Each week, when the time comes to dispose of (or recycle) yard trimmings and food waste, we all have two main options: 1) combine food scraps, soiled paper, and other biodegradable materials with yard waste to be composted; or, 2) put everything in the garbage bin, ensuring high trash collection costs, an increasing reliance on landfills, and a disconnection from the natural cycle of nutrients. We think #1 sounds better, don't you?

Yard and food waste make up roughly 30% of the waste stream. Composting your kitchen waste and yard trimmings helps divert that waste from the landfill, waterways and water treatment facilities, and is a natural process that recycles decomposed organic materials into a rich soil.

Bottom Line: By promoting "green burials" Colorful Coffins has diverted 827,090 gallons of embalming fluid, 180,544,000 pounds of steel, 5,400,000 pounds of copper, 30,000,000 feet of hard woods, and 3,272,000,000 from the earth and saved clients $400-$2,500 in casket costs per funeral.

Jane Hillhouse's dream of starting a green coffin and burial business in San Mateo County has hit a few snags along the way. A native of the UK, Jane was exposed early on to the concept of green burials and the toxic effects of traditional burial on the Earth's ecosystem. There are over 250 green burial sites in England, and less than 24 in the United States.

Bottom Line: Through the Great Communities Collaborative, nonprofits and foundations team up to fund Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) that promote diversity in residents, incomes, and businesses.

The Great Communities Collaborative is a unique cooperative relationship between four Bay Area nonprofit organizations - Greenbelt Alliance, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, TransForm, and Urban Habitat - and the national nonprofit Reconnecting America. The East Bay Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, and The Silicon Valley Community Foundation are also part of the collaborative.

Bottom Line: Transit Oriented Development is a smart approach to accommodate future growth in San Mateo County, and reduce our communities' environmental impact.

Transit Oriented Development (TOD), sometimes called "Smart Growth" or the "New Urbanism" is an approach to planning communities which concentrates more dense, mixed-use development along transit corridors and near transit hubs. Mixed-use is usually interpreted as developing housing above commercial/retail space, but can also include residential/office use or offices combined with retail shops. On the peninsula, TOD is most appropriate when built near CalTrain stations, but TOD can also be included along major bus routes such as El Camino Real.

1943 was the first time San Franciscan's planted a Victory Garden in the Civic Center Plaza. It was part of a nation-wide movement to grow food stateside because most food supplies were shipped to the soldiers overseas. Backyard vegetable gardens provided forty one percent of all vegetables consumed in the nation. Fifty-five years later, with help from the arts community, the Civic Center Plaza became the epicenter of a new Victory Garden campaign. Started in 2008, the focus of this new campaign is local food and slow food. Local and slow are really interchangeable terms when it comes to food; the idea is grow nutritious, organic food as close as possible to the consumer.

Bottom Line: Growing food on rooftops reduces your carbon footprint, saves money, builds local economies, and adds diversity to the environment.

Keith Agoada started Sky Vegetables in April 2008. At the time, his sustainable-urban-farming business plan had just won a competition at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. The concept takes advantage of the ‘fields' of flat rooftops found atop supermarkets by using that space to grow crops. Prototype ‘fields' would not look like conventional farming. Vegetables would be grown in greenhouses in a high density arrangement. Water needs would be supplemented by rain stored in tanks. Wind turbines and solar panels would supplement energy demands. Composting bins would provide rich soil. Right now, Mr. Agoada and his partners are looking to build a prototype on a Bay Area supermarket.

Originally, El Camino Real linked the Spanish Missions from San Diego to Sonoma. Now, cities from Daly City to San Jose want to make the road a "Grand Boulevard" that models transit oriented development (TOD). A collaboration of cities, counties, and local agencies created the Grand

Boulevard Initiative in 2008 to improve the performance, safety, and aesthetics of El Camino Real.