The Town of Portola Valley Town Council, Planning Commission, and Architectural & Site Control Commission (ASCC) strongly encourage the use of sustainable building products, designs and practices in all residential and commercial construction projects in town. We seek to educate our residents, local architects, and contractors on the benefits of building greener and the products available to accomplish this goal. As residents and design teams continue to become more aware, concerned, and interested in building with sustainability in mind, the Town is experiencing an ever increasing number of construction projects that incorporate numerous green elements into their design. Many of these elements create little to no-cost impacts on construction budgets, such as designing for passive solar, natural lighting and ventilation, using low- and no-VOC paints and materials while, other sustainable features are very ambitious such as living roofs and geothermal systems. In order to illustrate the variety of green elements that can be utilized in any one construction project, a number of recently built “Local Projects” in Town are featured here identifying many of the green materials/designs as well as owner’s feedback on their experiences in building green.