This San Francisco Green Map introduces you to the area's many environmental education resources by pulling them together and creating a graphic portrait of the region's green reality. It connects current and future San Franciscans and visitors with the local urban environment in a bold and visual manner. Many San Francisco and Northern California residents are unaware of the multitude of projects aimed at increasing sustainability taking place in our own region. The area has proven itself to be the birthplace for an amazing diversity of vital and essential sustainability institutions and movements and is truly a hotbed of green activity. It also has a natural world of epic proportions. With so much going on, it is difficult to find one single location to learn about all these special spots. The San Francisco Green Map/North California Green Access provides a single information resource for the myriad local environmental initiatives, educational programs, issues, services, and institutions in the City and Northern California, helping you reconceptualize the entire regions' rich environmental resources in a broader, collective context.

While the San Francisco Green Map Green Maps is a locally made map, it is part of an exciting, award-winning, global Green Map movement, developed first by Wendy Brawer for New York City 15 years ago to encourage environmental awareness and sustainability consciousness. Today there are more than 400  Green Map projects in 51 countries helping people locate sustainable urban and rural places and institutions. The Green Map System is a true global eco-cultural movement, energized by local knowledge, action and responsibility. Utilizing the GMS's shared visual language, a collaboratively designed set of icons that symbolize the different kinds of urban  green sites and cultural resources, Mapmakers have independently producing unique, regionally flavored images that fulfill local needs, and at the same time, via  www.greenmap.org, have a global linkage.

Please note- This San Francisco Green Map does not purport to represent all things green in San Francisco and the Northern California region but will serve as a beginning for your journey. We are not responsible for changes in addresses or other information contained herein. PLEASE call or email all private institutions to schedule a visit.

A brand new online Open Green Map has been created and can be viewed and contributed to here:
www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/san-francisco-green-map

Nearly 400 San Francisco and 275 Northern California site references are iconized and classified into more than 40 categories. These include:

• farmers markets, community and school gardens
• buried creeks and waterways
• recycling and reuse centers
• permaculture and sustainable agriculture education institutions
• local environmental and community groups
• public squares, bike lanes, and non-car transportation options
• environmentally sound architecture and design projects
• green schools and kid friendly eco spots
• solar and other renewable energy techologys
• biodiesel stations
• wildlife habitats and natural features
• toxic hot spots, abandon mines, and radioactive pollution areas
• native Californian sites