Our first encounter with the concept of the Green Map was in 1995 at Tennen Design Forum’s International Conference, held at Honen-in Temple in Kyoto. The 3-day conference on designers’ contribution to environmental solutions was full of stimulating proposals, including a workshop hosted by Wendy Brawer of Green Map System. Our group walked around Honen-in’s grounds designing icons for a sketch map. Twelve of these were officially adopted for the first version of Green Map Icons.
A year later, our Tennen Design Forum core group joined the "Climate Forum Kyoto Net" and announced our plans to create Kyoto’s Green Map in two languages, English and Japanese. On Earth Day 1997, we distributed a test map (2 sides A4, monotone, 1000 copies), calling for project participants and support. We held orientation sessions to discuss Kyoto's present situation. The number of volunteer participants grew to 60 and we created postcards and research sheets to collect site ideas at our monthly workshops and field trips. By September, the information gathering process was finished and collected on a database. We verified the relevance of each site and filtered 600 down to 485 sites. Ten designers and two translators created the map in the weeks leading up to December’s COP3 Conference. We also planned a bus tour of Kyoto's environmental destruction, an exhibition of Green Maps from across the world and exchange workshops with worldwide environment-related NGOs during COP3.
The 1997 citywide Kyoto Green Map uses light purple as the base color tone, derived from an old expression Sanshi-Suimei, meaning “Purple Mountain, Lucid Water”—reflecting the appearance of mountains rich in nature and fresh air, and the striking clarity of pure streams. This design concept refers to historical maps of Kyoto, illustrating Kyoto's characteristic landscape. One side charts the entire city, and the reverse emphasizes three regions: Sagano/Arashiyama, Central Kyoto, and Sakyo ward. These are either major sightseeing areas or districts surrounding the COP3 Conference. We also applied congruent grids on both sides, so that each site could be easily located by users.
Temporaly missing
Major Japanese Newspaper like The Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, Nikkei, Sankei Kyoto Newspaper A lot of magazines, Radio, TV, Books
The eco friendly Kyoto Map incorporates distinctive features of the city and gives their map a local flavor. - Daily Yomiuri, Discouver anouther Kyoto from an ecological perspective with Kyoto Gren Map - Magazine CoCoChi
日本人の心のふるさと京都は人口115万人、10世紀もの間、日本の首都として栄えた都市であり、世界遺産をはじめとする神社仏閣、歴史的建造物が多い。日本文化の凝縮されているこの都市では日本人の自然に対する哲学や接し方が都市の構造、神社仏閣の作り、建築や庶民の暮らしぶりの中に見て取ることができる。
私たち天然デザインフォーラムは、1997年京都で開催された国連の「地球温暖化防止京都会議」(COP3)の折、京都グリーンマップを制作した。この会議にやってくる国内外の環境NPO、NGO参加者に環境の視点から京都を見つめ直したグリーンマップを配布し、古都京都をこれからの時代にふさわしい環境都市に変えていくきっかけになればと考えた。世界で８番目、アジアで最初に制作されたこのマップは、COP3会期中大きな反響を呼び、その後の国内でのグリーンマップ活動のきっかけとなった。
