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A host of sustainable buildings and technologies will be on display Saturday, Oct. 11 for the High Desert Green + Solar Tour in Bend and Redmond.

Education is the focus of the tour, which comes on the heels of the Northwest Green Building Industry Summit held Friday, Oct. 10.

Many different aspects of Friday’s summit will be shown in practice at the all-day event Saturday, including homes featuring net-zero and sustainable building technologies, said Jody Howe, a volunteer with Cascadia Green Building Council, which is putting on this year’s event.

“People who are interested can go right from the classroom to seeing those in practice,” Howe said. “That may give them a better understanding of what they want to look for.”

Dr. James Hollis, a University of California San Diego professor who speaks nationally on building more walkable and healthy communities, will kick off the tour Friday night with a keynote address at The Environmental Center in Bend, Howe said.

No time has been set for the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Saturday’s tour, which lasts from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Bend and Redmond, will feature four public educational buildings and five residential properties, Howe said.

On the commercial side, one of the highlights of the tour is Central Oregon Community College’s $12.5 million Redmond Technology Education Center, which opened in August. The building boasts multiple sustainable features including electrochromic, or smart-glass, windows, which tint automatically or manually based on the building’s needs. (For more about electrochromic glass, see story Page 14).

Other public buildings featured on the tour are Redmond’s Ridgeview High School, the Cascade Academy on Tumalo Reservoir Road in Bend and the Bend Park & Recreation District building on Southwest Columbia Street, Howe said.

“It’s going to be interesting to see the schools built on sustainable stewardship model,” she said. “At Cascade Academy, we have kids learning about this in the first grade.”

On the residential side, the tour will feature four new homes and one 1920s-built home on Northwest Hartford Avenue in Bend, which has been deep-energy retrofitted to achieve a two-thirds energy reduction in the last year, she said.

Another highlight on the residential side will be a net-zero home at 61076 S.E. Ruby Peak Lane in Bend that will showcase the ultimate in building insulation as well as an efficient heating source, water system and solar panels.

“The whole idea basically is that they’re producing what they need,” Howe said.

The net-zero energy home, which includes solar power and ductless heat pumps, was built as a showcase for sustainability with proceeds from its sale going toward the St. Charles Foundation for cancer support services, Howe said.

For more information on the Green + Solar Tour, visit: http://living-future.org/greenandsolar.