Created in just six weeks, the very first Green Map was created for visitors coming to the United Nations to work on the Earth Summit's Agenda 21 in the spring, prior to the big event in Rio de Janeiro. It included 143 sites where signs of progress toward sustainability could be experienced in person, citywide. It was conceived by Wendy Brawer, who worked closely with Hal Drellich, Bill DiPaolo and many members of NYC's emerging eco-design community to publish 10,000 copies of the Green Apple Map. The first Green Appple Design Tour took place alonside its launch, and a second map was created for this one-day event.
Wendy's company, Modern World Design, received great feedback and many suggestions for the next edition. She and Hal worked throughout the fall, and in December 1992, the second Green Apple Map was published, again in an edition of 10,000 copies. This map featured a more extensive list of eco-resources in NYC, aimed at both visitors experiencing the city for the first time, and long time residents who re-discover the city from a fresh perspective. The map includes snippets of relevant historical and statistical information about the city, and used eye-catching graphic icons to signify the different kinds of sites.
Because of the many excited queries about making a map like this we received from people around the world, we feel this is the map that inspired the initiation of the global Green Map System in 1995. Much more about the history of Green Map System is in the About section of this website, and in the Maps section, find out about subsequent editions of the Green Apple Map.
You can download a PDF here (sorry, not high quality).
Our original edition was included in "The Power of Maps", a major exhibition at the Smithsonian National Design Museum in NYC. Wendy Brawer, the map's creator and the founding director of Green Map System was later appointed Designer in Residence there.
These maps also led to her being invited to present on the Greening of New York at the United Nations Social Summit in 1995, in Copenhagen, and to the parallel meeting of the O2 global network, which helped bring the local-global Green Map System from concept to reality. In many ways, these small maps opened doors for people seeking greener, healthier communities and careers, all over the world.
In 1992, Green Apple Maps were quite newsworthy as they showed a side on NYC that no one had ever shown before. Stories about them appeared in several US publications,from the Earth Summit Times to <a href="http://www.emagazine.com">E Magazine</a> and <a href="http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm">In Business Magazine</a>. There was coverage on New York One TV and WNYC, and others. Wendy wrote related <a href="http://ecocultural.info/communications/articles.html">stories</a> for Australia's World Design and other publications, too.
There was a spurt of greening activities all over the city, and our map helped people connect with the sites and exchange ideas about doing more for NYC's environment. Because we included toxic spots, the map helped draw attention to sites and to organizations responding to environmental justice issues. Things started changing for the better. Our map was seen on walls in schools, offices and homes, all over the city!
Although it took another 5 years to publish the next edition in NYC, these maps spurred the development of Green Map System's global movement and the Green Map Icons and adaptable mapmaking framework, leading to the creation of hundreds of Green Map projects, all over the world.
Some mapping projects that stemmed out of the creation of the Green Apple Map includes maps of specific districts like Chinatown or Lower Manhattan and thematic views on energy composting, as seen on this website, and at GreenAppleMap.org
A number of youth projects got underway in NYC, too, including a unique series of maps charting the Lower East Side by Satellite Academy High School's ecology class, terrific Recycle A Bicycle Green Maps of Brooklyn and Manhattan, and All Saints East Harlem Green Map. More recent student projects include Manhattan's Central Park with the Central Park Conservancy, Pace University's ecotourism promotion Green Maps, and more - download the complete list of schools, youth and community groups <a href="http://greenapplemap.org/page/youth>here</a>. More about New York's Green Maps is also in the Green Map Atlas.
We have learned so much from Green Mapmakers around the world - we're delighted to share what we have experienced with them!
Interviews, images, even copies of the original maps.
Thanks to Municipal Art Society, Gramercy Offset, New York Recycled Paper, IDSA New York, Earth Summit Ad Hoc Planning Committee, the Green Apple Exchange, Hal Drellich, Time's Up, The Knoll Group, Asher Derman, ADPSR and Modern World Design.
We used the old-fashioned layers of mylar for the graphic design!
"The first New York Green Map had a black X over the Central Park Reservoir. A little-known report by a New York State agency had listed a chlorine storage facility near the reservoir as one of the state's nine facilities presenting the greatest risk of a toxic chemical accident. The map was published, and the chlorine was removed.” (Jeff Severns Guntzel. “Green Maps' motivate activism.” National Catholic Reporter. June 17, 2005)
