By Fiona Morgan

fiona@amnews.com

Bluegrass Greensource is holding a home energy efficiency workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 23 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Boyle County Public Library.

The event is free and open to Boyle County residents. Attendees will learn about the current energy landscape, ways to save energy, and learn how to use Bluegrass Greensource’s home energy audit kit.

The free kit will have various items that can help save energy. Using the kit, people can evaluate spaces in their homes where they’re losing energy.

Instructors will teach simple DIY improvements that can help lower energy consumption and reduce the cost of utilities, such as resealing windows.

There are 25 spots per workshop, and people can register at bggreensource.org/what-we-do/community-outreach/home-energy-workshops.

Bluegrass Greensource Community Outreach Coordinator Alli Johnson said that workshop attendees who complete a survey after the event will be entered to win a free Nest thermostat.

“In the event that the workshop fills up, we are offering workshops in other surrounding counties and info on those can be found on our Facebook page or website,” Johnson said.

There will be a workshop with the same material in Lincoln County on Jan. 29 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the Lincoln County Public Library. These events are funded by the Office of Energy Policy at the state level.

Other programs by Bluegrass Greensource happening in Boyle County include the Green Neighbor Program. Johnson said it’s a pilot program that they’ve launched for the first time in Boyle County.

The Green Neighbor Program is a certification that any Boyle County resident can get by taking a survey. The survey allows people to see how well they help the environment in their homes, and can learn about how to improve.

At their homes, people can help their local environments by improving lawn health, reducing the amount of yard waste sent to landfills, providing habitat for native species, and reducing pollutants in the water. The Green Neighbor certification allows people to be recognized for their efforts in those areas.

The survey is available at bggreensource.org/green-neighbor.

The Main Street Clean Sweep will be in April, and the Green Business Innovation Forum will happen on May 31.