Now

Chickasaw Park is located along the Ohio River and directions can be found here:

http://local.yahoo.com/info-24438838-chickasaw-park-louisville

Green Events for the Week of May 10-16th

While we await the beginning of the build on the LEED Certified House, may I suggest a few other activities in Louisville to get your green on?

The Olmstead Park Conservancy and YPAL will be restoring woodlands in Cherokee and Seneca Parks.  The woodlands face a battle from Garlic Mustard (alliaria petiolata for floral fans) .  Why is garlic mustard bad for Kentucky Woodlands?  Wikipedia has the answer here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliaria_petiolata#As_an_invasive_species

For those unfamilar with the Olmstead Parks Conservancy, their website will fill you on their purpose and message, plus on the history section, find out a thing or two about the history of  Frederick Law Olmsted and parks here in Louisville: http://www.olmstedparks.org/

To help eliminate the pesky invasive plant and restore these parks, sign up to volunteer on the YPAL Website:  http://www.ypal.org/mc/community/eventdetails.do?eventId=270887&orgId=ypal&recurringId=0

Another event of note is the Green Convene Meeting – Elections on Tuesday, May 11 from 7:30 – 9 pm

Attend this monthly community meeting of Louisville’s coalition for sustainable policy and practice – connecting people and policy to make Louisville more livable.  For Information: www.greenconvene.org 

And finally as always to support green business and orgainzations in Louisville, go to http://louisvillegreenguide.org to find out which business are leading the community in the effort to go green!