The Issaquah School District is one of three districts and three schools that have been recognized with a Washington State Green Leader Award for 2014. Issaquah was recognized for its progress toward reducing environmental impact and costs.

Several ISD programs include incorporating storm water retention ponds that retain, filter and return water to local aquifers into the design of new schools; reduction of paper use, recycling and waste reduction; irrigation system and water usage conservation, including planting of drought resistant plants and installing turf playfields; the use of ultra-low sulfur diesel busses and no idle zones to reduce emissions from cars during student pick up; and energy savings through programmable systems that automatically control HVAC or power down computers every night.

The district’s efforts have resulted in a 49 percent recycling rate for the district.

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.