The Issaquah School District is one of three districts and three schools in the state that has been recognized with a 2014 Washington State Green Leader Award. Issaquah was recognized for its progress toward reducing environmental impact and costs.
Several district programs include incorporating storm water retention ponds that retain, filter and return water to local aquifers into the design of new schools. They also have focused on the reduction of paper use, recycling and waste reduction, irrigation system and water usage conservation through the planting of drought resistant plants and installation of turf playfields, the use of ultra-low sulfur diesel busses with no idle zones to reduce car emissions during student pick-up, and energy savers through programmed systems that automatically power down computers every night.
The efforts have resulted in a 49 percent districtwide recycling rate. More than 7,500 cubic yards of recycled materials and 1,800 cubic yards of food scraps are collected each year, reducing the district’s garbage volume by 7,400 cubic yards annually. Since 2001, domestic water usage has been reduced by 40.4 percent, 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide from energy usage has been prevented from entering the atmosphere, and energy consumption has decreased by 7.6 percent even as the district’s building square footage has increased by almost 30 percent.
