Sustainability

All eight schools in School District 197 offer LiveGreen as an extracurricular club. Clubs meet a minimum of six times throughout the year and are involved in a range of projects such as adopt-a-drain, recycle right initiatives, and litter cleanups, tree plantings, pollinator gardens, and solar suitcases. Contact your school's LiveGreen advisor today.

The district seeks to manage materials and prevent waste through source reduction, reuse and material management, organics diversion, and recycling programs. We align with the State of Minnesota's waste goal to divert 75% of waste from landfills by 2030.

We currently divert an estimate 40% of our waste to organics and recycling. In addition, we prevent waste through textbook donation, material resue, bulk school supply ordering, paper management, compostable paper towels, and zero waste lunch. 

Saving money to support education is fundamental to LiveGreen. Through building automation, energy efficient technology, and renewable energy sources, the district's schools are highly energy efficient and operate well below average energy use, helping  avoid utility costs, and reducing greenhouse gases.

Examples of our energy and water conservation strategies include: temperature setpoints, building automation, LED and natural lighting, high efficiency boilers, variable frequency drivers, renewable energy, and smart irrigation.

The district reports its energy and water use to Minnesota B3 Benchmarking, a requirement for Minnesota public schools. 

The district's 200+ acres holds buildings, sports fields, playgrounds, grassy areas, parking lots, sidewalks, gardens, streams, ponds, forests, and prairies. The district seeks to responsibly steward our land and natural resources and was the first school district in Minnesota to pass a Pollinator-Friendly School Board resolution in 2016. Our best management practices for conservation and protection include:

• Conservative salt practices 
• Weather-sensing irrigation
• Longer grass height
• Limited herbicide use
• Invasive species management
• Drought tolerant native plants
• Turf to native prairie conversions
• Vegetable gardens
• Tree canopy diversification
• Forest management
• Raingarden & bioretension basin installations

Solar aligns with the district's goal of reducing our environmental impact and achieving energy savings. In 2019, the school board passed a 100% Clean Electricity Resolution. Through a combination of both on and off site solar, the district sources 100% of its electricity through clean, renewable energy.

In 2017, the district began adding on-site solar. made possible by State of Minnesota Made in Minnesota and Solar for Schools grants. Currently we have a total of eight rooftop photovoltaic solar systems which produce over 900 kW a year and provide 17% of the district's electricity. In addition, the district's aquatic center, built in 2019, utilizes a solar thermal system for heating water which reduces the natural gas use by an estimated 30% a year. Our solar systems produce clean, renewable energy, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and will the save over $5 million in utility costs over the next 25 years.

The remaining 80% of our district's electricity is sourced from off-site solar garden subscriptions. These subscriptions enable us to purchase renewable energy and reduce our energy costs through discounted rates.

2003-2013

• Established Energy Efficiency with the SEE program to reduce utility costs and low cost/no cost strategies (2003)
• Established LIVEGREEN program with student clubs at each school (2007)
• Awarded Energy Star at all School (2009)
• Implemented Organics at all schools (2009)
• Implemented environmentally safe cleaners (2010)

2014-2024

• Awarded U.S. Green Ribbons to Garlough, Heritage, District, Sibley, PK, and Moreland (2012-18)
• Began tracking energy usage through B3 (2014)
• Hosted Green Corp interns (2014-16)
• Joined districtwide Fall and Spring Bike & Walk to school program (2015)
• Passed Pollinator Friendly School Board Resolution (2016)
• Implemented Styrofoam Free Standard in all schools (2017)
• Added 200 kW renewable energy with five, rooftop solar arrays through a Made in Minnesota solar grant (2018)
• Awarded Minnesota Benchmarking Best of B3 (2018)
• Subscribed to renewable energy through community solar gardens for district electricity (2018)
• Passed 100% Clean Electricity School Board Resolution (2019)
• Started Solar Suitcase program with LiveGreen Clubs (2019)
• Partnered with Dakota County on River to River Greenway corridor project (2019)
• Awarded MN Dept of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant for walk to school improvements (2020)
• Installed native landscaping at all schools (2020) 
• Established Material Management system to reuse and recycle existing school furniture and equipment (2021)
• Awarded Dakota County School Recycling grant for waste infrastructure (2021)
• Converted 10 acres existing turf to native prairie through a Great River Greening grant (2022)
• Started annual Earth Day Cleanups at all schools (2022)
• Awarded Dakota County School Recycling grants for waste reduction to install dishwashers at two schools (2023)
• Received Energy Efficiency + Health Best In Class Award from U.S. Department of Energy (2024)
• Joined U.S. Better Climate Challenge to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions 50% in 10 years (2024)
• Installed SMART irrigation systems to reduce water usage (2024)

2025-Present

• Added 709 kW renewable energy with solar arrays through a Solar for Schools grant (2025)
• Eliminated single use plastics and started zero waste lunch (2025)
• MN Pollution Control Agency Waste Reduction grant to install a dishwasher at Two Rivers High School (2025)
• MN Dept of Transportation BOOST grant for biking infrastructure (2025)
• Dakota County Watershed District Conservation Grant to build a bioretention basin to capture salt runoff (2025)