The Oregon Department of Transportation is a leader in sustainability planning and initiatives. Our Sustainability Program assists staff in carefully managing activities and assets so we can sustain access to essential goods and services.

Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez joined the Oregon Department of Transportation and representatives from public and private partner organizations to break ground this morning for Oregon's second solar highway project. When complete, the new solar array at the Baldock Rest Areas on Interstate 5 north near Wilsonville will produce nearly 9 percent of ODOT's power needs in the Portland General Electric service area.

As a large state agency, ODOT employees use a lot of office supplies, it's just a part of doing business, but there are things we can do to minimize the environmental and economic impacts of our office supplies usage. The ODOT Procurement Office is helping the agency find ways to reduce the impacts of these supplies from eliminating extra packaging to the use of recycled content paper to reducing the number of supply deliveries per week.

One great example of an innovative project that exemplifies integrating sustainability into the business of ODOT is the Elk Creek Tunnel demonstration project in Region 3. This project highlights the co-benefit opportunities that exist with sustainable projects; in this case the region was able to reduce operations and maintenance costs while increasing energy efficiency. By replacing the High Pressure Sodium lighting fixtures with induction lighting fixtures and permanently removing 136 fixtures, the region has reduced the annual energy use in the tunnel by 52%.

The 2012 ODOT Progress Report is now available!! The ODOT Sustainability Program publishes an annual progress report to highlight accomplishments and progress on the performance measures and goals outlined in Volume II of ODOT's Sustainability Plan. Read the report to find out about some of the great ways ODOT and its employees are sustainable!

Work is now complete on two electric vehicle charging stations for ODOT facilities. The stations will charge the five Nissan Leaf electric vehicles ODOT purchased and provide a sustainable transportation choice for business travel.