The original Calgary Green Map was a paper version printed in 2000-2001. This map has been updated with new material, icons and a new base map. Sustainable Calgary is very excited about our new Calgary Green Map Online, which is an interactive web based version with Green map sites and pictures. See www.sustainablecalgary.ca and follow the links to the Green Map. On this site you can navigate by zooming in or out or by panning around. The cool thing about the online Green Map is that you can get detailed information about each site by clicking on to it to expose pictures, directions and information about the site, and the map can be updated easily. We believe as more people become exposed and involved with the Calgary Green map, it will evolve into a dynamic living map. New sites will be added and/or edited and the resulting map will serve as a jump off point for future discussions on green and sustainable issues.

The Calgary Green Map:
*Provides an inventory of environmentally important spaces, services and resources.
*Increases awareness of significant and fragile sites and their locations.
*Encourages an understanding of sustainable development.
*Allows people to visualize the connections between nature and the city.
*Is an education tool that can be used by teachers, the public and decision-makers.
*Serves as a comparison of environmental sites among world cities.
*Can be used in monitoring issues, actions and policies that impact Calgary.
*Provides a basis for discussion, debate and action about issues, policies and planning.
*Invites businesses to practice sustainability and be recognized on the Calgary Green map.
*Provides a tool to help us build a sustainable future.
Calgary, Alberta is a busy growing city with a population of $1 million people. The City faces some key sustainable challenges, such as urban sprawl, large ecological footprint and a belief that resources are limitless. Change is needed but there are barriers to change: 1) Low literacy about sustainability -stakeholders have unclear perceptions of what options entail and how they will fit into the city. 2) Calgary is playing catch-up because of the large influx of population and previous sprawling design choices, 3) There is also a disconnect between sustainable policies conceived at the City Hall and implementation. Overall there seems to be a gap between decision-makers and citizens. Citizens do not understand the change process in our city and politicians are not hearing the voices of citizens encouraging them to act.

Our target group is citizens of all ages and includes the general public, including marginalized groups as well as mainstream citizens, planners and decision-makers. We all need to discuss and work out these issues together to create a sustainable future. We partner with a wide range of individuals and groups including policy makers and government.

Sustainable Calgary (SC)looks at sustainability through an economic, social and environmental lens and advocates that the success of sustainable development depends upon human behavioural, structural and institutional change. Change begins with education and involvement in community actions and initiatives and starts with tools like the Green Map. We invite everyone to join us in education forums, discussions and more focused work to make sustainable changes. We also advocate for the implementation of changes that lead to a sustainable future. Consequently SC:

*Creates opportunities to learn about sustainable living principles, policies and practices such as education forums and workshop.
*Promotes discussions among diverse groups of people including local residence and decision-makers about policies and issues, such as the Citizens’ Agenda project. SC pioneered broad and large-scale citizen participation in our projects. Many individuals have contributed their time and effort to our projects. We now have over 400 members, have engaged more than two thousand people in workshops and projects about our city and sustainability.
*Develops tools to monitor Calgary's long-term sustainability and quality of life and well being, such as the community sustainability indicators. The Sustainable Calgary State of Our City Project is an in-depth look at the health of Calgary's living environment. The goal of this project is to track Calgary's long-term health using a set of sustainability indicators and to inform citizens of the city's progress through State of Our City reports. The sustainability indicators are key tools we use as a benchmark for analysis, education and discussion about sustainable concepts. The Calgary Green Map is another tool with many uses.
*Conducts research and communicates about sustainability issues and policies. SC published three "State of Our City" reports since 1999 providing facts about the city's sustainability against key indicators and reports on policy processes, overcoming barriers to smart growth and on the first phase of the Citizens' Agenda project.
*Takes action. We are building strategies to engage citizens and advocate for the implementation sustainable issues as part of our Citizens’ Agenda Project – Indicators to Action.

See our website: www.sustainablecalgary.ca for more information.