2011 Organization Winner

Bend-La Pine Schools

Bend-La Pine Schools is the 7th largest school district in the state of Oregon, with 16,302 students enrolled so far this school year.  The district owns and operates 28 schools, a fleet of buses, an administration building and several satellite facilities that support food services and facility maintenance.  The Bend-La Pine Schools maintenance team manages 2.21 million square feet of school building space.  

What stood out to us: Bend-LaPine Schools has adopted an organization-wide sustainability policy, goals and action plan.  The district has taken a wide range of actions to implement their plan and begun to educate its staff and students about sustainability.  Bend-LaPine Schools took a leadership role in the state by receiving the first LEED Gold Certification east of the Cascades for the construction of W.E. Miller Elementary in Bend and Rosland Elementary in La Pine was built to the same standard.  

Other specific examples include:

• Implementing the Farm to School Program, that brings fresh local food to students.

• Launching two pilot programs to recover and compost cafeteria food waste.

• Adoption of a new cleaning system that greatly reduces water and chemical use.  

• Transitioning many of its buses to propane buses that exceed current emission standards.   

• Addition of condensing boilers at school sites that reduce site emissions and carbon footprint.

• All but four schools have been converted to WeatherTRAK smart controllers, which fine adjusts their watering schedules based on current weather patterns to prevent over watering.  The remaining four schools will be converted to WeatherTRAK in the next bond measure.  

• William E. Miller Elementary School uses approximately 40% less water and 41% less energy than a prototypical school of the same size.  Approximately 14% of the energy needed to power the building is produced by 252 solar panels on the roof.  34% of the schools electricity use comes from renewable energy through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program.

• The District developed the “Bend-La Pine Energy Education Program” (BLEEP) to educate schools about the importance of energy conservation at each school site. Each school has an “energy budget” for the school year and those that are below budget are rewarded with 1/3 of the cost savings coming back to the school. Eight schools are signed up for the Safe Routes to School program through Commute Options for Central Oregon, which promotes walking and teaches bicycle safety to students.

• Employees are encouraged to carpool, bicycle, walk, use public transportation or telecommute when possible, as part of the Commute Options partner program.

Learn more about Bend-La Pine Schools here.