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Green Neighbor Community Directory
Multi-family communities that are on the path to zero waste qualify for Castro Valley Sanitary District’s (CVSan’s) Green Neighbor Community Recognition Program!
Congratulations to Our Green Neighbor Community Award Winners!
Chateau Andre – May 2021 – May 2024
Magnolia Grove – May 2021 – May 2024
3757 Lorena Avenue – October 2022 – October 2025
Pinehaven Garden Apartments - April 2023 - April 2026
2802 - 2832 Grove Way - April 2023 - April 2026
What Do Award Winners Receive?
Each newly-certified or re-certified Green Neighbor Community receives a Property Award and a Tenant Award up to $950 in value. For the Property Award, CVSan will provide a credit for services and supplies from ACI from the following options:
- Credit for construction and demolition debris service.
- FREE pick up of extra mattresses.
- FREE pick up of extra “white goods” such as refrigerators.
- FREE mulch delivered for on-site landscaping use.
- FREE compost delivered for on-site landscaping use.
- FREE biobags (compostable plastic bags) for indoor food scrap recycling.
The Tenant Award is divided and shared as a gift card (by CVSan from a 4R Star Business in Castro Valley) to tenants within the awarded multi-family community.
How do I apply for the award?
The property owner/manager should submit the Green Neighbor Community Recognition Program Application to CVSan. Email to contact@cvsan.org.
PDF of application in a document center at bottom of page.
Green Neighbor Case Studies
Our first Green Neighbor community is Chateau Andre on Marshall Street. Property Manager, Jessica (shown above on the left) provides the residents of Chateau Andre with opportunities to reduce waste in a number of ways.
Jessica says it is easy to share information with residents about local events and services that are available to them, and they find the information helpful. She says, "We participate in the annual Bulky & Reuse Pick-Up opportunity and as the Property Manager I also make sure to inform our neighbors about local e-waste opportunities like Recycles Day at Canyon Middle School, and Textile Collection in June and October.”
There are plenty of ways to help reduce waste and decrease your community’s garbage bill, which Chateau Andre has done. Jessica sends emails to residents about ways to donate through online gifting communities like Buy Nothing and Freecycle, in addition to the annual Bulky & Reuse Pick-Ups she schedules for the property. She says, “It's great for communities within Castro Valley to support one another!”
While it’s not required for Green Neighbor certification, Chateau Andre converted their garden to a Bay-Friendly landscape in 2020, which means the landscape is filled with drought-tolerant native plants that use less water and create less waste.
As well, to plan ahead for resident turnover, Jessica keeps a supply of recycling bags and food scrap recycling pails to give out to new residents when they move in at Chateau Andre, as part of a welcome package.
Jessica also requests extra bags and indoor recycling and organics pails every year from CVSan at no extra charge through the donation request form at cvsan.org/DSRF.
Our fourth Green Neighbor community, Pinehaven Garden Apartments, is located on Jamison Way. The success they have had with their recycling and organics programs can be attributed to their great communication with residents.
Pinehaven Garden Apartments Property Manager, Maria (shown above) said, "As Resident Manager I do try to keep our community educated about what goes where in organics, recycling, and garbage and to address when we need to correct errors in sorting. I also encourage residents to share and trade, so they reuse items and reduce waste. As a result of our efforts, we have achieved over 80% recycling and organics rate and we’re proud of that.” That means that Pinehaven only has about 20% garbage, resulting in savings on their bill every month.
In addition to going above and beyond with communication face to face, there are a number of additional ways Pinehaven Garden Apartments provides outstanding communication to their residents which helped them with their Green Neighbor certification.
Pinehaven Garden Apartments educates their tenants about proper sorting into recycling and organics by distributing paper handouts.
They also give residents StopFoodWaste.org’s Produce Storage Guide once a year and distribute a Zero Waste newsletter (which CVSan provides) to tenants at least twice a year.
Lastly, Pinehaven Garden Apartments requests letters and flyers from CVSan about food scrap recycling which they share with new residents to inform them of what goes where in recycling, organics, and garbage. The letters also inform residents about Senate Bill 1383 which requires all properties to commit to practices that will help reduce organic matter going to the landfill, another reason why it is important and required that residents sort items into the correct containers.