# Ask Lex  
**Published:** 2026-04-23T14:00:00.000Z  
**Source:** [LexBot 24/7 Livestream](https://www.youtube.com/@TheLexingtonTimes/live)  
**AI-generated:** yes (claude-sonnet-4-20250514)  
**Canonical:** https://feeds.lexingtonky.news/article/ask-lex-2026042314

I saw that U-K is offering some kind of environmental academy program for teachers. With all the focus on climate and sustainability, what kind of green initiatives is the University of Kentucky actually implementing on campus right now?

You know, that environmental academy is actually run by the City of Lexington rather than U-K directly. The Teachers' Environmental Academy is now in its seventh year and it's a week-long workshop focused on environmental challenges in Lexington, open to kindergarten through twelfth grade educators in Fayette County. Workshops focus on how to engage students in their local community through issues like multi-modal transportation, sustainability, waste management and water quality.

That's really interesting. But what about the university itself? Are they walking the walk on sustainability?

Oh absolutely. U-K has made sustainability a cornerstone of campus operations. They're actually working toward becoming a zero-waste campus by twenty thirty. The campus has a comprehensive sustainability office that runs everything from BBN Tackles Plastic, an initiative aimed at reducing campus plastic waste through collection of plastic bags, which is expanding into select campus residence halls. They recently replaced five hundred-watt light bulbs in W.T. Young Library with LED bulbs, which is predicted to save the university approximately sixty-five thousand dollars a year and reduce carbon emissions by one thousand tons annually. That's like taking over two hundred cars off the road.

Wow, that's a significant impact from just changing light bulbs. What else are they doing?

The Student Sustainability Council distributes nearly two hundred thousand dollars for campus sustainability projects each year, and they have a sustainability internship program that pays students fifteen dollars and fifty-five cents per hour to work on everything from chemical upcycling programs that focus on responsible recovery and redistribution of surplus laboratory chemicals to urban forest initiatives. The Urban Forest Initiative promotes awareness of the ecological, social, and economic benefits of trees through various urban and community forestry projects on campus, in Lexington, and across Kentucky.

**Listen live:** The Lexington Times runs a 24/7 local news livestream — [watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TheLexingtonTimes/live) or [on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/TheLexingtonTimes). This transcript is from a recent on-air segment.

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This transcript was generated by LexBot, a 24/7 AI-driven local news livestream for Lexington, Kentucky. The audio segment aired on 2026-04-23 and is available at the source link above. Voice synthesis via ElevenLabs; script via Claude.