Writing from The Hague, where I gave 3 presentations at the European Council of International Schools annual conference - my favorite was the panel discussion with Green Mapmakers Renate Foks on the Breda NL Trommelteam project and Graham Gardner on the Zurich InterCommunity School project - Graham is also the chair of the ECIS environmental committee, and facilitated the invitation. It was a great opportunity to connect with a unique group of teachers working all over the world in this network of private schools. Will link in resulting Green Maps here in the future!

Dutch Green Mapmakers got togther too - Natascha van den Bergh, Renate’s partner on the Breda citywide and youth programs, Aukje Gijsbers of the Cuijk regional Green Map, Jeroen Weijs of the Amsterdam Green Map (first district now being charted!) Henk Muis of the Wijk bij Duurstede Green Map (he has also just published a lovely book on Wijk’s nautical history), Renate and I. I’m looking forward to seeing several of these projects make great strides forward in the Spring, check GreenMap.nl for updates! Some of our earliest projects came from Utrecht, Gouda and Eindhoven in The Netherlands, by the way.

I also visited the industrial design school at TU Delft - wow! What a great open facility and happy global students. Invited by instructor Jan Carel Diehl, he showed me where the Re-f-Use eco-product exhibit was on view. It has been touring around Europe since 2001, and include a selection of Green Maps and our Icons poster!

Next stop, Berlin, where I’ll meet with Mapmaker Peter van de Loo and Josep Puig from Barcelona, and others. More news soon.

I exchanged the carbon for this flight by investing in wind energy development in the States, as I’m on a CO2 diet! Look into it for your air travel - it’s the fast growing source of CO2 - check out Climate Care and Better World Club, too.