The Kentucky Center Blog

The Future Looks Green at The Kentucky Center

The Kentucky Center has already started to get some notice (and win some awards) about our new Green Initatives. Even small things like recycling and switching to more energy efficient light bulbs can make a huge difference. But as simple as those efforts are, we also have some big plans that we're considering.

So what could the future hold at the Center? Maybe the most exciting news of all. Nothing is definite, and right now we’re just conducting studies to determine what’s feasible, but imagine one day looking up at The Kentucky Center’s roof and seeing a vault of living green!

Green roofing is one of the latest trends in environmental technology. It involves actually planting ivy and grasses on commercial roofing space. The plants act as excellent insulation to help with heat retention. They form a natural barrier against the elements, more than doubling a roof’s life expectancy. They assist with water run-off, which in turn helps keep interiors dry. And they look fabulous!

Sound like a pipe dream? Well, dreaming big has already paid off for The Kentucky Center. Recently, the Bluegrass chapter of Net Impact, a global organization of students and professionals using business to improve the world, awarded Shue the Impact at Work Award for her efforts leading the Green Team at the Center. It’s an award that we’re all proud of, and it’s just the beginning.

We take our role as Kentucky’s premier performing arts center and a leader in the arts throughout the Commonwealth very seriously, and just like the arts themselves, responsible energy consumption is not a cost-saving luxury. It is a social necessity.

So, is being green easy? No, it isn’t. But it’s important, it’s fulfilling and worthwhile, and at The Kentucky Center, it’s the way we’re going to be.

The Greening of the Center, Part 2: Beyond Recycling

The Kentucky Center’s Green Team got off to a flying start with some incredible recycling stats. So far, we’re recycling an average of 2,000 pounds every single week! Of course, Recycle is just one of the three R’s of being green, and The Kentucky Center is equally committed to the other two: Reuse and Reduce.

There aren’t a lot of opportunities to “reuse” around the Center, but we’re taking advantage of all we can, like programming most of the printers to print double-sided documents whenever possible, and recycling the spent ink cartridges to use again. And we’re looking into the possibility of allowing patrons to return their programs so they can be used again. It might not sound like a lot, but it’s a bunch of little moves like this that can add up to a big difference.

Reducing, on the other hand, is much easier, and we’re going all out to cut back on energy consumption throughout The Kentucky Center. The most obvious way is to replace all of the light bulbs with more energy efficient LED lights. According to a recent study, LED lamps can last as much as 25 times longer than incandescent bulbs while using only about 1/7 the electricity. That’s the kind of efficiency that’s as good for our bottom line as it is for the environment.

Currently, we’re replacing about 5% of our lights every month, and later this year, when we unveil an exciting new lighting design for the main lobby, all of the new lights will be LED as well. We’re also looking into reducing water consumption by installing low-flow faucets in all the restrooms, and we’re exploring the possibility of making all of the signage around the Center electronic, eliminating the need to print paper posters.

Abby Shue, Kentucky Center Green Team leader, recognized by Net Impact

This profile recently appeared in the Net Impact Bluegrass Chapter eNews. Congratulations, Abby!

 ABBY SHUE

Net Impact Member Since: 2010

Education: BA, Butler University, 2009

Current Position: Director, Executive Projects, Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts

Location: Louisville, KY

Performers visiting The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville can often be found entering backstage with their leotards and tutus, violins and harps, puppets and props. And until recently, chances are you could spot a cellist toting an instrument in one hand, recycling bin in the other.

“Management had always talked about starting a recycling program, but for a really long time, they didn’t know how to get one off the ground,” recalls Abby Shue, The Kentucky Center’s current Director of Executive Projects. “Meanwhile, our many environmentally conscious artists hauled in their own recycling bins because we didn’t have any.”

That was before Abby discovered Net Impact and the Impact at Work program last year.

http://netimpact.org

At the time, Abby—a recent grad double majoring in dance and business—had just earned a full-time position at The Kentucky Center and was an active member of the Young Professionals Association of Louisville. She participated in the organization’s Habitat for Humanity builds, which happened to be for a LEED-certified home in partnership with Net Impact Bluegrass professional chapter.

“I started hearing all about Net Impact,” says Abby, “and they sounded like professional experts for sustainability efforts. I figured I should join Net Impact and finally find out how to start a recycling program.”

Immediately, Abby signed up for the Bluegrass chapter’s Impact at Work Challenge to gain ideas, motivation, and resources from local members. “I wanted to be accountable to other people,” she says.

At work, Abby created the Kentucky Center’s first ever Green Team with members from literally every department, from fundraising to sound & lighting to ticketing—19 in all. “Our initiatives trickle down to everyone,” she says. “If we want to reduce the amount of ticket printing, we need a representative who knows what’s possible.”

Energized by all the possibilities for the Kentucky Center, Abby jumped at the chance to participate in a new event hosted by her chapter leaders: an Impact at Work(shop) specifically geared towards nonprofits. 

Green Team Wins Net Impact's Impact at Work Challenge

Artists wanted it. Staff wanted it. Patrons wanted it. We needed to do it. What, you may ask? Recycle!

This realization sparked the development of a three-phase institutional recycling program. As with many new ventures, all we really knew was that we didn't know much. We decided to learn from experts of all kinds - businesses in the community who had done something similar, other arts centers around the country and environmental sustainability organizations.

 

One of the organizations we joined was Net Impact, an international organization seeking to inspire, educate, and equip individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world. Net Impact encouraged us to form a Green Team with representatives from across the organization. One year later we have a thriving, vibrant 19-person green team, our recycling dream has grown into a much larger initiative to deal with waste minimization,  energy conservation and water conservation, and the head of our Green Team, Abby Shue, won Net Impact's Impact at Work challenge for the Bluegrass Chapter. Keep up the good work, Green Team!

 

The Kentucky Center Hosts an Electronics Recycling Event

 

Since the Center’s inception, old electronic equipment has been retired to storage rooms throughout the facility. The green team, comprised of 19 Kentucky Center employees from different departments, decided to start 2011 fresh - clean storage rooms and all! On Thursday, December 30, Kentucky Center’s green team coordinated an electronics recycling event with Bluegrass Ecycle.

 

As part of our waste minimization efforts, green team volunteers formed an assembly line and were able to nearly fill a sixteen-foot box truck with obsolete computers, monitors, telephones, fax machines, printers, projectors, lighting boards, and more.  Bluegrass Ecycle guarantees that all electronic materials deemed hazardous are disposed of safely and in accordance with federal, state and local laws.

 

Of course, we were concerned about properly destroying all confidential records from our computers, so 97 hard drives were destroyed onsite under the supervision of our IT staff.

 

I was hoping for something a bit like the copier bashing scene in the movie Office Space, but the hard drive cruncher was a close second. 

This year’s event went so smoothly that we plan to make it an annual tradition.