News and views from Green Map System’s staff, board and our regional Hubs!
Carlos Martinez, Green Map System's Latin American Liaison and Office Manager, became a US citizen today!
This Colombian-born environmental administrator was also in today's New York Times, thanks to his healthy green habit of bicycling to work, then bringing his bike inside to store safely at the office.
As reported by Colin Moynihan:
" When Carlos Martinez bicycles to work in Manhattan from his home in Jackson Heights, Queens, he must ride along Northern Boulevard, a broad and busy thoroughfare, before crossing the Queensboro Bridge and heading south on Second Avenue toward the East Village.read more »
Last month, the University of Victoria in Canada held the third CUexpo08, the Community-University Exposition 2008. The traditional territory of the Coast Salish First Nations welcomed participants from North America and special guests from all around the world. This event was co-created by the Green Mapmakers in British Columbia.
CUexpo08 was a great opportunity to showcase exciting community-campus reserach and action initiatives from different countries. Some of the thematic areas were knowledge exchange, sustainability, poverty, housing and homelessness, healthy living, climate change, community economic development, social economy, food security, arts based activism, Aboriginal leadership in research.read more »
Open Green Map is taking shape, as described in our June-July Newsletter - click here to read it (you can join the mailing list on our homepage).
Our Open Green Map team includes a great mix of developers, designers, outreach and education specialists, including (from left to right in the picture:) Miikka Lammela, Andrew Sass, Carlos Martinez, Thomas Turnbull, Gottfried Haider, Anna Krusic, Wendy Brawer, (not shown here:) Bob Zuber, Yoko Ishibashi, Yelena Zolotorevskaya, Lee Frankel-Goldwater, Maddy Goldfarb and Kathryn Podobinski. read more »
Expo 2008 is an international exposition where countries, non-government organizations and private companies gather. This year the main topic is Water and sustainable development. The thematic squares are: Thirst, Cities of water, Extreme water, Water and energy, Shared water, Aquatic inspirations. This global gathering will be held from June 14th to September 14th in Zaragoza (Spain), and our Japanese friends from Green Map Aichi (which formed around EXPO 2005) will be representing our growing movement.
The pavilion El Faro will be the gathering spot for NGOs around the world. July 17th is Green Map Day, leaded by Green Map Aichi. The stage program will include Green Map video clips from Cuba and Asia, Icon games, music, gifts and a new Spanish slideshow presentation, which you can view here:read more »
Green Map System is pleased to recognize the Shimata Green Map, which is now featured among the collection of Green Maps from all over the world. Thank you and congratulations to the project leader, Yuko Shiraishi and her pupils at Shimata Elementary School. We also appreciate Yuko's blog entries on their map-making process (in Japanese!).
The large map is very nicely hand-crafted and reflects the students' care in researching their community. An accompanying booklet provides a well-written description and photo of each site in this collage of both pleasant and hazardous places in the area. We are glad to hear about the elementary school students rediscovering what their district has to offer as well as presenting ideas about what they would like the future to be.
We look forward to hearing any changes that your team brought to the community. Great job!read more »
As we are developing our social mapping website for sustainable communities, the Open Green Map, we are meeting more developers of open technologies.
OpenStreetMap.org is an exciting example of a free geographic resource. It's a kind of wikipedia for maps - a free editable map of the world, and anyone can add roads, bike paths and other geographic data to it. Around the world, many are contributing to it. In some places, mapping parties are being held to spur the collection of data.
Green Map System is pleased to provide the venue for NYC's first open mapping party, hosted by OpenStreetMap's initiator, Steve Coast, at our global office. Steve says: read more »
Hi Mappies,
Has anybody made a Green Map t-shirt out there? I don't see any in the Store on the homepage.
thx,
jason white carbondale, co, usa
I recently took my first trip to South America to celebrate the launch of the Santiago Green Map and it was full of happy surprises. The first came as I entered the freshly renovated historic building that houses Ciudad Viva (the Living City). Bright blue, it harmonizes with the colorful streetscape of the Bellavista neighborhood that was saved from freeway construction by Ciudad Viva’s director, Lake Sagaris and many of core members and board.
Right away, the staff gathered to present me with the first copy of the map! I was surprised by the scale of this map, which is actually a boxed set with 5 two-sided folded maps and a book about their four key topics of green living, active transport, heritage and civil society. Beautifully designed, these maps chart the city at large scale and invite the public to add more sites by calling the project Version Zero! read more »
Trinity Church Partners held its annual Youth Fair last week. "Being Green" was the theme for this year and Green Map System's Green Apple Map project and staff members Yelena Zolotroveskya and Carlos Martinez were invited to present a workshop introducing youth Green Mapmaking resources (including the Energy and Environment Exploration Modules) with students and teachers from local high schools. Green Apple Map is the local New York City project of this global non-profit organization, and is designed both to benefit New Yorkers and develop new approaches that could be adapted in other cities. read more »
KOAA-TV (an NBC affiliate) covered the story of Kelly Sparks, the Green Mapmaker of the Pikes Peak Region and its new local online resource for this Colorado USA community.
Read the story here:
Online resource takes you to what's "green" in Colorado Springs
Watch the video here:
Video Story
Some screenshots of the storyread more »
Last night at our global office in New York City, Green Map's staff and board celebrated the generosity of our friends and supporters who responded to America's Giving Challenge and made our non-profit a Top Ten winner!
At the party, our OpenGreenMap interactive mapmaking website was previewed and got the attention from different groups. We still want to hear what you think about this inclusive new global project-in-progress that was seeded by hundreds of small Giving Challenge donations. You can post your ideas or comments in the Collaboration Blogread more »
As Green Map’s Director, I am occasionally invited to project launches and opportunities to present Green Map to different audiences. This spring, there have been many!
Starting in mid April, I traveled to Bucharest Romania, where Goodartofnoon Cultural Association’s dynamic young team published their first Green Map following a year of intensive development. With 100,000 copies and a great distribution plan (thousands will arrive with the national newspaper, which committed to a green column each week for a year; within the Romanian edition of National Geographic along with an 8-page article; and though the city-wide Museum Night), there’s much excitement about expansion and inclusion. I helped develop their schools Green Map project and the team’s outreach effort. read more »
Learn Green NYC is a new coalition of sustainability professionals in education, design and enterprise in support of youth engagement, healthy learning environments and community-based approaches to low impact, high quality living. Green Map's Director has been part of the coalition since the very beginning!
Last week, Learn Green NYC hosted an invitational event for NYC youth and concerned adults at Teacher's College Columbia University, as part of the Schools, Food and Community conference sponsored by the Baum Forum.
This Youth Forum was the first of a series of Learn Green NYC programs to engage youth as community sustainability leaders throughout the city.read more »
"Green Map Impacts" focuses on various kinds of case studies which gave "Actual impacts" or "Influences" on communities by making Green Maps. These unique case studies were picked up from Japan and the world.
We hope that it is one of the most useful tool in your Green Map activities.
Book Title: "Green Map Impacts--Green Map changes the community!"
Format: A4 size, 40 p. full colored
Language: Japanese (It will be translated into English)
Publisher: Chubu Recycle, Inc.
Planning & Editing: Green Map Aichi + Green Map Japan, Inc.
Cooperation: Green Map System, Inc.
Audience:
Existing map makers, city planners, community leaders, or people who want to work for the community....read more »
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Baltimore Green Map introductory website at www.baltogreenmap.org. We are using 48 of the V3 icons and presenting all an opportunity to Nominate a Site. An interview with Wendy Brawer and me (Baltimore Project Director) will be aired on our local public radio station in time to be part of the Baltimore Festival of Maps. We'll post that as soon as available. Thanks to Wendy for years of encouragement and to our hero Thomas for responding so quickly to suggestions as we deployed the beta Online Green Map as part of our site.
Janet
Ode is a print and online publication about positive news, about the people and ideas that are changing our world for the better.
Diane Daniel on the April 2008 issue of Ode Magazine features our Green Map movement. "If you’re searching for a green oasis in urban Jakarta, Indonesia, or a place to compost your banana peel in lower Manhattan, a Green Map can show you the way."
The magazine is on the newsstands now or click here to read the online version.
A one of its kind environmental conference (18-19 May 2008) is taking place in Jerusalem initiated by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, and supported by the Jerusalem Municipality, The Ministry of Environmental Protection and a variety of other bodies.
The two day event will bring together national and international speakers to discuss a range of pressing environmental issues, and examine Israel's current environmental situation.
The Jerusalem Green Map will be well represented at the conference with computer work stations to enable visitors to search the website (Hebrew and English), unique tours "in the footsteps of the Jerusalem Green Map", Green Map Systems material on offer and more!read more »
More than 2000 Houston Greenmaps were handed out at the Gulf Coast Green and Houston green Expo between April 3rd and April 6th!
March 25th is a great time for us to reflect on the many things we have accomplished together as Green Mapmakers, for our communities and our planet. We all share our perceptions of what is happening right now and help everyone get involved in shaping a more hopeful and greener future for all.
Special thanks to all our supporters and the hundreds of people who make Green Map a vital resource for vibrant communities!