Environmentally-Friendly San Francisco Bay Area Communities

by richard hubbard

San Francisco has long had a history of caring about its community. For decades, the country has looked to San Francisco for guidance on how to take care of one’s fellow man and of the planet. So it’s no surprise that San Francisco is one of the leaders in environmentally friendly communities. From the Green Building Program of Marin County to the Mountain View apartments of Silicon Valley, San Francisco is again leading the way, showing some great new methods for building green communities to the world.

Marin County – Green Building Program

The Green Building Program is a Marin Country project run by Omar Pena, Marin County’s Green Building Coordinator. He is available to offer any technical assistance needed in order to build green in Marin County. The Green Building Program is part of Marin County’s Sustainability Initiative, designed to save energy and protect the environment in various ways, from promoting alternative energy use, to green building to tips on green living. The Green Building Program includes residential green building guidelines and a rating system, incentives for green building initiatives and green building technical help.

Silicon Valley – Mountain View Apartments

Many Silicon Valley homes and Mountain View apartments are built with the environment and green building in mind. What does green building mean? It can mean a variety of things, from energy efficiency, for example, solar panels, daylighting apparatuses and other construction methods designed to maximize the use of renewable resources for lighting, heating, cooling and power, rather than relying on fossil fuels that are costly and generate pollution, to water efficiency, providing systems for purifying and recycling water whenever possible. It can mean systems designed to improve indoor air quality or using bio-degradable products in construction to reduce waste.

More on Environmentally-Friendly Building

Not all apartments you will rent or houses you will buy will have every green building feature, even in a place like San Francisco. However, when an entire community bands together to protect the environment, the effect is exponential. Clusters of green buildings can mean communities with less air pollution, lower ambient temperatures and a generally cleaner and healthier environment.

Moving to a Green Community

If you’re looking to move to a new community, consider moving to an environmentally friendly one like the ones you might find in San Francisco. Whether making the move to Mountain View apartments, Marin county homes, or communities like them elsewhere in Northern California, you’ll be doing yourself a service. And it’s not only yourself to consider. Don’t you want your children growing up in a pollution-free environment? Don’t you want friends that can share in the joy of protecting and healing the planet, for you and the generations that follow you? It starts with the little things. The builders have done the hard work for you. To do your part, all you have to do is move in and live. That seems like a small sacrifice for a healthier planet. In fact some might say it’s no sacrifice at all.