GreenTRIP Certification

GreenTRIP Connect is an easy-to-use and free online tool that allows users to instantly calculate how smart location, affordable homes, and traffic reduction strategies can reduce driving and greenhouse gas emissions from residential development throughout California. It also calculates how much money and space can be saved from right-sized parking in the Bay Area.

Build Smarter
Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled
Make California More Climate-Resilient

Helping create and support outstanding low-traffic residential and mixed-use developments.

TransForm launched GreenTRIP Certification in 2008 to support multifamily projects that apply strategies to reduce traffic, excessive parking, and greenhouse gas emissions.

GreenTRIP helps developers identify effective traffic reduction strategies such as free transit passes for all residents, access and driving credit to car-sharing services, and “unbundling” the price of parking from rent, so those without a vehicle can save even more. GreenTRIP staff collect data and conduct transportation modeling to show how a project can dramatically reduce the amount of parking and driving. Right-sized parking allows both the actual space and financial capacity to provide more community benefits on-site, such as green space, a childcare center, or more affordable units.

If a multifamily project meets Certification requirements, staff create clear communications materials that showcase its transportation and climate benefits.

Since its launch, GreenTRIP has obtained commitments for 280,000 years of new transit passes and space for over 9,130 new homes.

GreenTRIP Certification reduces transportation and living costs for residents, makes walking and biking safer for neighbors and families, and helps preserve precious open space in a vibrant urban environment.

If you are interested in certifying your project, please email [email protected].

The GreenTRIP certification program is transforming how we approach growth in our communities by planning for people—not parking.

GreenTRIP is helping communities across the Bay Area plan for growth in a way that creates safe and vibrant neighborhoods – neighborhoods where families like the Lopez’s can afford to stay in a place they can love to call home. Living in a GreenTRIP-certified apartment changed the lives of San Jose resident Rosalia Lopez and her family – read the whole story here.

What Developers are Saying About GreenTRIP

“GreenTRIP provides valuable advice on the latest innovations in traffic reduction. GreenTRIP also provides an excellent, brief, well-designed report which made it easy for the zoning board and project neighbors to grasp the transportation benefits of our project.

Garden Village’s GreenTRIP Certification was integral in helping us build a project that includes 10% affordable units, has zero resident parking spaces and provides nearly $1 million of alternative transportation benefits to our tenants.

Until working with GreenTRIP we didn’t realize there were so many great alternatives to providing parking, which is expensive, drives up rental costs and often times kills a project. GreenTRIP helped us win unanimous approval from the board and resulted in a much better project with a new marketing edge.

I’m proud our project has set the bar for the most robust traffic reduction program in Berkeley to date. The GreenTRIP model was integral to our success and allowed us to prioritize people over parking.”

– Jason M. Laub, Vice President, Nautilus Group Inc. Developers of Garden Village, GreenTRIP’s first Zero-Parking and Platinum project.

GreenTRIP’s impact goes far beyond reducing traffic.

The Fourth Street Apartments, with a wealth of bus and rail options nearby, give free transit passes to every resident. That helps families like the Lopez family save thousands of dollars per year, own fewer cars, and drive less.

Rosalia Lopez has always worked hard to take care of her family. For almost two hours a day, five days a week, Rosalia would commute on buses from her home in East San Jose to her job as a janitor in Palo Alto. Her four children, ages eight to 16 years old, were usually able to walk to school, but sometimes they too needed to take the bus. Overall, transportation costs were a real burden for her family.

With Rosalia’s modest wages and the cost of transportation being so high, the options for where her family could live were limited. Anything close to transportation was just too expensive, and the further away you got from the light rail and buses, the more expensive it would be to get around.
Two years ago, Rosalia discovered there was hope. She and her family applied for and got a three-bedroom apartment at the Fourth Street Family Apartments in San Jose—a building that is “GreenTRIP Certified.”

The GreenTRIP certification program is transforming how we approach growth in our communities and certifies buildings that plan for people—not parking. With GreenTRIP strategies built in, Rosalia’s new apartment building has fewer parking spaces and more housing units and provides every family with free transit passes.

Decreasing the amount of excessive parking, even while increasing these great benefits to the residents, lowered the overall cost of the building. That meant the developers saved money and were able to build more units at more affordable prices — more affordable homes for hardworking families like Rosalia’s.

“Living at Fourth Street family apartments has had a huge impact on our lives,” said Rosalia. “My kids have greatly benefited, they are less stressed, have more room to be quiet and to study, they are so much happier, which is less stress on me. We’re still living in San Jose, but we’re now only three blocks from light rail and very close to downtown.”

“The new neighborhood has meant so much for our family. There are more job opportunities here that are easier to get to. I definitely spend less time and money on commuting.” In fact, the money that Rosalia is saving every year on transportation is equal to two months’ rent. They have greater transportation opportunities and spend less money on getting around.

With these savings, Rosalia has more money to spend on the things that are important to her family. “Moving to Fourth Street has also allowed us to all go to quilting class together and the kids get to go to art class.” To top off those benefits, the transit passes have made it possible for her children to stay in their old school with all their friends, making the move to a new neighborhood much easier for the whole family.

The bus passes, and the fact that they now live much closer to downtown also means the family is more active than before. “On the weekends, we can get to so many more places like museums, cultural events, and parks.”