Global Green Map – Going Live in 2008!

"“If the best greening resource in the world is just around the corner, but no one knows about it, what good can it do?”
-Yelitza Espinosa, Pereira, Colombia Mapmaker

Project Description

It's an exciting time at Green Map: we've just started work on our latest project - the Global Green Map. GGM is an interactive open world map that will connect people of all backgrounds with local resources and best practices for sustainable living. Scheduled to go live in mid-2008, this multi-lingual Google Map-based compendium will display the full range of green living, nature, social and cultural sites already appearing on hundreds of published Green Maps alongside those contributed by global content partners and the wider public.

Using open source tools and Green Map System’s award-winning iconography, this fresh perception of the world will democratize mapmaking, breaking down technological and financial barriers to participation. Enhanced with open commentary and multimedia visuals, the Global Green Map’s thousands of sites, discussions, green ratings, images and translations will be viewable online as a world map or framed to feature a single city/location or made available in off-line and mobile formats. It will provide downloadable versions of full-scale locally published Green Maps and other resources, too.

A description of the Global Green Map (GGM) is below, or download a visual overview (PDF - 2.7 MB) or video (.MOV - 8 MB).

Global Impacts, Local Impacts!

"Green Map is the most effective truly distributed grassroots global project I have ever seen online." Jim Fournier, Director, Planetwork.

At a time when the global environment is changing in such a dramatic way, GGM will simultaneously be an archive of what has been lost, a constantly evolving document of the present, and a call to action for the future. This map will encourage local participation that counters global climate change, supports vibrant biodiversity and addresses social and cultural challenges. In addition to impacting the many choices about consumption, education, transportation, employment and recreation that are made in the global north daily, GGM will address environmental justice and climate impacts disproportionately burdening poor communities in the global south.

Our network of Green Mapmakers including groups in China, Chile, Romania, Uganda and 46 other countries will be given a new global voice to describe, rate, promote and debate their hometown’s full range of sustainable living assets and challenges. In this way, GGM will break down barriers that currently prevent marginalized people from seeking and exchanging knowledge, models and experiences for healthier, greener communities. GGM will be available to anyone with internet access, including “$100 laptop youth”. Its partnerships and offline applications are unlimited, ensuring that GGM will impact millions.

GGM will expedite transfer of crucial technologies, initiatives and, most importantly, hope. The non-profit Green Map System expects this powerful map to grow into a vitally important resource that engages urban and rural users including students, planners, entrepreneurs, travelers, journalists and policymakers. We invite you to help develop, build and popularize the Global Green Map, and then use it to spark green personal habits, cultivate healthier communities and inspire hope and eco-leadership on an unprecedented scale.

The data will be used in many ways. Widgets will be developed to allow people to feature their own section of GGM on their blogs, social networking sites, etc. Since its also important for this information to be available on the ground, on-site markers will link to internet-enabled cell phones; other options for offline use will be built in as well. And we expect it to be easy for users to download digital versions of locally published Green Maps right from the GGM, too. This collective data on tens of thousands of sites will give the project a huge start, which will be enhanced by partnerships with universities, eco-institutions and NGOs, media outlets, social networking sites and green travel agencies.

Help us make GGM a Reality

Our main priority is making sure the Global Green Map is designed inclusively and optimally serves our diverse network, site contributors and map users worldwide.

We need your help to support the expenses related to GGM development and in perfecting the technical side. Donations can be made here, this page also includes our address for donations by mail. Contact us directly if you would like to discuss sponsorship, grants, or major support. Thank you.

On the technical side, we could use some help too. We're using Drupal open source software, PHP and MySQL, Google Maps API, Google Earth and KML, JQuery, javascript/DHTML, WMS layers and we welcome relevant help. If you have other skills that could be valuable, such as marketing, translation, etc., please let us know.

If you can help out with any of this, please get in touch! Email info (at) greenmap (.) org. If you are already a Green Mapmaker, login to the discussion.