Global Quarterly Report Feed from GlobalGiving

We are popping into your inbox one more time in 2023 to say thank you for making our year one of great momentum. In this difficult time, our work brings new awareness and a more hopeful outlook on 2024 and all that is to come. Thank you for being part of the Green Map movement.

Local Mapmakers often tell us how transformative it is to share their Green Maps and how this authentic image of home impacts their communities. This feeling generates momentum and activates even more heartfelt, informed participation, which is critical to the future we all share.

Think of Green Map when you want to spark change locally! Yes, you can get involved, and use these tools and practices to explore the breadth and diversity of local progress as well as issues. We freely offer this opportunity to everyone. Let us help you or a local group get started, or simply see if there’s already a Green Map underway in the places where you live or visit.

As the new year comes closer, we thank you for all you have done for Green Map System. We'll be back soon with an update on our mapping platform and exciting projects for 2024! 

Wishing all a healthy and positive year to come - everything good is possible, when we all work together.

In this year of the multi crisis, recognizing where progress is being made is critical to our sense of wellbeing.

This is why mapping becomes more important each day. Assets can be called out that foster new ways to take part in the greening of your own community. Liabilities can become challenges that rally attention that addresses issues and empowers redress. Seeing the breadth of projects underway locally can be transformative for all.

This is also why your donations to Green Map are so important - your support to our global work and our own local NYC work is fundamental to our movement’s ever growing reach and impacts! Thank you for your generosity!

It’s been exciting to see so many new projects taking shape this year. Here are some we discovered on social media and Google Alerts, like this great story from rural Brazil.

Young people in Jahu created their first Green Map twenty years ago, and this became the masterplan for the town. One of those youth now works with the Secretary of the Environment of Jaú, and today, thanks to Mr. Fabricio and team, a new Green Map is underway with similar ambitions is getting underway - read more at this blog post and follow SemeiaJahu to explore their hands-on approach to environmental education.

We often get alerts from Cape Town South Africa quite often, as the Green Map team has a lively website with continual posts about sustainability and the unique environment there. This one is delightful to imagine visiting, a bird reserve with hippos! Let’s go picnic there! 

Fresh from Cienfuegoes Cuba, in BNN Breaking, a Canadian publication: Green Map Project Hermanas Giral is the “means of consultation, information, and action, thereby helping the community navigate their path towards a sustainable future”. Follow this project and network on Facebook, too.

A bit of a throwback video was just posted in Tokyo, featuring the story of the award-winning Cycling Green Map project. As shown in Japanese, the process of determining where bike lanes belong was painstaking and fruitful, with genuine progress (find more details at GreenMap.org/impacts).

For those of you following the development of the Local Food icons, this project is now at a final culminating stage! It’s been fascinating to bring the draft set to public events and conferences and lots of important new concepts are now part of the set of 66 symbols related to production, enterprise, education, specialty topics and of course, the eating of Local Food. We had a terrific discussion with Mapmakers last week to make sure we truly covered all the bases.

Our thanks to all the donors to our microproject, which raised our spirits as well as provided funding for this new symbol set. Some of the money raised will go towards basic guides for using our new mapping platform in rural, low income and frontline communities. We think it’s so meaningful to be charting local food, we’ll be trying it ourselves, with a 2024 NYC Local Food for Climate Action Green Map. We'll be sharing the map as well as the methodology - you can follow the story here in the coming months.

Our best wishes for a peaceful holiday season and start to 2024! Thanks again for all your support in 2023! 

NEW! Our Local Food Mapping Microproject

We invite you to be among the first to contribute and be matched, all week here on GlobalGiving! Your contributions for Little by Little - up to $50 are 50% matched - until Friday 22 Sept at Midnight ET. Please pitch in here:

https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/support-local-food-mapping/ 

Want to give more to support local food security in communities around the world? Anytime is fine, but on Giving Tuesday, there’s a bigger match for donations on GlobalGiving up to $2500. We’ll remind you as November 28th nears! 

We are so excited about the reaction to our new Food Icons! Already there’s a soon-to-be-printed nation-wide Green Map underway in Iceland, and on our mapping platform includes terrific examples from Washington State, Pennsylvania, British Columbia and Scotland.  

This work is transformational. It’s so critical that we are still collecting ideas for this icon set in person and online.

Check out the overview and see all the icons at GreenMap.org/localfood.

Have ideas or suggestions? Add to the survey there or please join us, Saturday October 14 at the Swale House on Governors Island in NYC. This is the public day of our Residency there. From 11-5pm, you are welcome to come and explore the Local Food Icons. Have a snack and talk about your mapping concepts and what’s missing from the new set. See you there, at Swale House in Nolan Park!

Our director will be in Victoria BC next week, want to come to a public event? 

Join us on Tuesday 9/26 - Community Association of Oak Bay - poster below! 

Wednesday 9/27 - Community Green Mapping Presentation and Workshop @ Kwench - 2031 Store Street Victoria from 10am to noon (Coffee/Registration at 9:45)

Thursday 9/28 - Community Mapping tabling in several locations around the University of Victoria campus, from noon until 3PM. Mapping Themes include Food Sovereignty and Truths and Actions of Reconciliation with the UVic Global Community; CM and CBPR classes and Claremont High School students

Our next virtual Open Office Hour is Wednesday 11 October at 11 ET Register here!

Thanks so much for pitching in this week and "little by little", together, we can increase wellbeing and vitality in communities worldwide through local food mapping. 

Hello Green Map Friends!

Along with you, we’re worried about the state of our beautiful world. However, more people are putting their climate anxiety into energizing local Green Map projects every day. Thanks to you, we can provide advanced resources designed for spurring engagement without cost, to all.

This season, we added a rural Green Map desk in Scotland! While our New York based team isn’t actually there to use it, the desk is at the ‘community interest company’ owned by Ms. Clinch of the Green Map Platform team. She adds, ““The POP shop is a small co-work space in a rural west coast town. It can be hard to sustain a space like this, so this unique collaboration with Green Map System makes a real difference to us. We’ll be able to increase our connection to other communities creating Green Maps and test out new ways of working to support sustainable community development.” 

We’re holding an open office hour jointly in August - bring your questions and join Hannah and Wendy online at this link on Wednesday, August 2⋅11:00am – 12:00pm ET (4 PM in the UK (every time zone). We welcome everyone, from newbies to seasoned mapmakers. And if you are nearby, drop in to see our desk in Dunoon! 

We’re happy to report that our local food icon development process is nearing its conclusion, with last comments being made in July. You can preview the set and add comments at  GreenMap.org/localfood! The draft set is already in use, and these projects helped inform our recent food security discussion. What’s next? Social service icons that take their cue from the UN SDGs and localize these resources! 

Upcoming residencies for Green Map:

• Upstate NY Residency in mid-August at Manitoga, the Russel Wright Design Center and beautiful 75 acres of Woodland Gardens in the Hudson Valley, where a new Green Map may get started.
  
  
• On Governors Island at the Swale House - this Residency has a public open day on Saturday October 14th, from 11 - 5, where the draft Social Icons should be on view.

More NYC News: excitingly, our City Councilmember Marte appointed Green Map's Director as the newest board member at the Trust for Governors Island! The island is one of Wendy's favorite places in the city, and with its focus on climate, culture and community, it's truly an honor to be involved. Find more recent NYC news is here, and background on the images below.

Our best to you for a sustainable and healthy season, and our thanks, as always, for your support!

Food Security 

Regardless of where you live, food security is likely to be an issue for someone in your community. In March, Green Mapmakers had their first discussion dedicated to mapping local farms and food resources, learning from the great work undertaken in Washington state's Jefferson county by Ms. Hunt and the Food Bank Growers. With a great new set of Food Icons (add your comments at GreenMap.org/localfood) being finalized soon, and lots of examples of both print and interactive food oriented Green Maps, you can see the group at work in this recording. 

Your support helps us address critical issues like food security, and this week, your donations up to $50 are matched at the 50% level. Please donate by midnight on Friday!

Mexican Workshop

In March, our director was heading to Mexico. After exciting days and meetings in Mexico City, Wendy connected with a historic anthropology museum in San Cristobal de las Casas (which is in the state of Chiapas) to hold a Green Map workshop. Museo Na Bolom had just opened a terrific exhibition entitled ‘The Map Is Not The Territory’, covering the early years of exploration by outsiders of the Lacandon Jungle and its riches of Mayan Ruins.

Mr. May, curator, led the Mapa Verde Taller and an enthusiastic group joined in, including local people plus visitors from Spain, Canada and the US. Using our icons, the community's collectives, areas that flood, and historic sites were quickly charted. We’re glad to share that the sketch map made there was added to the exhibition! We'll place the short video we played there in Spanish and English below, and check this blog for photos and some of our Spanish language mapping resources. Wendy so appreciated the culture and nature she experienced there - we hope to see more mapmaking in Mexico.

Trainings in Scotland

The main city on the Cowal peninsula, Dunoon, was the scene of a series of Green Map trainings, led by the Pop Shop. Many local experts took part as the group explored and mapped out biodiversity sites, green spaces, active travel networks and heritage spots. Whether looking for bryophytes and lichens at the heritage trail by Sandbank or learning to recognize indicators of a rainforest as opposed to a native woodland, as seen on LinkedIn, this was a rich experience for all.

Upcoming Events in Manhattan!

Earth Day Tour! This is a great time to check out Green Infrastructure in the East Village with Green Map. We’ll start at La Plaza Cultural (at Ave C & 9th Street) at 1pm on Saturday April 22. We’ll end at Tompkins Sq Park where hawk watching will be underway. Join us and LUNGS and celebrate our neighborhood’s Spring Awakening - all are welcome to join activities in the vicinity all afternoon.

Open Office (on zoom) April 25 10 AM NYC time - have questions about making a Green Map? Please drop in and we can help you get started or do more with your local project.

Join our annual Jane’s Walk on Friday May 5, starting at 3pm at Siempre Verde Garden (181 Stanton St at Attorney). All are welcome on this climate health and public space tour on the Lower East Side. This one mile easy, free walk is also part of LES History Month. It concludes at Dimes Square. 

Our thanks to everyone who contributes to the ongoing work and joy of Green Mapmaking! Your support is doubly appreciated today, as the Little by Little 50% match week continues! 

Best wishes to all this Earth Month! 

Our thanks to you for being on the Green Map support team in 2022!

Locally, all around the world, you helped to illuminate and connect so many positive actions that we are proud to highlight in our blog and social media. Small positive actions - including mapmaking - snowball into bigger outcomes, and ours keep impacting more neighbors, places and projects each year. The world needs more of this, and your generous involvement is key! 

We outlined big plans for 2023 in our most recent GlobalGiving report and are making steady progress on our climate, sustainability and wellbeing mission. We are looking ahead to a year of refreshing exchange and engagement with our global network and our own local NYC Green Map project too.  

Our work in 2023 will definitely benefit from your generosity as we work to maximize progress towards a thriving world. Thank you again for standing with us and the Green Mapmakers who adapt our tools and lead the way locally each day. 

Our best wishes to you for a healthy, sustainable and joyful season and all the best for 2023! 

It’s Giving Tuesday, an ideal time to support Green Map because GlobalGiving is boosting all donations made by Midnight ET. Give $10 - $2,500 or set up a recurring gift; it’s more important than ever because so many new communities are getting involved in local sustainability efforts, thanks to our easy to use mapmaking platform and the hopeful images it conveys.

Good news! Now we are working with developers of the Green Map Platform to assist the many map projects without an online presence. To help ‘level the playing field,’ each will be able to create a mini-website around their map in order to share their story - how they made the map, who was involved, how it fits into their group’s mission and how it impacted their community and its environment.

Help us create resources accessible by all!

Take a look at new.opengreenmap.org and see the breadth of activity on the platform. We’re supporting equitable access by enhancing our ‘crowdsourcing’ survey tool, too, as well as improving our adaptable outreach and marketing materials to help these diverse groups campaign and involve more of their community, both in person and online. Fulfilling this need was part of our takeaway from COP26, and we know that real world impact is being felt by communities in all corners of the globe.

During this time, we are especially welcoming Green Map projects that create unique formats, like this season’s experiential mapping with Azabu University in Japan and detail-rich newsletters such as that from Cuba’s Mapa Verde network. And of course, Green Maps are still being printed in settings from Baltimore to Cape Town.

Your generous gift to us is really a gift to the world’s communities, since so many will benefit! As we re-launch the Green Map Platform with your support, you’ll know you helped us ramp up to meet new demand. You will find a glimpse below of good work already in progress, thanks to the GISCollective.

From all of us in the Green Map network, we are grateful to you today and every day for both your earth-care and your ongoing support. Thank you for standing with us as we build skills, knowledge and networks for a better future for all.

Golden days of autumn! Crisp and cool days energize the team at Green Map and our colleagues around the world. 

This has been a great year for projgress on the Green Map Platform! We have a constant stream of updates thanks to our developer team at the GISCollective (you can also view the more technical open source updates). Behind the scenes, we’re expanding the Platform to make it easier for everyone to make and share Green Maps. Your support makes all the difference! 

We hosted events online and in person this season, including the Platform’s lunchtime learning session we created for the Climate Fringe of Scotland. The presentation is now featured in our blog. Let us know if you’d like to create a session like this and involve your part of the world in building capacity, knowledge and networks for community and climate health. 

Green Map is included in the Tools for a Warming Planet created by our long-time colleague, Ms. Ferguson and her team - peruse the catalog at warmingplanet.org This traveling exhibition has been shown this year at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven NL, Ars Electronica in Linz AS, and in the International Symposium on Electronic Arts of Barcelona ES and in the US, Arts Santa Monica!

We’re always delighted to hear from Green Mapmakers and share their news.

Society of Wilderness is getting a new project rolling - literally, kicking it off with a 15 day tour by bike around Taiwan! Promoting two new Green Map games is their goal, one based around domestic travel and the other to get acquainted with indigenous and invasive exotic flora and fauna in Yongchunpi Wetland Park.  Follow SOW on Facebook to see how they elevate biodiversity across their beautiful island. 

Cape Town Green Map celebrated their 13th anniversary and have now published 10 unique Green Maps, as this blog describes. Visit their website for news on local progress in South Africa, too. 

Our best wishes to all our GlobalGiving supporters this season! 

Summer is a great season for making Green Maps!

People often have extra time to explore, assess and map points of interest, based on a theme like preservation, outdoor activities, food security or green living. Lately, it has been so exciting to see all the new users sign in on our Platform, where a new Green Map can very efficiently and inclusively created, thanks to helpful resources like our data crowdsourcing Campaign tool. Here’s an example:

Have you heard of the Chance Lighthouses?

Over the course of the last 6 weeks, a global community of lighthouse enthusiasts and Green Mapmakers have come together to collate information about Chance Brother lighthouses on our new Platform. The project is led by the UK nonprofit, Digventures. It has been developed in collaboration with our Green Map team, Hannah of Tacit Tacit in Scotland and the GISCollective in Berlin.

Working with DigVenture’s Community Archaeologist Ms. Jago, the Green Map team has trained volunteers on using the Green Map platform, walking them through the leadership and management tools, even supporting them as they designed new icons for the Made In Smethwick: Lighthouses Around the World Green Map. There's a Campaign for quick data collection and the map-in-progress has over 260 entries - see it here!

Mapping these lighthouses gives facinating insight into the development of global trade routes, colonialism and the condition of our coastlines

The group of volunteers meets online to exchange perspectives and lighthouse stories, like the one shown below. Our director has also delivered a talk to volunteers about Green Map movement and how the tools support communities to understand sustainable living locally. Wendy notes:

"The Platform allows you to see the locations of Chance Lighthouses even before the description has been published. This is a great fit with this project’s phase 2 which encourages people to visit the lighthouses, and add photos, soundscapes, and condition or environmental-risk surveys. We love that participants are also mapped! "

Look closer at this heritage-based global Green Map project and its flexible program design. There's a culminating event and reunion on August 18th - watch our social media for an invitation. Our thanks to DigVentures and everyone involved in this fascinating global effort!

Every Green Map shares a unique perspective, whether in Scotland or South Africa (check out the Cape Town 13th Anniversary blog, for example) - your support makes it happen!  
 

Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, and to all others around the world who are caught up in conflicts that are rooted in fossil foolishness. We have known our continued dependencies fuel so many ills, layering injustice and war on top of environmental and public health degradation. Between that and the crushing reality that our planet’s climate is destabilized, our energy choices must be made with our common future in mind.

Luckily, we don't have to drive ourselves to extinction! There are so many resources available today to promote sustainability by communities, companies and individuals, it’s possible and practical to switch to a variety of renewable sources of energy, including human power!

Thanks to the alternative-rich iconography utilized on locally made Green Maps, we’ve all been charting convivial ways to get around without a car, connecting people with the beauty of nature near home, showing local examples of solar, geothermal and energy efficiency, and illuminating opportunities for reducing our own carbon footprint and connecting with local groups advocating for justice and sweeping policy change in government, business, housing and public institutions.

In this way, Green Map System helps inspire local action that can impact effective global policy and help form larger communities of practice that address everything from access to clean drinking water to healthier oceans and education for a more sustainable planet.

GlobalGiving donors - if you want to see positive change accelerate locally, start at home and create a Green Map! Every community has positive efforts underway - you can put them on the map and make energy saving and renewables visible and desirable. It's a great way to help everyone do their part, meet people who want to share their knowledge and perspectives, and empower your community to move towards renewables and carbon smart practices.

We would be happy to help you get started! There’s a new Quick Start Guide for the Open Green Map platform we have been developing with your support at new.opengreenmap.org - it walks you through the steps to get started. Or, pop in for Green Map office hours and ask your questions - the next will be held on Wednesday April 6, 10 AM EDT, use this link - bit.ly/meet-gms422. Thanks to you, making a Green Map remains free for non-commercial projects!

Let’s use our power to change the ways we source and use our power!

While outcomes of the COP26 climate conference were disappointing, this United Nations event drew our director and local Green Map projects together. We’ll share some highlights in this report and also, see COP #1 and COP #2 on our website for more details and images - your support helped make all this happen!

In Glasgow, we:
• held live events and meetings with present, prospective and past project leaders,
• presented an online hour of terrific Green Map video shorts from 5 countries that share how our adaptable, freely accessible
• tools support climate action and healthier communities,
• co-hosted a ‘green drinks’ (with Climate Clock friends),
• co-created an event for educators,
• and of course, networked like mad. Our thanks to all who guided, hosted and connected there!

Thanks to the Glasgow Green Map, everyone could see how sustainability is infused into Scottish dining, getting around, getting out, shopping etc. Daily Climate Fringe ‘site of the day’ posts drew new audiences and our new ‘what’s nearby’ App was tested there, too.

Excitingly, the GISCollective, developers of the App and the Open Green Map platform arrived and we traveled west to the lush Cowal Peninsula. Dunoon’s Green Mapmakers, Tacit-Tacit Design organized a memorable workshop. A dozen participants from regional agencies, plus Green Party Member of Parliament Burgess, were introduced to our resources and ways to use them in the town’s historic timber Pier. While discussing new icons and ways to meet local needs, we visited magnificent woods and the Ark, a symbolic message to COP26 negotiators - we also set out a sea level rise marker and focused on organizational development and the Scottish context. Our COP #2 post shares more about Dunoon.

Mapping in the field with local organizations was a genuine delight, especially when it takes place in a 600 year old woods in Cornwall England! The group of 18 participants were ages 6 to 86, and all of us felt the centuries beneath our feet in the soft surroundings. With ancient places of worship and wells from medieval times, these Ecogeographers have a serious mission, to protect Reen Wood as the land’s status may change soon. As Wendy noted, “I was invited to the TED Countdown climate conference, where my month in the UK began. In Cornwall, I learned about rewilding and other new land preservation concepts in a unique landscape, rich with standing stones, surfing beaches, verdant farms and former tin mines, all sculpted by winds and time.” Sharing perspectives on place matters, the importance of heritage and climate adaptation, the process drew new potentialities together that will be shared on the map.

Events. Homestays. Marches. Chance encounters. Every experience underscored the value of our community-based approach! Now back in NYC, we’re continuing to work on the future of our movement with the GISCollective, Tacit-Tacit, our Board, advisors and network. Your support makes a crucial difference!

#GivingTuesday is a great time to pitch in as GlobalGiving is boosting all donations made from 12:01am ET to 11:59pm on November 30th, whether it's a one time or a new recurring gift. We're sending this before Thanksgiving so you might have a chance to enjoy the videos and posts during your break!

All best wishes, and thank you for helping us support communities that are adapting and addressing climate health through mapmaking!

It’s been a good summer at Green Map in NYC, in between epic rain storms and air quality alerts that bring climate issues to the forefront. When we look back to our first climate-focused map made in 2006, we asked, “What’s your dream for the future - the Baked Apple or a healthy, beautiful city?” We’re still asking! And we’re gearing up for a busy autumn with your help.

NYC’s newest Green Map project

We made this map in support of Stuy Cove, a treasured ‘food forest’ that has fed wild birds, butterflies and humans for nearly 20 years. This amazing native plant garden is on the move, and hundreds of plants are being distributed to other gardens, schoolyards and tree beds around the city. We wanted everyone to see where this biological richness continues to flourish, so we created a Campaign survey that sends responses to OGM2, our mapping platform (see bit.ly/SCplants). This makes it easy for each location to record the status of the transplants on this map-in-progress. See it at bit.ly/scplantmap - it’s expected to show about 40 locations when completed.

Making way for storm surge barriers, it’s our hope that Stuy Cove, a project of Solar One, will be able to return to its East River location, and continue supporting biodiversity and education in this community along the Atlantic Flyway, as currently planned.

Events!

Join us online on Wednesday, the 22nd of September, 2021 at 1:30 ET (6:30pm in the UK) with Scottish Green Map projects during Climate Fringe Week which is organised by Stop Climate Chaos Scotland to celebrate and support ways you can engage in climate activism. The event includes a pop in by the GIS Collective, rural and urban examples with Mr. Lovelock of Glasgow Eco Trust and Ms. Clinch of Dunoon's Tacit Design, along with global examples highlighting climate action that will inspire you before, during and after COP26. RSVP here

The next day, our director is presenting at the Service Design Scotland Distanced Gathering, an ongoing conversation hosted by Distanced Gathering that’s broken expectations of what can happen on Zoom. It’s at 11AM ET (4PM in the UK) on Thursday September 23. Delve in and register here.

Live event: Visualize Green Infrastructure! It’s a timely topic for the 10th LUNGS Harvest Arts Festival. Join Green Map’s walking discussion on Tuesday September 28 starting at 5PM ET at La Plaza Cultural, East 9th at Avenue C in the East Village. No need to RSVP. Check out the self-guided green infra tour map we created for Open House New York in 2020.

Supporting Changing Communities

We hope you and your community are moving to address all the issues and impacts coming to light now. With all the alarming news about climate change, we’re doing more, too. Soon, we’ll let you know about COP26-related events in Scotland and online latet this fall.

You can help us make the most of this opportunity to activate climate action through participatory mapping by pitching in by midnight on Friday during the 50% match on donations up to $50 in the Little by Little campaign! Thank you and be well, friends!

Lazy days of summer? Not so for Green Map projects. All of us in the network and at the global HQ can see that this is prime time and are working hard locally, already in the run up to the UN Climate conference, COP 26, and the NGO-oriented Fringe COP 26 that will take place this fall. Let’s start there.

Our director was invited to the climate-themed TED Countdown conference in Edinburgh in mid-October! This set in motion a plan to stay in Scotland for the COP and work with local Green Map projects and the many participants who will be in and near Glasgow in early November! We’ll share plans and our public events that are live, hybrid and online as it gets closer. Special thanks to Ms. Clinch of Dunoon's Tacit Design and Mr. Lovelock of Glasgow Eco Trust where the Green Map is already underway here, using OGM2, our cool new mapping platform and its campaign feature to engage people in creating it! 

Want to help? Your contributions on July 14 of $100 - $1000 will be matched by GlobalGiving and will be dedicated to our work in Scotland this fall. Donate as soon as possible at 9 ET while matching funds last and give Green Map a big boost! 

Ms. Clinch also took part in our recent presentation at Living Knowledge 9, which illuminated ways that the United Nations 2030 Global Goals - the SDGs - are used together with Green Map Icons to raise visibility at the local level. Associate Professor Murayama and students at Azabu University in Japan made a terrific 8 minute video on the topic which you can see at bit.ly/SDG-GM-Azabu or watch the full 2 hours at bit.ly/SDG-GM21

Our Recovery Icons were the subject of a talk at C2M2, the Cities, Covid, Mitigation and Mapping Symposium hosted by American Association of Geographers and Harvard University in June - find links to each day of this event as well as our most recent OGM2 Demo (with a sneak peek at the App in development!!) on our Blog.

There are now 60 Open Green Maps on our new platform! Let’s call out one project, GreenErasmus, a student-led multi-campus project focused on students having the best, most sustainable possible experience during their semester abroad in Remagen Germany, Tbilisi Georgia, Baku Azerbaijan, Campina Grande Brazil and Pondicherry India. Congratulations to all involved!

Hadera Israel’s spring project was also successful, yielding maps that shared 4th graders’ perspectives and community improvement ideas, several of which will be funded to move forward. Watch this space in 2022, when, according to the project leader, Ms. Azmon, the project will be extended and continued!

Our thanks to everyone who helps make the world go round with their Green Map projects, and to you, for supporting this ongoing work! Our best wishes for a healthy and green season. 

Hello friends of Green Map System!

With your help, we’re having an amazing spring, with locally led Green Map projects popping up all over the world.

Today, we are inviting you to see what’s new at our home base, New York City, where we are gearing up for the Climate Action matching week at GlobalGiving - yes, our NYC project is taking part, and this means your donations of up to $100 are 100% matched next week, from Monday through Friday (April 19th - 23rd) - please pitch in!

Recently, our NYC projects include both mapping and “place making” (which to us means creating green healthy places that we can add to the Green Map). We alternate the two in this new project report that features our local climate action work and partnerships.

NYC is a testing ground for the global Green Map network and many of our adaptable engagement and mapping tools were tested here first. This Saturday,  you can help us pilot the new OGM2 Campaign tool -  It’s a quick way to engage lots of people in local mapping projects! From noon to three in East River Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, find us near the Fireboat House (just south of Delancey street at riverside), along with several local groups (here is the schedule). 

Our work reaches new people all the time. Just this week, our director had the honor of being the first speaker in the International Society of Participatory Mapping’s new Storylines series - follow @ISPMapping on Twitter for updates on the series and watch the recording here.

More people are using OGM2, our new mapping platform, all the time. Come check out a demo and discussion with its open source developers from the GIS Collective and guest Green Mapmakers on Saturday April 17, 2021 10:00 AM EDT (your time zone). It's a one-hour event, please register here, and consider making a Green Map for your community!

It’s been a year like no other, and we thank you for your support of our work worldwide and in NYC. Our best wishes for your good health - have a great, green Earth Day and Climate Action Week, too!

Tomorrow is Open Data Day at Green Map! It’s actually being celebrated across our city and worldwide - come join our presentation of our awesome mapping platform, OGM2, with speakers from the development team and the exemplary FEEDJeffCo Green Map (begun in 2020, this map has pivoted from celebrating food grown locally around Port Townsend to securing access to healthy food for all in Washington State’s Jefferson County).

OGM2 is becoming more flexible and useful with easy to create mapping campaigns and new storytelling features like sound files. It’s so versatile that 4th graders in Hadera Israel are getting started now as part of their "My City" curriculum. At Green Map, we welcome more young mapmakers guided by educators where the mapping can combine “combine 21st century skills and sustainability in a city that wants to be green.”

RSVP to Tuesday’s 1pm ET Open Day Day talk at bit.ly/OGM2ODW
(Check ‘every time zone’ and if you read this message too late, no worries, we will add the recording to OGM2’s story, with demo recordings, upcoming events and the growing list of OGM2 in beta features. 

Open continues: As part of her interest in community wellbeing, our director is part of an exciting panel on open air quality data on Thursday at 11 AM, too (details at bit.ly/AQ21ODW).

It’s very moving to see progress through community mapping on the ground - with or without tech platforms. Thank you again for your support, which helps every Green Map project!

Cuba’s Green Map project is celebrating 20 years with a newly released video, find it on our YouTube channel.  Crafted with great archival footage and reflections over the last two years, these Green Mapmakers, based at the Centro Felix Varela since inception, share the secret sauce that keeps this nation-wide project relevant and a source of continuous progress. Their Covid maps (best seen at Red de Mapa Verde and the organizational page on Facebook, along with regenerative efforts stemming from findings on the maps) have helped illuminate and address a wide range of vulnerabilities. We’re so glad to share they are planning to digitize the remarkable Atlas of paper maps amassed over the years on OGM2!  Yes! Our thanks to all involved in this remarkable effort and to those contributing "back end" translations to make it easier to chart in any language on OGM2. 

Liana, the long time director of the Cuban Green Map project is a member of the International Green Mapmakers Advisory group, which met yesterday and refreshed goals and projects for the year ahead. We’ll be sharing more of this on our next newsletter. 

Upcoming: Watch our social media for the date and link to our director's talk at the International Society of Participatory Mapping in mid-April, too.

Our best wishes for the Equinox and a healthy, green season ahead! 

2020, what a year! Despite it all new mapping projects keep popping up, thanks to your help! Please pitch in on Giving Tuesday and incentivize our work. 

Take for example, the Dunoon Postcard Trail, designed to link the local heritage of this Scottish seaside town to the sustainable community development of this place. Explored onsite or online, this is created by Ms. Clinch of Tacit Design, who has also partnered with Creative Carbon Scotland on this program on community mapping for environmental empowerment, introducing Green Mapmaking to so many new people. 

Ms. Clinch’s Green Map was made on OGM2, our mapping platform in development by the GIS Collective. There’s now about 25 maps to explore at http://new.OpenGreenMap.org. Check out the list of features, some of which grew out of our First Fridays zooms with the Berlin-based developers and the global mapmakers. Thanks to your support, OGM2 will soon emerge from ‘beta’ and continue to grow in usefulness and versatility. This ‘open source’ platform has huge potential to be used in other applications, too!

You support also helps us create and share education resources. Check out the important work being done in as a university-high school collaboration at “Green Map as a service-learning experience in a coastal community of Yucatan, Mexico”. Here, the marine aquatecture students used Google MyMap with Green Map Icons, plus three new symbols they created to point out turtle habitats, street dogs and local seafood. Our thanks to project leaders Ms. Leija, Ms. Koh and Ms. Ávila for their report on our blog, too. 

We love working with classes, and nowadays, it’s so easy to show up and support innovative uses of mapping and location-based technologies. A highlight was working with Los Angeles’ OTIS College of Art & Design on their entry for PANDO Days, a cool new app concept that mixed our icons, the UN SDGs and symbols already in use in LA County. Our work with the University of Victoria continues, as well, and now we are drawing OGM2 and the GIS Collective into the “Map Shop” process. 

All these experiences played a role in our 25th year exhibit “How Green Is My City’ at MoRUS Museum in New York. The show continues and possibly, more outdoor events will pop up - watch for updates and follow us on Instagram at green.map, too! 

Our best wishes to all! Stay healthy and thank you for your support this Giving Tuesday (or anytime!)

As promised, we are back to share news with you about the Green Map exhibit, How Green Is My City? The show opened on September 6th and will remain on view for the rest of 2020 at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, 155 Avenue C in Manhattan’s East Village. MoRUS Museum is open Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays from 11AM - 7PM. Check online at GreenMap.org/2020exhibit and morusnyc.org for updates culminating in a December closing event.

Please! Donate $10-$50 (until Midnight Friday) for a 50% Match!

Find this small museum at the intersection of history and activism in the community where Green Map has been based for 25 years. Accordingly, our show is mostly about our own past accomplishments, locally and globally. We also include current projects that your donations have helped to support, such as our mapping platform in development, which will be featured in online demos and this neighborhood event: 

In person: Put your Spot on the Green Map! Saturday, September 19, 5-7pm 
Celebrate North American Day of Sustainable Communities by putting your favorite green sites on the map. Share your knowledge about places, projects and practices and find out about the OGM2 mapping platform at this outdoor event. It’s on the plaza at Grace Exhibition Space at 182 Avenue C, where the “Microbes to Metropolis” exhibit by MoS MoBS LoBS Lab is also on view. 

Online: OGM2 Demonstration Discussion! Join us on first Fridays, October 2, November 6 and December 4 at 2PM ET.
Join us from where you stand and find out about using Open Green Map 2, the new mapping platform (now in Beta) developed for us by the Berlin-based GIS Collective. Get the Zoom link at GreenMap.org/2020exhibit. 

We’ve also organized tours, with more to come later this fall:

Climate Week NYC Exhibit Tour Friday, September 25th, 6pm
This event is part of Climate Week NYC 2020. Beginning at MoRUS Museum, this outdoor - indoor tour will provide unique insight and context to the Green Map movement. Please RSVP here. 

Green Map Cycling Tour Saturday October 17th, 3pm (rain date 10/18)
This Green Map bike tour will highlight green infrastructure. We’ll track underwater streams and traverse the original NYC shore line into East River Park, which is slated for phased demolition beginning this fall. Guest speaker Ms. Ip from EastRiverParkAction.org as well as maps from the past (and for the future) will help us gain perspective on current resiliency challenges and movements. Limited to 8 riders - with distancing & masks. RSVP to apple@greenmap.org

MoRUS has this family-friendly event planned:
East Village Community Garden Passport - Sunday, Sept 20th 4pm 
Stop in for your own copy of the Passport, which maps out a variety of sustainable gardens located in the East Village. Once you have gathered the stamps from all the gardens return the full passport to the museum and receive a prize! 

There is much more coming up this season - see GreenMap.org/2020exhibit

We are so grateful for your support, which is matched all week - donate $10 to $50 and we’ll receive 50% more from September 14th to 18th, until Midnight Friday, thanks to GlobalGiving. 

Thank you for your generosity and for your support of urban sustainability and healthier communities through Green Mapping!

With your help, Green Map is:

• Sharing our new Recovery Icons, locally and globally
• Hosting online demos of our new mapping platform in progress
• Celebrating 25 years with an exhibit & events at MoRUS Museum in NYC
• Engaging with new local groups and projects
• Being featured in ‘eSpatially’
• Standing up for positive change in every way!

Recovery: While the Pandemic has brought new uncertainties for everyone, we have worked to help illuminate the path forward. The Recovery Icons are being introduced to highlight public health, recuperation and regeneration - see them on our Instagram or our website, along with examples that could inspire you to create a new community resource, artwork, social media or map!

Technology: Yes, this set is available on OGM2, our new mapping platform in progress, and can be used alongside other icon sets there, including the UN 2030 Goals, as seen at Browse. Along with our partners at the GIS Collective, we’ve started hosting demos to supplement the video and text tutorials posted on new.opengreenmap.org - see Twitter.com/greenmap for updates or email us to join.  Capable of mapping points, lines and areas and displaying unique icon sets and basemaps, demonstrations of this open source platform have become iterative parts of the development process. 

Exhibit: “How Green Is My City” is opening soon! The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces in Manhattan’s East Village is hosting a historical overview of our maps and other projects for the rest of 2020! Programming involves a mix of online events, outdoor tours and open hours - all to be confirmed around Labor Day and posted at GreenMap.org/2020exhibit and MoRUSnyc.org. We’ll send you details then too, so you can join in. 

Collaboration: Green Map will continue this fall as a community member of the NEW INC. incubator! Locally, we’re taking part in the new Loisaida Open Streets Community Coalition, creating new ways to use our public space during the health crisis (and we hope, it will extend beyond the current patchwork as the city addresses the Climate Emergency it declared last year). Check out the beautiful education resources made by Newtown Creek Alliance using our icons! 

“The Green Map icons made our final product beautiful, truly unique, far more intuitive, and that much easier to use!” said Ms. Bloodgood in eSpatially’s article. 

Our director has also been on Instagram Live and has permission to use the image below - listen in anytime. 

Green Map is a resource for every community. Use it to help your place and its people thrive! Thank you for your support of this vital work, and have a safe, sustainable summer!

In this time of this pandemic, we know it’s important to do more than wish that all are safe and well. With everything so uncertain, here at Green Map, we are re-framing what we have learned by sharing symbols that help people visualize and create a healthier future. Borrowing from our lexicon, we are testing out a concise set of Recovery Icons designed to help communities ‘re-localize’ and inclusively regain their footing. See and comment on the draft set of symbols that promotes regeneration of the local culture at http://GreenMap.org/RecoveryIcons. 

These open source Recovery Icons can be used on maps, apps and social media as well as on signage, guides, murals and as place markers. We plan to make the Recovery Icons available on OGM2, our mapping platform in development at new.opengreenmap.org, where people can quickly make informative, responsive maps of their own community’s recovery resources (our thanks to the team at GIS Collective!). We’ll share examples to inspire people, partner to extend the practice and track the ways these icons spur communications on sustainable living and calls to action, ideally with your support.

We’re also hearing from Green Mapmakers who are already using the maps and data they have collected to help their communities address immediate needs in the COVID crisis. In Washington State, Ms. Hunt’s FEED Jefferson County Green Map does the essential work of helping local farmers get their crops to people in need and to new customers. In Cuba, the network is making use of maps they created to highlight vulnerabilities as virus-related shortages are beginning to impact communities. We’re continuing to work with university students (check out the great outcomes at UVictoria this semester). We are trying to help in other ways, locally, whether it’s delivering mask-making materials we had collected from Materials for the Arts (a terrific NYC re-use warehouse), or continuing our street tree campaign - work that is more important than ever as researchers are showing how dirty air causes more COVID deaths, and the trees are a lasting defense. 

Saving the best news for last - congratulations to assistant professor Murayama at the Department of Environmental Science of Azabu University in Japan. His students are winners in final round of the "University SDGs Action! Awards 2020" for their work to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals  - check out their winning presentation in our blog!

We appreciate all the support and encouragement you have given to Green Map’s projects around the world. We couldn’t do it without you! Feel free to pitch in anytime, of course. And, just to mention, all next week, April 20-24th, our NYC Green Map + Climate Action project has a 50% match here at GlobalGiving, aligned with Earth Day.  

In closing, be well, stay safe and stay active!

For me, as Green Map’s director, each year has been so different that it’s really fun to reflect back.

For example, 2018 was our year of going open, culminating in a party that shepherded in a wonderful year of new possibilities, partners and collaborations. In 2019 this led us to join an incubator! Since September, Green Map System has been a member of NEW INC's Ideas for the City group. It's been great to work in this creative collaboration space next to the NEW Museum with 100 participants and ample opportunities to connect in new ways. 
 
2019 has also been a year of relocalizing. I got involved in the effort to save East River Park, a site that’s been featured on many of our Green Maps, cycling and walking tours. Along with neighbors, we joined hands with East River Park Action when the East Side Coastal Resilience plan misplaced its ecological foundations and became a monolithic $1.45 billion flood wall. Gaining new skills for addressing policy that reflects the uncertainty baked into climate change, I sought a positive outcome and campaigned for street trees. The first of the 1,000 new Lower East Side Community Canopy trees are being planted now. I’m on the new street tree task force and will also take part in stewardship and leafy green regeneration of, for and by the community. There’s other local ‘placemaking’ underway and 2020 looks to be an outstanding year for progress on long-term local projects. 
 
What about mapping? In NYC, we took on rising temperatures, a growing threat in far too many cities. We published the Refresh LES Green Map highlighting healthy, free and cool places in our community. It’s our first open map, meaning anyone can use its contents to share the 'cool mapping' concept in their own way - that’s how the Spanish version was made. We enjoyed presented it and our other work at the mapping conferences, FOSS4G, Terrifica and NYC Conservation GIS Day; at workshops on Governors Island and in Hudson NY; at Earth Celebration and EcoTrippin events; as well as at the School of Data, and in various classrooms and halls in local universities and high schools.  

Yes, our global archive is still growing! Printed editions of Green Maps were produced from Baltimore and Monroe Michigan to Cape Town and Shanghai. We’re excited about the newly opened eco center in Holguin. It's the town where Green Map - Mapa Verde took root in Cuba, and now has an even stronger base from which to grow. New projects are in the works, near and far, including the development of our next mapping platform by Bogdan Szabo and Ciprian Samoila. Our interest in the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals keeps expanding, as well, with our successful fall ‘SDGs in the Park’ event, leading us forward on a new project for this spring. Follow Green Map on Facebook and Twitter for updates all year. 
 
Special thanks to everyone for their help this year, especially our wonderful and hard-working board of directors, who took part in April’s Climate Action crowdfunding campaign in support of our NYC work. Our global efforts received a major boost from the generous folks at NYC Whisky, which matched and donated the funds raised at their 10th anniversary celebration to our nonprofit in November. We’d also like to thank you and all the donors who pitched in to this long-running global campaign on Giving Tuesday, all of which was proportionately matched by Global Giving! Wow, do we feel appreciated!
 
2020 - a year when clear vision will be so badly needed - is just around the corner. Please join us in doing all you can to make it a year of inclusive progress toward community wellbeing and planetary healing.

Green Map is now a member of an incubator for ‘ideas for the city’ at NEW Inc. This year-long program brings trainings, access to resources, mentors and a great cohort of more than 100 socially-minded creatives, technologists and entrepreneurs to our table. In conjunction with the NEW Museum, New Inc. is on the Bowery, close to our East Village office in NYC. 

Interestingly, the incubator is just around the corner from the spot where we helped plant the first of 1,000 new street trees on the Lower East Side! You may recall that our director brought forward the LES Community Tree Canopy concept in Februrary. Now the first two trees are in the ground, planted with Parks Deputy Commissioner Kavanagh and tree advocates during our event on Sept 26, 2019 (see below). Like these first two trees, many of these will be native species which are better adapted to this climate and ecosystem. More will be planted as it gets cooler and our director has been asked to join the task force around stewardship for this Canopy. With trees being so beneficial to wellbeing across the board, we are also working on ways to share the process with other community boards across the city, and beyond. 

Global news

Our new mapping platform in progress was presented at Foss4G, the open mapping conference by our tech team, Bogdan Szabo and Ciprian Samoila as described here. Your support is key to the progress of this shared, open source platform! 

There are also great new print maps to celebrate in North East Baltimore MD and in Cape Town (featuring cycling)!  We publisehd a new NYC Green Map too, check out how we address Urban Heat Island effect in our own community, in an inclusive and positive way. 

“A Walk in the Park - SDGs in the Real World” 

We enjoyed co-hosting this exciting event with Sara D Roosevelt Park Coalition. Together we mapped 41 sites on 3 blocks that are working towards the same goals as the United Nations 2030 goals!  We also shared a new vision for the Stanton Building, created by Keena Suh’s Pratt students More about the party, as seen by the SDR Park team and here, you can download the map and take your own walk in the park! 

Front Page News! 

Special thanks to all who contributed to our NYC Climate Action project this Spring, which is creating new models for the global movement as we serve our local community.

Yes, NYC has declared a Climate Emergency! We took part and provided testimony in the lead up to the June 26th resolution by NYC City Council. Green Map has been ‘at the table’ several times this season as important policy changes are discussed and enacted.

The first NYC Green Map funded by you and LES Ready is online at bit.ly/coolLES! Refresh LES is all about saving energy while keeping cool. We mapped all kinds of places to be comfortable and relaxed while the summer sun is baking the city. Download it today or request free print copies. In keeping with our new open source policy, we made the file available for making your own version of this highly localized map. This project was inspired by Green Map Tokyo’s original Cool Share project. We hope there are abundant social benefits from being cool together, as well as cleaner air and reduced Urban Heat Island effect.

Cape Town Green Map: Celebrating 10 years of great work!

Way back in 2009, Cape Town’s first Green Map rolled off the presses. Now the 9th edition is being readied for release and everyone is celebrating ! This terrific team has continued their news service too, and you can catch up at capetowngreenmap.co.za. They also played an important role in galvanizing the public's involvement in the city’s 2018 water crisis and can now report that drinking water reserves are 50% replenished. 

June 5, World Environment Day, also marked the 10th year of Open Green Map! As noted in our recent newsletter, work continues on the new version of this social mapping platform, which will be presented at FOSS4G, the open source mapping conference in August. Our thanks to the amazing team of Ciprian Samoila and Bogdan Szabo for this work-in-progress!

We're wishing you the best for the season, and donors, yes! Good news: Global Giving has set July 18th as a great day to have your donation matched! Thank you for your support and all you do for a healthy environment and climate. 

WOW! We are so excited about GlobalGiving’s Climate Matching funding that we made a new Project to support Green Map NYC. With your donations we can address climate challenges in our home community and develop new ideas to share globally.

3 great ways to help Green Map gain extra funds through GlobalGiving’s Climate funding:

GOOD: Anytime from April 15 - 29, donate any amount to help Green Map get featured and win cash prizes!

BETTER: From April 15 - 29: Break your donation into 4 parts, and set up a recurring donation. On the 4th month, GlobalGiving will match that donation at 100% (up to $200)*.

BEST! Exactly at 9AM ET on Earth Day, Monday April 22, donate! GlobalGiving will match all donations 50% (up to $500) This funding will run out soon, so donate right then please!

Please contribute to:

NYC + Climate Action NYC, our local Green Maps and related climate projects

Green Maps for a more sustainable future! Our global program: support development of our new mapping platform

THANK YOU for taking tax-deductible climate action!

*You can cancel the recurring donation after month 4, or let it roll

On Valentine’s Day, with love for our home community, the Lower East Side of New York City, our director was campaigning for more street trees and a local stewardship initiative to bring more nature into our lives.

Also known as the LES, our home community has 165,000 residents and a real shortage of parks, street trees and greenery. According to the City's terrific map of street trees, tree-map.nycgovparks.org, our community board district, CB3 - the LES, Chinatown and East Village - has just 5,000 Street Trees.

Trees are so beneficial! We all appreciate the leafy shade and singing birds plus these 5,000 valiant trees provide us with $600,000 in energy conservation, CO2 reduction, storm water capture and pollutant removal, all of which help mitigate climate change and protect our health. That's $120 per tree per year. Wendy's campaign is focused on this simple statement: let's get moving now on planting more street trees and reinvigorating tree stewardship.

That day Wendy Brawer made a short statement and her draft Resolution was accepted and adapted by CB3 on February 26, 2019! Download the LES Community Tree Canopy Resolution below, share the link at bit.ly/CB3trees19. Now we are working on a broader call to action - more about this exciting campaign is to come.

Green Map NYC has also been part of the Stanton Building Task Force, working in coalition to return a long-closed community center in a nearby Park to active use. Good news! New bathrooms are finally getting underway! And there's a special event, “The Sara Roosevelt Park Community Photo Album” opening April 10th 2019 at 6:30pm at Downtown Art, 70 East 4th Street NYC!

We're in the process of creating a new Green Map that includes the Stanton Bldg and mixes in the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as markers. Made on what we are calling OGM2 - a remarkable mapping platform being built by Bogdan Szabo - there's a peek of this platform above, with a link to explore it to come.

Our Director is also taking part in the new East River Alliance, which formed this winter to address the City’s new plan that could ‘bury the park in order to save it”. Surely, there is an ecologically sound way to deflect climate change impacts while supporting the needs of this diverse community! Explore this growing community coalition at http://EastRiverAlliance.org and join us Sunday morning, May 5th at 11am for our East River Park 'Jane’s Walk' to see what’s at stake in person.

Several talks are coming right up, including presenting in a tourism forum at the US State Department for international vistitors, touring with Japanese urban planning students, and more - catch us on Twitter and join us for public events this spring, too! 

It’s been an exciting year, culminating in the launch of our new website! Explore the first of many stories and our now Open iconography and policies. This slideshow explains more about our new trajectory, and of course, our history. Our thanks to our dev team and Pair Networks for their ongoing website hosting.

Good News!

While our original mapping platform, the Open Green Map, has crossed the 41,000 sites milestone, we are happy to report that OGM2 is in development, with beta test release planned for spring. Your donations will support its full vision!

In 2018, new Green Map projects were started in US, Colombia, Guinea, Ireland, UK, Germany, China, Korea and Taiwan - each offers hope to all local people!

Cuba celebrated 20 years of Green Map this month, with dozens of people from across the country gathering in Havana for a major Mapa Verde exchange and assessment. Watch for their documentary film in 2019 - we can’t wait!

In May, our director connected with five European projects. We continued working with them, in particular, our
• Copenhagen partners are pursuing major 2019-2023 objectives;
• Helsinki’s leadership led to October’s O2 30th Anniversary reunion, where Green Map co-presented at the Embassy of Circularity at Dutch Design Week;
• Geneva’s Green Swiss network is refocused on mountain mapping;
• In addition to his biodiversity research in Romania's Carpathian mountains, Ciprian Samoila’s work culminated in the new website's launch;

Honored as Keynote speaker at the 2018 commencement for The Parsons School of Strategic Design, our director, Wendy Brawer spoke of the graduates’ dedication, strength and values in this turbulent time. She also took part in the school’s Climate Crisis week in the fall, involving Sustainable Systems students in the quirky #animatechange campaign. There are nearly 4 million views of these climate-action oriented GIFs - use them in your social media messages!

Your support accelerates all this momentum - thank you!  

It’s Climate Week in NYC and Green Map has created an exciting new way to share your positive climate actions - and it’s not a map! We thinks it's so important to engage young people who use social media, texts and such, so we are rolling out 

#AnimateChange!
http://bit.ly/GIFgmED 

Share your positive climate actions with animated GIFs that make your actions UNFORGETTABLE!

With support from LES Ready, we are creating fun little animated messages that you can add to your messages, website, Instagram, etc. First year sustainability students from Parsons New School of Design are pitching in, and we’re accepting ideas and images until Sept 30 at http://bit.ly/RRgif-ideas - so please share your ideas for GIFs, too. We're re-mixing and adding to the set of GIFs this week!

Then, in October, take part in Green Map’s #AnimateChange campaign!

Show everyone how you are taking action for a healthier, greener, more resilient and prepared world -
Use Green Map's GIFs and bring your actions to light!

Use these open-source GIFs to animate your social media, texts and websites through 10/29/18 (#SandyDay, the 6th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy) - be sure to tag your posts #animateChange. Yes, you can use them anytime!

See the GIF collection grow at http://giphy.com/greenmap and follow the #AnimateChange! campaign on http://bit.ly/GIFgmED 

Green Map’s director and local project leaders had an especially good series of meetings in May and June in five European countries. A highlight was the launching of Mapping Our Common Ground’s third edition, and the first to be released as an eBook - get your copy of this guide free at http://bit.ly/MCG18-pdf. Launched in two places at once, find out more about the story behind this handy resource - our thanks to Maeve Lydon, Ken Josephson, Crystal Tremblay and John Lutz in Victoria BC and Budapest, and to Ciprian and Alexandra Samolia and colleagues in Bistrita Romania.

A total of nine meetings with municipalities, NGOs, an embassy and UN staff were part of the trip’s mix of activities. The United Nations SDGs (2030 Global Goals) played a part in many of these meetings, as we have now charted our icons in relation to these 17 goals, added them to our new guide, and begun exploring how our network has been using them ‘on the ground’.

This activity is featured in the slideshow at http://bit.ly/GMS-SDG18. This presentation will continue to evolve as we are taking part in some of the related events alongside the United Nations' High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in July in New York.

In the heat of summer, we are taking a couple weeks off from hosting public events, but looking ahead to our Climate Week special event in September, stay tuned! and stay cool!

It’s spring at Green Map and that means Earth Day is coming! Worldwide, we have some exciting events planned, including: 

From Michigan, where Green Mapmakers at Monroe County will take part in the Earth Day Expo on 4/14/2018 to Geneva Switzerland where our mapmaking colleagues at Earth Focus will debut their mobile experience, the Sustainabus! to California, where James Fish of the St Louis Green Map project will present a talk on Open Green Maps for an audience of Chinese and American scholars at the 12th International Forum on Ecological Civilization Conference in Claremont, CA - Apr 27&28. Everywhere, Earth Day offers a fresh opportunity to engage new audiences in thinking green and taking action for healthier, more lovable communities 

In New York, Green Map System will be tabling on Broadway as part of the Earth Day DOT Car-free Celebration on April 21 - we’re collecting opinions on new icons and applications. Look for us near Herald Sq and let us know you are our Global Giving friend! Details can be found here.

On the 22nd, our director is taking part in a Brooklyn Waterfront Bike Tour hosted by Human Impacts Institute  - details here. We’ll also be stopping in the Spring Awakening in the East Village!

Since we think Every Day is Earth Day, we’ll invite you to this too: Our May 6 Jane’s Walk doubles as a Lower East Side History Month walking tour - Past. Present. Future of the LES is a free event - join us at 11:30 am for a 2 hour walk that starts and ends at the Stanton Building. Details here.

In March, Green Map Jayapura hosted a beach clean up in Papua Indonesia! Our board member, Barent Roth is teaching 3-D Printing techniques to Parsons students and testing out some new game and marker concepts with us.  In April, we hosted Tokyo Green Mapmaker Masahiro Horiuchi, who presented his Share Hub and Share Map at MORUS NYC. We'll soon be posting a better video on Facebook.com/GreenMap, a great spot to follow our most recent actions. 

To date in 2018, groups from the US, Colombia, UK and Guineau have joined us a new Green Mapmaking projects. On behalf of the ever-growing Green Map network, Thank You! Have a meaningful Earth Day, where ever you live. 

At Green Map, our work to engage people at the local level is more important than ever!

• 21 new Green Map projects were started around the world this year. From Jayapura Indonesia to Gainesville Florida to Seville Spain, these projects are tackling greater complexities and bringing more people to the table, in support of healthy, resilient communities in 65 countries. Follow the ever-growing list at GreenMap.org/home.

• The SDGs are a new United Nations framework. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals) are matched with Green Map Icons at http://bit.ly/SDGGM.

• In New York in 2017, our director’s TED Residency was a great experience!  Watch Wendy’s TED Talk, and read about her 14 week experience in our blog at bit.ly/TEDgm17.

• We took part in a thoughtful conference on ecosystem services in Oaxaca Mexico this fall, along with youth stewardship project leaders from Irapuato- enjoy our joint report.  Green Map joined the Intermapping and explored the circular economy in Florence, in spring, too.  

• Locally, our talks, walks and community partnerships (like this fall's Climate Week, New School and Grassroots Alliance events) connected us with new audiences. Green Map is part of a neighborhood effort to restore a park building and contributes to an 'infrastructure reuse' project in Queens, as well. 

• Our open trajectory has more coming up:

    New Stories-based open website
    Mapping our Common Ground, book, third edition 
    Creation of Green Map Icons as Icons as digital stickers (SDG-linked) 
    Check out our summer intern's terrific “Learning Tech for Sustainability” and see how Esri’s Story Map platform complements Green Mapmaking  

• Awards in 2017 include: 
       The (En)Rich List, Honorable Mention, Post Growth Institute
        NYC Service Certificate (see WendyBrawer.com/awards)

Green Mapmaking is a concrete action that promotes local agency, addresses climate and political fears, and helps build a better future. Thank you for your support!

We invite you to contact us anytime with your ideas to help shine a sustainable light on all of the 982 communities that we serve. Our best wishes for 2018!

With all the unprecedented climate change-related catastrophes occurring across the US and around the world, climate action is our gravest challenge. How will all of us face this existential crisis?

At Green Map, we provide a direct means to communicate local options for more sustainable, lower impact living and towards a healthier, more lovable and just city.  As we give people the tools needed to engage in making a local assessment, we equip them to change perspectives about community assets and liabilities.

This awareness contributes to positive, cross-cutting actions with across the board benefits. Our global work continues to grow, most recently adding Incheon South Korea, a Spanish green business project and Bergen NJ to our roster of locally-led Green Map. We’re looking forward to reaching new audiences in Mexico in November, when we are presenting along with Irapuato Green Map at the Ecosystem Change conference.

In addition to mapping green places, we are making them - the Stanton Building in lower Manhattan is an example. An underutilized park building can become a new kind of community climate action center that is socially resilient and much needed in these uncertain times. Join us on Wednesday, October 25th from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at The New School, Wollman Hall (65 West 11th St) to help further this vision. Please RSVP! There’s an overview of recent Stanton Building progress at http://bit.ly/SB1p917. Your thoughts and Likes are welcome at http://fb.me/stantonbldg, where events, articles and more are posted.

With intensifying fires, hurricanes and floods on our mind, over the last month, we’ve conducted several tours on local energy, bio-design and social community-based solutions for climate experts, university students and the public. We made a short video of our tours in 2013 in English and Chinese, as we think this is a great way to engage an authentic exchange that inspires and informs. We'll include some images here for you. 

Wishing you all a good season ahead! Thank you again for your support. 

This year, the Green Map Advisory group has been meeting via email and Skype. It's been exciting to hear more about local development - these communications also contribute much to our ongoing planning. Together we are identifying priorities that will accelerate our work together. We have an exciting possibility to meet, to be announced as it's confirmed. Thanks to Janet Felsten of Baltimore Green Map and Philip Todres of Cape Town Green Map for stepping it up! 

In New York, with the help of Jake Greenberg, our summer intern from Brandeis U, we have taken part in various fairs and public events this season. It's amazing how many people we encounter have heard of and used Green Maps! We take a break during the hottest weeks, and will be announcing our Autumn events soon on GreenMapNYC.org, starting with Climate Week in September.

Lots of great work underway in Wales, where Sustainable Swansea has printed their latest edition. It's their 6th printed Green Map and there's another 9 that are interactive Open Green Maps - terrific work! Follow them on Twitter for more news. 

Our director's TED Residency was completed, shortly after all 23 participants gave their talks, live on the big red dot! It was a great experience, and now, everyone wants to know when the talks will be online. It takes months to process them all, of course, we will let you know. Residents can continue to use the TED office and take part in welcoming the next round of residents in the fall!

Wishing you a wonderful summer! 

We promised exciting news in our last newsletter, here it is: Green Map’s Director is now a TED Resident! Through mid-June, Wendy Brawer will be based at TED, famous for the TED Talks and conferences. “Every day, there is an opportunity to expand skills, meet potential partners and ‘think outside the box’ along with a remarkable cohort”, Wendy notes. A TED Talk is one of the culminating activities, and you can be sure, we will let you know when it’s posted online.

Youth Take the Lead!

In the central Mexican city of Irapuato, Guanajuato, "Keepers of the Silao River" is an environmental educational intervention for teenagers. Led by Signos Irapuato AC-Ágora de cultura ambiental Guanajuato AC, the process is carried out in two secondary schools through workshops and field trips. Students use Green Map resources to promote, in an equitable and critical way, sustainable green areas, areas at risk or dangerous, as well as socio-environmental challenges in which they can intervene through knowledge, diagnosis, and action plans.  

“Teenagers are an opportunity for our cities” explains project leaders Paulina Uribe Morfín and Nathalie Castiaux. ”They are in a transformative stage of life and can introduce cultural changes that flips the developing model of Irapuato toward a more sustainable one”. Integrating their findings on the collective Irapuato Green Map stimulates dialogue and favors the construction of their identity in the city, while promoting social participation and a better exercise of their citizenship. Follow the project's social media at the links below. 

We need many more projects like “Keepers” to inspire and mentor the largest generation of youth in human history.

Earth Day takes place this weekend and all over the world, people are pitching in at local parks, gardens, and green spaces – in the US, we are also marching this weekend and next to support scientists and to confront the challenges of climate change. Take a stand for the environment – take action today! Sign petitions, call your representatives and make your presence known at Town Halls and then pitch in to protect the air, waterways and land that you love and on which our children and all future generations will depend.

We invite you to contact us anytime with your ideas to help shine a sustainable light on all of the communities we serve!  

What do Jane Goodall, Jane Jacobs, Majora Carter, Paul Hawken and our director, Wendy Brawer, have in common?

All of them were selected and honorably mentioned by the Post-Growth Institute's (En)Rich List!

What is this all about? "The (En)Rich List celebrates a wealth of inspirational individuals. Collectively, the people highlighted throughout this website present a rich tapestry that points to globally prosperous and sustainable futures."

It's a terrific honor to be included on this list, and a testament to all the people working with Wendy, as well as the Green Mapmakers. Both the full list of winners and honorable mentions is linked below. 

We encourage you to read the article (linked below) about our work by the P2P Foundation, too. It's good to be the 'project of the day'!

We have an another announcement to make in March, so will keep this report brief. Thank you to all our donors - your support means so much to us!

The date was December 13, 1991. I was in a room full of environmental activists in New York City. The United Nations Earth Summit ‘prepcom’ was soon to come, where Agenda 21 would be negotiated prior to the main UN event in Rio. We were planning talks and tours for hundreds of governmental, sustainability and social justice participants who would soon arrive, some to stay a month.

I thought about these individuals coming from all over the world, and wondered, would they see the signs of progress that I was noticing: Community gardens, farmers markets, bike paths, solar sites and more? I considered their many languages and cultures, and decided I should make a map of these and other hopeful features. 

Why? Maps are universally understandable and resource efficient. Most importantly, they share a world view as they guide people to new experiences. Maps ‘work’ for both residents and visitors and, as I later learned, help people more quickly grasp a community’s complexities. 

Later that day, I came up with a name for a folding map that would show the ‘green side’ of the Big Apple, the Green Apple Map. That night, thanks to a curator at Municipal Art Society’s Urban Center Gallery, support for 10,000 copies was in hand! 

The first Green Map was on its way! Immediately, I called a group of eco-designers and activists, and together we breathed life into this concept. We sprang into research and design and a few weeks later, the map ready for printing. We held a launch event on the first day of Spring 1992. It brought together 250 international Earth Summiteers plus a wide range of local folks. In addition to sharing the original Green Map, we hosted a green design tour that highlighted 17 of the 145 sites on the map, with speakers and excitement every step of the way. 

I knew Green Map was a good idea from the original moment of inspiration. Immediately, I could see how teamwork would lead to richer outcomes. Together, we realized the importance of bringing people together to share knowledge and co-create a new, more sustainable vision of home. We fanned the sparks that flew from the original edition, gathering steam to initiate the global movement, all with the involvement of many terrific people.

Today, 25 years after my ‘eureka moment’, I’m amazed at all we have accomplished, yet know we’ve only just begun. With your help, Green Map System will inspire hundreds more communities and thousands more people to address profound community and climate changes and take action today. 

Our new “open” operating system will make its debut in a few weeks. Please pitch in today to help our new platform reach its full potential! 

Be safe this Hurricane Season - be ready, too!

As you may know, generating action to respond to climate change is among the many things Green Map System does. Now, nearly four years since Superstorm Sandy disrupted our office for several days, we worked with local filmmakers to create:

BIKE READY

Framing how New York bicyclists responded in the aftermath of a disaster, this film is becoming a springboard for local preparedness. We hope you will take time to view this 4-minute film, and use the accompanying Guide so you can lead a #BikeReady project in your community too. This project is licensed under a 'copy left' Creative Commons license so you can adapt it as needed. Share it with bike groups, emergency planners and your municipality.

To support solutionary responses that reduce risks in communities worldwide, we created Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish and Japanese editions. All are on the same webpage as the English original, along with other resources to build resiliency, at GreenMap.org/bikeready. This video debuted at the New York Bicycle Film Festival, and has been shown in diverse community and university settings. It was created with support of our neighborhood’s ‘long term recovery group’, LES Ready. 

Cycle daily for climate health, and in the spirit of mutual aid, get ready with Bike Ready!

- you are also invited to our Climate Week tour of renewables and biodesign on 9/23, linked below

We recently presented at Geo NYC, a terrific monthly exchange that draws about 100 mapping professionals (find it on Meetup.com, linked below). There, we shared progress toward diversifying the mapping platform options that Green Mapmakers can use to meet their varying goals and skills.

Civic Hall hosted our recent workshop, too, where members pitched in as we describe our process and future quest. We’ll soon be sharing more news on this with you, along with other news about our award-winning icons and engagement toolkit.

"As Green Map's Director, I was delighted to be recognized as a Lower East Side Community Hero, alongside a half dozen local luminaires". Wendy Brawer has worked in the community on cycling, green spaces and renewable energy, and our office has been based on the Lower East Side since inception". Later that week, Wendy was invited to the US State Department to meet Brazilian energy experts – her talk is linked below.

Later in June, our Bike Ready is part of the Bicycle Film Festival and other screenings. See this 4 minute film and use it to spark a conversation with your local bicyclists about organizing for emergencies. Cycling is the antidote to many of today’s challenging conditions!

Watch our social media for updates on more events this summer, including at the World Social Forum (Forum Social Mondial - fsm2016.org) in Montreal in August. And have a great season!

It’s the first day of spring, and a few blossoms herald welcome relief from winter’s grey chill. Regardless, 2016 has already provided a season for progress for Green Map System.

A retreat with our board of directors was especially satisfying as we consider practical ways to address current conditions, and meet our mission of supporting changing communities. We are always grateful for your donations that make it possible for us to welcome new projects on a continual basis, including most recently from Alaska’s Tanana Valley Watershed to Savannah Georgia, Natal Brazil to Madrid Spain, and beyond!

Our own mapping platform has been an important tool for hundreds of communities over the years, but today, with so many great mapping platforms alternatives available, this year, we are making test maps and exploring options. Check out our newest NYC Green Map, Hola LES, which is made on the CartoDB mapping platform. It’s embedded into the story of how it was made, which involved dozens of community members who joined us in considering the future of one neighborhood. Explore the map online, and if you are in NYC on May 7, join us for our Jane’s Walk, commemorating the 100^th birthday of this activist who championed new community-based approaches to planning.

The season, our own Green Maps are on view in Women in Cartography exhibit at the Boston Public Library. With Earth Day just around the corner, Green Mapmakers will be taking part in events worldwide. Watch #GreenMap on Twitter to find out where to get involved! We hope you will make this spring one of action and for you and your community.

2015 was our 20th year as a PR service for the hometown environment. We are proud of the role Green Map System has played in support of our beautiful planet, her people and home places. Much more than maps have been made as our network shares knowledge and skills that contribute to community greening and resiliency across the board in 65 countries.

Help us make a 2016 climate wise turning point for communities, near and far!

In the wake of the Cop21 agreement in Paris, we’ll be starting off right, looking ahead with a New Year Board retreat. We'll also be welcoming new interns, from near and far. They will both give and gain much, as have the 125+ interns we have worked with to date.

Counter-Climate Change Media and Capacity Building

If we are to succeed in fulfilling the mandate of the new Climate agreement, communities worldwide must do more to reducing their footprint and restore waterways, gardens, production and habitats in ways that improve the health and sustainability of all of us.

Thus, the role of Green Map becomes more important. Our map projects have always brought complex issues down to the local level, contributing to healing of the only planet we will ever have.

We impact all global regions. Help us fulfill the promises of Paris and contribute in any way you can.

Wishing you the best for the coming year - may all the changes be in the right direction! Thank you from the entire Green Map network!

The season is off to an exciting start at Green Map System. We’re just back from working with great project leaders in Iceland and United Kingdom, where we delivered six talks and workshops.

While delivering a keynote address at the International Visual Methods conference at University of Brighton, our director encompassed many of the values of this multimedia form of community-engaged research. Wendy Brawer’s talk was captured as a ‘graphic recording’ by a talented Scriberia artist.

In addition to the packed conference workshop with our network partners from UVic (Victoria BC Green Map), CUPP and Community 21, Maeve Lydon, David Wolff, Nick Gant and Wendy also hosted a local community mapmakers exchange. 60 practitioners, researchers and professors took part.

In Bristol, a research and media network met at the University’s School of Art. Cornwall Green Mapmaker Dominica Williamson gave an outstanding presentation of her mapping explorations, ranging from patiently uncovering an archeological site, unlocking government data, and developing thoughtful biodiversity walks for young people. We also met with Steve Parry of the 4B's project (linked below) and community leaders in this, the 2015 European Green Capitol.

Our work is about people and about place. That’s why it was so moving to start this European journey surrounded by Iceland’s remarkable landscape. The entire country is featured on Nature.is, the website for the Iceland Green Map made by Guðrún Tryggvadóttir and Einar Bergmundurat. Events at Listasafn Museum and Solheimar EcoVillage drew surprisingly diverse audiences interested in our adaptable approach to climate health and sustainable communities.

While on the road, we have welcomed new projects from Chile to New Jersey, and beautiful new Green Map editions are informing communities from the US to South Africa. Our board is meeting frequently as we develop a solid vision for our 20th year. We’ll be sharing that vision with you soon. Our best wishes for Climate Week and harvest season!

Green Map has ‘moved the mountain’. Yes, after nine years of great progress and global accumulation, we have moved two blocks east. Overlooking a community garden and a lively urban streetscape in the East Village, our new space brings us closer to our diverse community and local sustainability efforts. Our new address is 292 East Third St, #1A. We’ll be ready for visitors soon, and a fresh flock of summer interns is starting this week.

Our season is starting off with an update of our popular book, Mapping our Common Ground (linked below). It focuses on community mapping and grassroots sustainability. Created with Green Mapmakers in Cuba, Brazil, the US and Canada, this update is led by the great team at University of Victoria, and supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Our recent workshop, pictured above, builds on this project!

We’re also developing our research archive, the new road map and 20th anniversary activities designed by university student teams this spring, and shifting our mapping platform. Our board has expanded, too, adding Meredith Gray of the Coop School, Lela Prashad of NiJel, and Chelsea Wittman of Google. Our appreciation to outgoing board members Lara Penin and Randy Meech, as well as to you! We can’t do this work to benefit people in so many places without your help!

At Green Map, we’re in the process of moving! Not just where we work, but also in some ways, how we work.  As always, it’s an exciting journey in support of positive change.

As spring weather finally arrives in this part of the world, we are starting the process of ‘going open’. It will take some time to fully explore options and set the course forward together with our beloved Board of Directors, Green Mapmakers worldwide, staff, student teams from social design programs at Parsons and SVA, and members of the open source community. We invite your participation in this process. We believe going open will make it easier to contribute leadership, energy and expertise to enhance our global movement, and extend the usefulness of our outcomes.

Why? Our world and climate are changing quickly. More people need to be involved immediately to meet the new challenges we face, and Green Maps can help them do that!  Going open will help us share and further develop our toolkit more sustainably, equitably and collaboratively.

Watch for more news about our journey to open as 2015, our 20^th anniversary year, rolls out! We’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, we’re gearing up for a change in location: after eight great years our uber-nice office will be turned into a classroom over the summer, so we are soon to encamp at a new Lower Manhattan location. Once all the dust settles, we will tell you where we’ve landed – and yes, there will be a party to say “goodbye and hello again,” date to be announced.

Contact us any time, or join us at an event:

On April 11, join us at the New York Map Society where we are presenting 'Putting Vibrant Communities on the Green Map'. This takes place at the The New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W 64th St, starting at 2:30.  

On April 13-14, we're taking part in the Common Ground Community Mapping Institute and Celebration at the First Peoples House, University of Victoria, BC, Canada. All welcome (see link below)

We're also delighted to be included in Women in Cartography: Celebrating 400 Years of Unsung Contributions to the Mapping World at Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine. This exhibition, curated by Alice Hudson, moves to Boston next.

Our best wishes for a great April - check our twitter for more events, as the season rolls along. 

Holiday season wishes to all our Global Giving donors!

At a recent Board meeting, we discussed the ways our network is mapping the pulse of what matters, and recalled a wonderful video created by the Earth Institute at Columbia University that attests to the value of this work. It's just 8 minutes long, and ties together so many issues that are in the headlines today, including social justice, community health, faith and #AllLivesMatter. It's linked below. 

Whether made in the heart of the city or in the countryside, Green Maps engage residents in urgently needed action. Together with 915 diverse locally-led projects, we're mapping changing communities to help them change for the better. 

Your support is catalytic - it yields tools, icons and technologies that result in more mapmaking that leads to more and more sustainable living sites that belong on the Green Map. 

Your support helps us look ahead, too and together with our board, are planning 2015 as a powerful year of re-invention. Thank you, once again, for helping us move toward this goal!

With the Peoples Climate March taking place in New York City on Sunday, September 21st, we'll be taking part and invite you to join in as well! The website, PeoplesClimate.org, has both NYC and global activities so you can take part anywhere.

Climate change and social change have been continual themes in our work. Our maps have always addressed options that help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions on an everyday basis - for example 3% of all GHGs come from garbage  - byhighlighing recycling, composting and waste reduction, Green Maps help reduce that impact. Virtually everything we chart - getting around, dining, shopping, working and playing - makes a postive contribution. 

Below, find a slideshow about energy and climate mapping projects we have led since 2006.Our own "Powerful Green Map of NYC" was the first, now there are now several Green Map projects that address these issues. Your support helps us continually innovate, develop tools and encourage new mapmakers to take these critical issues into their scope of work. 

During Climate Week, Green Map System will be taking part in several events in NYC, too! The link below has details. 

Find us at the Union Square Greenmarket with Parsons the New School of Design students in a Climate Pop Up on Friday Sept 19, and pick up a current Green Map.

On the 20th, we are part of three events: LUNGS Harvest Festival, 11 am at Green Oasis Community Garden in the East Village; 3:30 at Brooklyn Permaculture Festival at the Old Stone House; and at 6:15, at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces for the History of Grassroots Activism. 

Come to our office for a workshop on Friday Sept 26, too. From 5 to 7:30pm, we'll be exchanging climate mapping concepts and demoing our new Mobile Site Collector, mixing a great group of local and global participants from South Africa, the Czech Republic, UK and NYC! This free event (with walking tour) is officially part of Climate Week NYC (calendars of events linked below). Guest speakers include Dr Robert Zuber of Global Action to Prevent War. 

We welcome the opportunity to meet with you then or another time during Climate Week, too - contact us to make a special appointment, and explore how Green Mapmaking can help your community envision climate impacts and the changes to come. 

Wherever you are, this season, make addressing climate health your priority! Thank you from everyone in the 65-country Green Map network. 

Interns are vital to the energy and effectiveness of the Green Map movement!

Each year, eight to fifteen interns work with us at the New York office. They include students, emerging professionals and international fellows. Producing new maps and media as well as adaptable tools, interns bring us special insight into world regions and critical issues while they gain valuable skills in sustainability, communications and participatory design.

June 25 • 100% Match Today by YouthSpark!

With your help, we can do more to give back to these future leaders. Starting now, at noon on Weds June 25th, we are eligible for a 100% match for all donations on our Internship Microproject (linked below) in support of our green jobs program and Green Map internships.

Yes! Today only, your tax-deductible gift from $10 to $1,000 will double its impact!

Global Giving offers us opportunities to match donations 4 times a year. July 16 offers a 50% match. YouthSpark offers 100% with bonuses for 24 hours. Both have generous pools but please donate early while funds last. Help us take advantage of this match and watch our impacts grow.

Thank you!!

Hello to our Global Giving donors!

Your support means so much to us and to our network around the world. The efforts of each community inspires the others to work harder, more creatively and more inclusively to draw attention to local resources for healthier, more resilient living.

Every community – large and small – benefits from knowing more about the environment that surrounds and supports us. Thank you for helping us work together to instill hope and activate participation through locally-created Green Maps.

Exciting news! Your Donation is Matched Tomorrow Morning!!

On Wednesday May 7, starting at 9AM EDT (UTC-5) your donation is matched! It’s worth 50% more to Green Map System - your $50 becomes $75, your $100 becomes $150.

Up to $1,000 is matched but the pool of funds will run out by noon, so please be sure to give as soon as possible! Please set your clock. 

This message is linked to our project profile. Your support will help us reach the 900 city milestone and beyond the 65 countries we already impact - imagine what this means, from Detroit and Baltimore to Guangzhou, Jakarta and Curitiba! 

Even if it has been sometime since you have contributed, your generosity means the world to us- we hope you can support this worlf-changing community engagement project

Thanks so very much from the entire Green Map network!

Green Mapmakers are connected online with a listserv, LinkedIn group and via Facebook and Twitter, but it's amazing what happens when we meet in person. We could not have these synergetic moments without homestays, air miles and wonderful hosts. Your support helps us amplify the outcomes of these meetings and do more together to empower communities to address sustainability issues and opportunities. 

In April, 35 Green Mapmakers & prospective project leaders got together in Malmö Sweden. Hosted by our long-time partners at the City, their regional Nature Classroom network, Oresundklassrummet, and our Canadian partners at the Common Ground Network at University of Victoria, this international ‘collaboratory’ included a great cross-sector mix of participants.We started with a study tour of Malmo’s outstanding urban planning projects at the Western Harbor and Rosengard, followed by a full day of exchange and co-development of new strategies, applications and tools for community-engaged Green Mapmaking.

Exciting outcomes include three new Green Maps established within a week, a new video (still in production), the seeds of a new mapping platform, strengthened university-community partnerships, and more! 

While in the region, I also presented at the Living Knowledge Network conference in Copenhagen, which focuses on community engaged research. I met with Nature Classroom leaders, and help strategize on expansion of youth mapping at these centers in both Sweden and Denmark in the coming months.

Green Map System has roots in Copenhagen. It's where the local NYC Green Map project blossomed into a global movement during the United Nations Social Summit in 1995. It was exciting to return the area and contribute to its ever-greener future. 

In New York, we're preparing for several events, including a tour, museum discussions and workshop - you can find them on the newsletter linked below or on our GreenMapNYC home page. 

We hope you will pitch in here at Global Giving on May 7 - it's a Match Day and your contributions are 50% matched, starting at 9AM EDS. We'll stretch those dollars even further as we move toward the 900 project milestone. We can't do it without you! Thank you!

Happy Lunar Year to our Global Giving donors!

Thanks to your contributions, we have continued to make progress on our efforts to involve communities worldwide in sustainable living through Green Mapmaking.

As we continually create resources for local Green Mapmakers, it’s always a good challenge to predict what they might need. In 2014, we are especially interested in social inclusion and participatory practices that help communities from all over the world connect and share with each other tools and solutions for their unique challenges

Our newest how-to resource is a short video about creating Green Map cycling tours. Designed to encourage more people to use this non-polluting form of transportation, participants also become more informed about important issues. It’s a fun way to help people connect, exchange and improve their community! Check it out in English and Chinese (so far) at the link below.

We based this informational video on our award-winning climate-change related tours. We also have produced a tri-lingual Green Map of Manhattan’s Lower East Side that highlights climate impacts and resiliency resources for residents and visitors of all backgrounds. We will be extending our work in relation to this critical effort this year (follow it on Facebook, linked below).

In our next report, we expect to announce the debut of the new Green Map Mobile Site Collector! For the past few weeks, our office in the East Village has been buzzing with many different languages as our network has contributed Romanian, Spanish, Hebrew, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, Indonesian, Arabic, Thai, Catalan, French and Portuguese. It’s been especially exciting working with the Romanian team leading this new development.

We are looking forward to seeing people of all ages and backgrounds using the Green Map Mobile Site Collector on their phones, tablets and computers. This is all thanks to you: with your generous help we expect to greatly advance our mission of inclusive participation in sustainable community development. Watch for news soon!

Wishing you the best this season!

To our supporters via Global Giving:

We think of you often! Your help means we can work with hundreds of local Green Map teams who work very hard on creating Green Maps that motivate positive change in communities of all scales, across the US and beyond. The presentation linked below tells more of the story – feel free to share it with friends or use it to ignite a new Green Map in your hometown.

You have supported fundamental improvements in our mapping platform which now has 40 countries using it! 

Open Green Maps offer a very low cost, highly participative way to share information about each community’s resources for sustainable and resilient living. In 2013, we have been upgrading the underlying infrastructure (including Google Map #3), with improvements to the green site information windows now nearly complete. Excitingly, you are helping us develop a new mobile site collection app – more news about this and 2014 goals soon!

You have supported mapmaker surveys that led to more social media integration too. We produced a guide to help our network promote local, regional and global efforts on free media to reach new audiences. It's one of the newest in our online Tool Center, where all of us can share engagement, criteria setting, outreach and education resources.

With your help we can respond directly to the needs articulated by this diverse network, and work together for a better world. 

Thank you again and enjoy the slideshow!

Our best wishes to you.    

Hello to all our generous donors!

We've had a very good summer with new projects and new contacts made globally, thanks to your support. Perhaps you have noticed GlobalGiving’s special 100% match of new recurring donations in August – give 4 months in a row and Green Map receives twice as much – follow the link below for details, and thank you!

Summer projects highlights:

A newly released Social Media Guide for Green Mapmakers (and model NYC campaigns on popular platforms). Low cost, fun and effective! This guide has 3 goals – 1) help Mapmakers promote their maps, events and activities to new audiences, 2) provide an in-house template for their volunteers and interns, and 3) link their promotions to the global network's social media. We tested out our guide with a new campaign:

Impacts Month! We’ve been posting stories from our 2009 Impacts book on Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook (link below), and gathering new stories to update the book from Baltimore, Cape Town, Curitiba, Geneva, Guangzhou, and Gyeonggi-do with more to come! We aim to release the freshly expanded book in 2013. 

Infrastructure Improvements! We have been making important upgrades to the award-winning Open Green Map, our interactive ‘social mapping’ platform, now used in 37 countries to create easily shared, readily updated maps that are open public suggestions, images and viewpoint maps. Once these upgrades ‘go live’ in September, we’ll fill you in on what’s been accomplished and the next phase of this ever-growing platform. Your support makes a crucial difference here!

We have also had fun (serious fun) providing “Adapting to Change” cycling tours and maps highlighting Hurricane Sandy’s impacts and community resilience solutions on NYC’s Lower East Side (see the Facebook page linked below, with both interactive and printed maps – Spanish edition to come!). Open to everyone, our next tour will be September 27. It’s an official NYC Climate Week event and part of 10 Days of Climate Action. 

We had a terrific Board Reunion this summer and its 'knock-on effects' keep growing. It was a great season for meaningful, inspiring meetings, and for fabulous interns who did so much to advance our work, locally and globally! Visit our blog at GreenMap.org/news any time for more news.

Share our work on your social media (our Twitter handle is #GreenMap) or send our introductory slideshow (below) to generate interest in starting a new Green Map project! 

Impacts Month & GlobalGiving's Match continues through August. We'd like to thank you, and wish you the best as the seasons change. 

Hello GlobalGiving Donors!

Wednesday is a special Match day – starting at 9AM EST, your donation will help us accomplish 50% more!

Today, we have good news to share – there’s a brand new way to explore Green Maps!

Got a mobile phone or tablet? Check out GreenMap.org on your browser. Experience this new interactive map on your desktop at http://m.greenmap.org too! 

As you explore and zoom in, more sites from the Open Green Map will come into view. Finally, you can explore green sites in relationship to each other while you’re on the go. 

Created with the help of a Google-sponsored 24HoursofGood hack day, Green Map’s mobile website is ‘responsive’ - it automatically changes shape to fit your device. 

37 countries now use the Open Green Map platform, so our new mobile website is exciting to hundreds of communities worldwide who are announcing it to their audiences now too! Zoom around or tap the top square and type in a different location. If your city’s sites are not on the map, consider leading a new Green Map project. 

Next, we are planning to build new iPhone and Android apps with more features, including site collection and the interactive mobile map, but we need your help!  Please donate and share this link - http://goto.gg/1965 - with your friends, social media, etc.

On June 12, your donation will be matched! Give this Wednesday at 9AM EST - GlobalGiving’s pool of matching funds will only last a couple hours, so set your clock, please. 50% more! Give $20, we’ll receive $30! Give $100, we’ll receive $150, 50% more up to $1000!

Give this project a running start! Our Open Green Map platform and new ways to explore it - including this mobile website and apps – are continually being improved to support progress toward a sustainable future. 

Thank you! Together we can Connect, Inform, Inspire! 

This is a very exciting season for Green Map System – not only have we begun updating the sustainability mapping platform that you so have generously supported, we have created new ways to explore the hundreds of Open Green Maps that have already been created!

Thanks to you, we have a very successful proof of concept - Open Green Maps are now being made in 38 countries. Today, nearly 350 interactive maps are in public view containing over 30,000 sites. You can see the total number change on the home page each day, and also see which three maps are most recently updated. All of these Green Maps welcome your contributions of new sites, as well as images, videos and comments. Thousands of impacts are visible as more and more people discover hopeful green living sites in their local environment. 

Open Green Maps on Facebook
New: encounter an Open Green Map embedded in a Facebook page! Social media integration is underway - we’ll in link an example from Johannesburg South Africa below. 

There are now hundreds of embedded Open Green Maps! At GreenMap.org/nyc-energy, we have created five different views of the Energy Map of NYC, highlighting boroughs and basemaps (and Sandy's flood line) in our “Embed this Map’ campaign. Every Green Mapmaker can offer their Open Green Map centered and zoomed in different ways!

Upcoming….
We are especially proud of the way Open Green Map has made it possible to share local perspectives on changing environments at virtually no cost. At a time when awareness of climate change is soaring and new local options for lower impact living are becoming more abundant, Green Maps are indispensible.

This summer, we will be working hard on fundamental improvements to this award-winning mapping platform. Some improvements incorporate newly available technologies, others address new needs of the maps’ makers and users. It’s been exciting to conduct the first Mapmaker surveys, confer with experts, plan with our board and staff, and bring in new team members and volunteers. 

With your help, it’s going to be a high impact season. You will hear more of our plans just in time to have your donation matched by Global Giving on June 12th. We invite you to click the 3rd link below, and join our mailing list, too!

Thank you for pitching in – hundreds of communities are benefiting as a result!

An important part of our work involves meeting potential partners and helping people get ‘up to speed’ with our tools. In 2013, visitors from A to Z have been in our New York office – quite literally including five Albanian mayors on a US study tour and a group of Zambian tourism officials who will be hosting the United Nations World Tourism Organization conference this fall. 

 Both these groups came to us through the US State Department’s International Visitor Program, which recently gave us a Certificate of Appreciation for sharing our time with these and other guests. We are fortunate to have a recent case study from Albania (linked below) to round out our presentation, and to have experienced mapmakers in the region to follow up with the Africans. In between, Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Naomi Tsur visited our office to invite our director to the first Green and Accessible Pilgrimage conference in April (see greenpilgrimjerusalem.org).

Regional and local Green Mapmakers are welcome visitors, too. 

• Coming from Central Pennsylvania, Beatriz Casteneda is preparing the Hershey Green Map launch for the community’s international celebration in March, and will set her Open Green Map against a backdrop of global Green Maps. 

• Montclair New Jersey team member Peg Seip came to discuss recovery mapping and how we can co-develop a participatory planning process that is relevant to low income coastal communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy. We linked a short video about using Green Maps in crisis situations below). 

• Our neighboring East River Park was also hard hit, and we have begun planning a bicycling tour series and mapping project with community groups that draws upon our post-Sandy ‘reality tour.’ 

 This represents just a few of the interactions we have since the year began. Our office has been busy with our Less = More NYC Green Map project which includes a great printed map to some of the most iconic reuse and waste reduction sites across the city. We’ve just added some updates to our Bellagio Reflections report (linked below) and we’re moving closer to launching our Icon Lab. 

Celebrate with us on Wednesday March 27

Join us in celebrating the Green Map Archive in its new home from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the New York Public Library’s Map Room, 5^th Avenue at 42^nd Street. There will be a tour of the map collection and a chance to see some of the unusual and unique published Green Maps in this collection of nearly 800 maps, education and outreach materials created by Green Mapmakers worldwide. We’ll also be launching our new NYC website and officially thanking the designers at OTTO NY and desigNYC.org who made GreenMapNYC.org possible. All are welcome to this free event, rescheduled due to Sandy’s aftermath.  

We wish you all the best this season and thank you for your ongoing support of the Green Map network!

Many have asked how we fared in the midst of Hurricane Sandy. We have been quite lucky. The floodwaters stopped just 1.5 blocks from our office in lower Manhattan's East Village, sparing this lovely old building from damage. Nevertheless, both the office and my apartment lost power for the entire workweek. Using our bicycles, we found places to work outside the dark zone, and helped pitch in on the relief efforts.

We decided to add the high water mark to our interactive map of NYC's energy resources to help people make the connection between energy conservation, renewables and climate change. This is a theme we have included in our hometown Green Maps for many years. You can even download the PDF of our 2006 edition (to the right of the online map under Info), which outlines infrastructure impacts and other aftermath realities. We designed the interactive edition so you can embed it in your own website or blog, sharing knowledge and awareness - use the link that's below in this report.

It's stunning to see how and where the water rose and as you probably know, Sandy has become a broad call to action for a more resilient approach to planning for climate change. We're surveying Green Mapmakers now and hope to share updated mapping resources shortly. In the coming weeks, we're using FEMA's data to add more regional impacts to the map, too, and expect to share these with other maps on the Open Green Map platform. 

While we had several Sandy-related postponements, including our planned Green Map Archive Launch event (new date TBA), we are happy to invite you to two events in December:

On Sunday December 2nd, join the Adapting to Change Cycling Tour. Riders will explore resilient solutions that reduce energy consumption and increase climate awareness. Noted speakers will be joining us on this free ride (click our Facebook link below to RSVP).  This ride builds on our ’10 Days of Climate Action’ prize-winning Green Culture Cycling Tour, and its resulting map.

On Wednesday December 19, come for a bit of holiday cheer from 6 to 9 pm at Green Map's office, 220A East 4th Street, in the East Village between Aves A & B. All are welcome, no need to RSVP.

We're taking part in #GivingTuesday on Nov 27 and of course, we invite you to support our work at this time. You can be sure we're working hard to support the social change needed to address climate change in hundreds of communities at once! 

To our dear supporters:

This message begins with a call to action, responding to the surprise announcement from Global Giving -
Global Giving just began a new promotion wherein they will match the base donation amount of any monthly recurring donation that is set up by this Friday, September 7th.  For example: if you sign up for a monthly recurring donation of $25 and if you stay subscribed through the end of 2012, Global Giving donate an additional one-time sum of $25!  Your base amount can be $10 to $200 for this match!

The promotion comes at a great time as Green Map System is finalizing a landmark archiving project in collaboration with the New York Public Library. This fall, the entire Green Map Archive will be moved to one of the world's premier map collections, the Map Division at the library’s main branch in midtown Manhattan.  This will create a permanent home for over 500 locally designed and printed Green Maps along with a wide array of outreach and education resources.  The Archive will include high-resolution digital versions of many of these intricate maps for research, exhibition, city planning and tourism purposes.  Benefiting journalists, community planners and sustainability proponents from all sectors of society, this Archive also includes a selection of locally-produced reports, mapmaking guides, promotional posters and other exemplary Green Map resources. Our goal in the future is to connect the Archive to the Mapmaker’s profile on GreenMap.org, extending its usefulness worldwide. 

With the involvement of several interns and information specialists, we are achieving an important goal. We will be inviting you to the celebration for this new Archive this fall. 

Global Giving's promotion is a great opportunity for our program and we would be sincerely grateful if you could take part by Friday! Any recurring contribution made for at least 3 months after the initial donation, up to $200 a month, will have the increased impact of Global Giving's matching gift. 

As always, thank you so much for all of your continued support for this effort to empower people working at the intersection of community engagement, sustainability and mapping. Best wishes for a beautiful end to the Summer, and a hope for an equally beautiful Fall.

Hello to our Global Giving supporter,

We invite you to contribute on Wednesday June 13* during GlobalGiving’s Match Day. We have exciting news – not only is Green Map System a Superstar and eligible for 50% more from GlobalGiving, but an anonymous donor will ‘match the match’ and your donations will be 100% doubled! 

Match Day is so important to us. We hope you will contribute and let your friends know how our organization builds capacity for the participatory development of smarter, healthier and greener communities.

Maps are a powerful form of media. Now in 65 countries, local Green Map making teams are using our adaptable tools and technologies to share insights about green living and their home’s unique natural and cultural environment. Your support will help our award-winning organization work smarter and more effectively support more communities, collaborations and tools. We impact a diversity of locales:

- Japan, where participatory map making is bridging hope and energy mandates at a time of crisis,
- Cape Town South Africa where the fourth printed Green Map edition in three years is bridging economic and environmental initiatives,
- New Jersey, where several towns are bridging gaps in crucial information with interactive Open Green Maps.
- Download our Impacts book free from our GlobalGiving profile (scroll down to Additional Documentation).

The original Green Map of NYC was inspired by the Earth Summit. Now Rio+20, its 20th anniversary event, is upon us. Our practical approach has blossomed during this period and with your help, we have impacted 816 communities. All over the world, the maps and the map making process have proven their value as they guide the way to healthier local economies and environments. Please take action and extend these impacts today!

*Global Giving’s Match starts precisely at 12:01AM EDT on Wednesday June 13. The clock starts at 9 PM on Tuesday June 12 in San Francisco / West Coast; 6AM in Stockholm / Cape Town or 1PM in Tokyo. Your donations are tax deductible, where applicable.

Give early and help Green Map get a share of Global Giving’s matching funds as well as our own donor’s match, and double the impacts of your contribution. Thank you twice for your support!

Last week, Green Map System reached its 17^th anniversary. On the same day, March 25, the 800^th local Green Map project signed on! This is not only a milestone; it’s also our first project in Egypt, our 62^nd country. A family-friendly co-working center called Rasheed22 in Heliopolis, suburban Cairo, is leading this project. Welcome Heliopolis!

Two days later, the United Arab Emirates Green Map project was initiated by a Fulbright Scholar currently based in NYC, bringing our country total to 63. We welcome these two newcomers as we celebrate an exciting new book highlighting 18 Biodiversity Villages with Green Maps created in Lebanon at IBSAR - American University of Beirut’s Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures. Written in Arabic, this 11MB booklet is downloadable below. Bridging cultural divides, Green Mapmaking shares information and engages meaningful participation that supports wellbeing in many cultures and eco-contexts.

As you can see, it’s been an “Arab Spring” for Green Map! Heliopolis and UAE represent just two of the thirteen new Green Maps registered to date in 2012. 

We love seeing projects like Cardiff Wales’ take off, led by Sam Holt of Cardiff Transition. Over the last 4 months, he has created several Green Maps, all linked to his profile, using the Open Green Map platform to quickly share insights into how his community is ‘powering down’ by growing local, going renewable and becoming more resilient as a community. The Transition network got started in the UK to address these and other issues. Very much in parallel with Green Map’s objectives, local Transition initiatives are now creating Green Maps in the US (Tampa FL and Quincy MA), Australia (Port Phillip), and the UK (Edinburgh, Llantwit Major, Trawsnewid Llandrindod and Cardiff). Transition people are also getting involved in ongoing Green Map projects such as Geneva’s, where the Green Swiss project is expanding to chart regional resources.

Earth Day is coming! Find us in NYC at the Green Festival, April 21 - 22 at the Javits Center in Manhattan. We’ll be tabling both days, and our director will be taking part in the ‘Technology and the Economy of the Future’ on Saturday at 3pm. We’ll be collecting ideas for our forthcoming Less = More Green Map that will help New Yorkers prevent waste, debuting a new interactive Open Green Map about energy, and more.

Wherever you are, there is likely to be an Earth Day event involving local Green Mapmakers. We hope you will participate in an event in person or online – perhaps by suggesting a new site to supplement the 20,000 local resources on the Open Green Map – even a site right in your own backyard!

A quick shout out, holiday greetings and thanks to our wonderful network of supporters:

Green Map System is delighted to share the good news that the Open Green Map interactive mapping platform that you help to support through your Global Giving donations has just won its third award in 2011! 

We won the NetSquared Invitational, an award that comes with a little cash and plenty of help for our ongoing development, which is really great because we have big plans for the year ahead!! A project of TechSoup, NetSquared is focused on the intersection of technology and social impact. Their soon-to-launch new website will feature our video and help us reach a diverse new audience, too. 

2011 also brought other honors - we are recipients of one of the very first Victor J Papanek Social Design Awards - this honor features the Open Green Map in exhibitions in Vienna and New York, a book and other outcomes.

And thank you again to Treehugger.com! We received the Best of Green 2011 for our mobile app in the Science and Technology category (we were also honored in their tourism category in 2010). More about all of these awards is linked below. 

Today, there are more than:
• 60 countries involved
• 785 cities, towns and campuses with locally-led Green Map projects
• 500 uniquely designed printed editions and
• 250 Open Green Maps, linked by
• 150 Green Map Icons

Awards are an important part of our outreach strategy and a testament to the value of our work and impacts on communities worldwide through engaged mapmaking. The NetSquared Invitational is the eighth award for Open Green Map and one of 23 international honors to Green Map System overall.

We invite you to explore Open Green Map's 19,300+ locally charted sites and consider using this remarkable social mapping resource to chart progress toward sustainability in your community, too! 

Let's make 2012 a transformational year together. We're enclosing our gratitude for all you have done for us and our best wishes to all for a healthy, resilient, joyful and ecologically-sound year to come. 

Guiding the Way to a Sustainable Future

So many people love their communities and care deeply about the world we all share. At Green Map System, we are always working to support each local initiative. By helping local people map out each green site and highlight its sustainability elements, new audiences and customers are drawn in. Tens of thousands of these green sites are on printed Green Maps, and you can interact with another 18,000 on Open Green Maps.

Our adaptable tools for communities, professionals and ‘crowdsourced’ Green Maps are continually evolving – help us meet the demand!

60 Countries!!

There are now Green Mapmakers in 60 countries, representing all inhabited continents. We reached this milestone as local projects got underway recently in Tibet, Serbia & Macedonia and Belgium. Latvia and The Gambia joined us in 2011, too. Click GreenMap.org/home to see where our network is growing and get our list of over 775 cities, towns and villages with Green Map projects (linked below).

How does this impact any single community? Check out the Blog and download the presentation by Janet Felsten of Baltimore Green Map that's linked below. Her efforts have engaged and enlighted a wide diversity of people and places. While in our Blog, take time to see what others are doing, as well. 

30% Donation Match!

October 19 is a special 30% match day for us, thanks to GlobalGiving. Donate early to be sure the pool of matching funds will benefit Green Map System. Magnify the impact of your gift, and provide even more towards healthier, greener, more sustainable communities.

We appreciate all types of donations, including in-kind support. An example is the carbon neutral dedicated server donated by Pair Networks. In October, our server has been upgraded – visit GreenMap.org and see how much faster our website and Open Green Maps now appear on your desktop!

Victor J. Papanek Social Design Award

We are so pleased to be selected as a Winner of the inaugural Victor J. Papanek Social Design Award competition by the new Victor J Papanek Foundation –

Victor Papanek was a true pioneer, thought by many to be the "papa" of the modern eco-design movement. His books, including Design for the Real World, made a deep impression on Green Map’s founder as our movement was forming in the early 1990’s. Wendy Brawer states, "I hold Victor Papanek in high esteem and I am delighted to take part in the award ceremony and the exhibitions at University of Applied Arts Vienna (11/10/11–1/31/12) and in NYC (Dates TBA)".

The Papanek Social Design Award is our second honor in 2011. Special thanks to all the jurors of this competition as well as Treehugger Best of Green, which awarded us Best Eco App for a Smartphone this spring.

Upcoming Events

If you are in NYC and interested in civil society’s response to crisis,  our director will be giving a short talk on our work this arena at Design Like You Give a Damn LIVE this Saturday, Oct 22 at the AIA Center for Architecture.

Green Map System is part of the Local Spokes coalition, which is hosting three Visioning Sessions on the opportunities for Lower East Side and Chinatown residents to benefit from bicycling. Find details at LocalSpokes.org.

At a time when people are working together in new ways together to 'Be The Change', we are so glad to join hands with you! Thank you for your help and interest in bringing Green Mapmaking to people worldwide.

Hello to our Global Giving supporters!

This report brings brief news from our Director, Wendy Brawer:

Over the years, I've delivered many presentations about different aspects of Green Mapmaking. In August, I was invited to speak at 140edu, a conference about the intersection of social media and education produced by the 140 Characters series ('140' refers to Twitter). My talk was 'live-streamed' from the 92Y in New York so I can share it with you -  the 12 minute video is linked below. Visit 140edu.com to find all the presentations on this timely topic.

While I could bicycle uptown for 140edu, I'm using donated air miles (and offsetting my carbon) to get to two upcoming talks. I'll go to Amsterdam for two presentations alongside the 'Picnic' (picnicnetwork.org) framing Green Map as part of Urban Futures  – find me at Living Labs on September 14^th and the Marketplace on the 16^th. Then it’s off to Austin Texas where I’m speaking at SXSWeco.com, the first eco-themed South by South West conference. I’ll be with local Green Mapmakers in each locale, and plan to bring back inspiring outcomes to share globally. In between Green Map NYC will be taking part in Climate Week and Moving Planet on September 24, then at the first Green Festival in NYC on October 1-2 – already drawing thousands in San Francisco, DC and other cities, we’ll be exhibiting and providing a panel discussion that weekend, as seen at greenfestivals.org. 

It’s going to be a busy season as the first of our 5 workshops for Sustainable Jersey Green Teams get underway in our neighboring state – we’ll also be providing specialized consulting to 9 cities working in 4 teams as they create Green Maps that both address the asset mapping action designated by the remarkable Sustainable Jersey organization and the need to engage diverse community members in greener, healthier living. Special thanks to the Geraldine R Dodge Foundation as well as the JM Kaplan Fund, which is supporting our ongoing work with our own home community’s new bicycling coalition, Local Spokes. The summer’s Youth Ambassadors had a great introduction to Lower East Side - Chinatown issues and opportunities, culminating in a party this Saturday (all welcome!). Coming soon - all-ages visioning sessions. You can follow the action and join in at LocalSpokes.org.

New Languages Online

You can now download the poster Green Map Icon Poster in 10 languages, the most recent being Russian, thanks to Kazan Green Mapmakers – download at GreenMap.org/icons. This Center for the Creative Child project just won the "Russian National Junior Water Prize" with their Green Map and they are already planning the greening of the World Summer Universiade Games they will host in 2013! This is highlighted in our blog at GreenMap.org/news alongside several fresh posts by Green Map Curitiba Brazil. Curitiba has been a leader when it comes to green cities for 20 years, and this team has been involved in many initiatives - international conferences, mapping the campus at the Federal University of Parana, producing a wonderful magazine and planning for a high impact year to come - all described in Portuguese.  Our 8th language interface for the Open Green Map is nearing completion as well, thanks to Yutaka Nakashima and a team of Japanese volunteers. 

I just posted a fresh newsletter (linked below) focusing on our 5 wonderful summer interns. If you are interested in Latin America, Japan and mentoring emerging leaders, you will enjoy it the overview.

Your support makes all this possible!! 

Like many Green Mapmakers, we have been enjoying working outdoors in the warm weather, providing walking and cycling tours, researching new sites, meeting with climate change, local food and community resiliency projects all over New York City. We’ve worked hard, preparing to launch a new interactive Energy Map in September, and mentoring teachers from 3^rd grade on up as summer wanes. We’re hopeful about the season to come and wish you all an opportunity to use a Green Map to find great new ways to live more sustainably each day.

On behalf of the 764 Green Map projects worldwide, thank you for supporting our work through Global Giving!

New York City is in bloom – and we’re involved in projects to help it bloom even more. So this quarter, our newsletter highlights Green Map’s involvement in an important new greening initiative in our city as well as in the nearby Sustainable Jersey - Green Map project. We have events coming up to share with you which were made possible in part by the extraordinary efforts of our interns and volunteers, so important to our organization and network!

Local Spokes – a New Neighborhood Coalition
With so many benefits to riding a bicycle, Green Mapmakers worldwide has highlighted cycling resources on their maps. Our own NYC editions have included bicycle lanes, repair shops and advocacy organizations, as seen at OpenGreenMap.org/nyc. In addition, our Green Apple cycling and walking tours* explore the green infrastructure, gardens, solar sites and other resources found in our neighborhoods. Recently, we have become part of the new Lower East Side – Chinatown Bicycling Coalition, known as Local Spokes. Supported by the JM Kaplan Fund, we are working with 8 diverse housing, justice and cycling organizations to engage the community in a new vision for cycling in Lower Manhattan. Follow the project at facebook.com/localspokes. Local Spokes' goal is to create a replicable model for cycling resources that can impact neighborhoods across and far beyond our city.

*On Thursday June 9, take a walking tour with us – this is our first NYC Meetup. Find more details about this event at facebook.com/greenmap.

The Sustainable Jersey - Green Map Project
Last summer we took part in the Jersey City ‘Farm in the City’ workshop. This event not only led to new policies taking root in the city, it also led to our meeting with Sustainable Jersey and a grant from the Geraldine R Dodge Foundation to work with a sampling of diverse New Jersey cities’ Green Teams. These teams address over 100 sustainable actions to gain points toward certification. Citizen engagement is part of the process and teams will be introduced to Green Map’s strategy for engagement through a workshop and webinar in June. Select teams will be offered staff support on mapmaking strategy, communications and outreach towards completion and distribution of a printed or interactive Green Map. More about this project is online at GreenMap.org/snj.

Hats off to our Interns
As the summer approaches we say goodbye to marketing intern Jinhwa Ju (South Korea) and interaction design intern Isadora Dantas (Brazil). You’ll see Jinwha’s photos, taken as she worked with Joseph Panglinan (Rutgers University) on the Green Map Archives, our Gel workshop, social media and more. Everyone contributed to the Festival of New Ideas, including Yutaka Nakashima (Japan), who is now helping us support the efforts of Green Map Japan after this winter’s horrific disasters. Updating the Compost Green Map with the support of the Manhattan Borough President, the Solid Waste Advisory Board and Citizens Committee has been just one of many projects to which the interns have contributed. We are  welcoming new interns this summer – Brigid Keating (New York University), Melanie Reed (Cornell University), Alex Purdy (University of Richmond) and Aaron Miller (University of Connecticut) - as we keep up our tradition of mentoring rising stars and getting the job done with fresh energy. Their support is crucial to us!

Please pitch in and support our interns, our work in NYC and with Green Map projects worldwide. Join our events, use Green Maps to connect with local resources and do all you can to promote a healthier future for us all.

Thanks to Global Giving donors, Green Map System had a remarkable 2010! Our highlights starts out with 94 newly registered locally-led Green Map projects, followed by the highlights of our accomplishments shown below. We have many goals for 2011, so we invite you to take action today –please donate to help cities worldwide become more sustainable and healthy today.

Engagement Initiatives

• Making it easy to collect sites for Open Green Maps with our Mobile Data Collector for smartphones and iPhones
• To share Green Maps, Photos, Blogs in any website, we created embeddable widgets
• Created Icon posters, postcards and other adaptable resources in new languages
• Inventoried Green Maps and locally created materials for our print and digital Archive
• Planning for our new Mapmaker collaboration platform
• Training of 14 interns from several countries (this includes our Summer program. Here's a quote from participant Morgan Leykam, who was subsequently hired to create the City's Green Map in Stamford Connecticut, "There is a lot of excitement built around it - most people I've spoken to said they've been waiting for something like this to unite all the green efforts being made").

Key Events

• 15th Anniversary Celebration, May - Budapest
• Smithsonian National Design Triennial – Green Map in exhibition, book, family guide and events, from May to Jan - NYC
• US Social Forum, workshop and exchanges, Detroit - June
• Green Map Exhibit at Finlandia University, Michigan - September
• Art in Odd Places Site Marker Test & party, October - NYC
• Participation in the United Nations' COP 10 with exhibition, forum, exchanges, media events with Aichi Green Map, October - Nagoya Japan

Our Local 'beyond the map' Initiatives
As we participate in these projects, we utilize skills and networks developed while producing our own local NYC Green Maps. Each has enhanced our role in the region: 

• Lower East Side/Chinatown Bicycling Coalition
•  Jersey City Farm in the City
• Parsons The New School of Design Social Innovation Program
•  E3NYC Cleantech Expo (planning for 2014)
• Green Map entrepreneurship development and thesis

New Technology on GreenMap.org

• Doubled the number of green sites on the Open Green Map platform in 2010
• Mapmakers and Maps Profile pages re-designed and cross-referenced
• GreenMap.org/icons now powers search of Open Green Map sites by the icon
• Social media integration and resources
• Updated our Press center, Impacts and other pages
• Added our 7th language, Chinese, to Open Green Map

2010 Awards

• Best of Green: Treehugger’s Best Tool for Green Travelers
• eServices for Citizens and Corporations, Living Labs Global
• Just Means - FT Social Innovation Awards finalist
• Selected by DesigNYC for GreenAppleMap.org makeover in 2012
• Cape Town Green Map wins Golden Trash Award
• Towson University wins Silver from the US University & College Designers Association

Selected Press

• Renovating the Rust Belt in Ohio
• 20 new Green Maps at Shanghai Expo
• Reykjavik’s printed Green Map debuts
• Washington DC’s online and printed Green Maps debut
• Find others at GreenMap.org/media

2011 Could be our Highest Impact Year Yet!

We've got great plans and events underway, but we need your help to reach our goals. Share your love for your community and the Earth with us. Make a Donation or review us at Guidestar. Thank you for your support!

One of Green Map System's 2010 goals is to explore new ways to support the sustainable community development activities of our organization and network. We have always nurtured a spark of social innovation, but our inclusion of social entrepreneurship allows us to directly address a variety of challenges as our economy changes and our need for sustainable resources grows. 

Skills for the New Green Economy

Important skills development – community organizing, critical assessment, sustainability communications, production and marketing – are strengthened through the Green Mapmaking process. All of these skills support new green jobs and ECOnomic development, too. We’re putting these skills to work ourselves to help build local capacity for sustainable living. 

Green Map System is developing new ways to apply our years of non-profit and networking experience. GreenMap.org/consulting explores the services we offer to agencies, universities, companies, and educational and youth organizations, both to support local Green Map projects and to consult on other kinds of community-engaged sustainability efforts. Involved in a CSR program? Building 'community capital'? Developing a collaborative community program?  We can help you!

Lifting Off

Recognition for this new focus is also coming from academic circles. This month Bala Mulloth received his PhD for his "Diversity in Contemporary Entrepreneurship" research and dissertation which has a strong focus on our work (further described on the blog linked below). Our Director is a nominee for the World Technology Awards in the category of Social Entrepreneurship – awards will be announced on December 1. In a myriad of ways, the link between Green Mapmaking and community entrepreneurs is growing stronger than ever.  

Supporting Green Jobs Worldwide

Green Maps have always promoted green jobs throughout the community by highlighting a wide diversity of enterprises, organizations, schools and projects that incorporate sustainability into their missions and activities. Thus, Green Map System truly is a decentralized marketing service for the 'hometown environment', supporting economic development and delivering added value to over 700 cities and towns in 55 countries. This important added value has been underscored by the Open Green Map, which now offers upwards of 15,000 green sites in desktop, mobile, iPhone and widget formats (note that we are presenting the platform at the NYC NetSquared Meetup on December 6 – details are linked below).  

Leveraging a Future that Works for All

We are planning a deeper investment in the green economy. In 2011, we will begin researching how Green Mapmakers have turned mapmaking into a viable livelihood, documenting their methodologies and generating a global discussion. Our goals are to develop and highlight exciting, enterprising resources and to mentor new network members. 

Today, you can invest in this mutual-support initiative by making a tax-deductible donation to Green Map System online at Global Giving. Contact us anytime (info [at] greenmap [dot] org or +1 212 674 1631) with your ideas and sponsorship offers. Our success in making this much-needed shift will leverage local green economies in hometowns near and far. 

Join us in responding to a diversity of needs with a real hand up! Thank you from everyone at Green Map System, and our best wishes for a wonderful holiday season 2010! 

We have reached a new milestone: Over 700 Green Map projects have registered at GreenMap.org/join! We are excited about being part of the green scene in communities from Jersey City NJ to Lake Tisza Hungary to Stellenbosch South Africa!

Each project uses our tools and models in their own way. Our job at Green Map System is to anticipate needs, respond to assessments and continually improve our websites and other mapmaking resources. Our new navigation feature - drop menus - is one outward manifestation of our summer’s work in the digital realm. As you explore Open Green Map’s 13,000 sites, you’ll notice that the interface is now available in a seventh language, Chinese. Explore some of the platform's 140 maps and you’ll find many have hundreds of sites!

Knowledge of local resources is critical to each individual and community, and maintaining the Open Green Map platform and expanding its reach are ongoing efforts. Your donations to us through Global Giving make all the difference. Your site suggestions and other contributions to these interactive Green Maps are greatly valued as well!

Linked below, find a fresh article about the Open Green Map and Drupal, the open source technology behind our acclaimed platform by Thomas Turnbull, our former Lead Developer and current Board Member. Continually advising us and pitching in, Tom helped make mobile access to the platform's data possible from any mobile phone – click GreenMap.org to find 'what's green nearby'! You can also get the free Green Map iPhone App (we are seeking a sponsor for version 2 - contact us for details).

Images include scenes from our Summer Virtual Internship Final Exchange - special thanks to visiting Green Mapmakers from San Francisco and Austin, who helped critique the Green Maps completed by students from 6 universities. We'd also like to thank Gottfried Haider, our volunteer from Austria who contributed much 'outside the box' thinking to our work this season, as well as great photos! Having Max Goldstein from Stockholm and Tushar Gogis, social entrepreneur, involved in our planning meetings were also much appreciated.

Chance Encounters with Green Sites

What happens when people on the street don’t have a Green Map or access to our mobile website? Visually compelling Markers posted on green sites will help everyone make the connection to local environment and green living resources.

We’ll be conducting our first test of Green Map Site Markers in NYC as part of the Art in Odd Places festival. Watch for them on 14th Street in Manhattan from Oct 1-10. We’ll be collecting feedback from event-goers and people who just happen to be on the street. You can take part during that time by clicking GreenMap.org/aiop.

And on the final day of the festival (10/10/10), please join us for our own contribution to 350.org's Global Work Party. We’re holding an Icon Design Studio, open to the entire community. Help us create new symbols to highlight climate impacts and local adaptations that will become part of the lexicon used by Green Map projects worldwide.

Join this open Green Map Icon design event on Sunday October 10 from 1 to 4 pm at the 14th Street Y, located at 344 East 14th near 1st Ave. Share your ideas about symbols that could be added to our current set (download at GreenMap.org/icons) that makes every Green Map exciting and easy to use.Thanks to the 14th Street Y, Art in Odd Places, refreshment donors Angelica Kitchen and all the designers and the sites where our test Markers will appear.

Following the festival, more Green Map Icon design sessions will be announced in this newsletter, in our tweets (follow us at @GreenMap), on our Facebook (facebook.com/greenmap) page, etc.

More Places to See Green Maps

Michigan’s Finlandia University is hosting “Green Maps of the World: Charting a Sustainable Future” exhibit from September 20 – October 16. This exhibit will showcase the local Keneenaw Peninsula Green Map and nearly 100 other editions created around the world. Green Map's Director Wendy Brawer will be on hand for both the exhibit opening and to meet with students and the university's sustainability program.

Around the same time, a unique series of wetlands Green Maps will be on view at the 2010 EXPO in Shanghai. As seen in this article, these maps were created by 30 university teams working with WWF China! Find out more about our work in China by perusing the progress report connected to our other Global Giving project, linked below.

Many thanks to all involved in supporting our work this season. We look forward to hearing from you!

As a supporter of Green Map System, you may not have realized you are also helping to support a wonderful internship program that bolsters leadership for a sustainable future.

At our New York office, we welcome students from all corners of the world to volunteer with us. Each receives training related to their own field of study. International policy, planning, food and nutrition, design and education are in the current ‘class’ of interns. As you can see in our blog at GreenMap.org/news, between 15 and 20 interns undertake a variety of tasks as they are exposed to sustainability in action! Whether it’s creating new mapmaking resources or assessing the impacts of Green Map projects in over 670 communities, each gains important communications, technology, organizing and management skills that make a positive contribution to their community and profession. As shown below, visitors like Philip Todres from Cape Town South Africa's Green Map project often visit and share directly with interns and our staff to benefit ongoing development.

We have also begun our summer ‘semi-virtual internship’ program for 2010. This special program helps us assist a larger group of student Green Mapmakers. Starting with a two-day training, each student works independently on a theme, campus or neighborhood Green Map. As seen at at the link below, each participant blogs weekly about their progress, and meets with our program coordinator, Celine Teo Ying Zhen, as needed. There’s a midpoint meet-up in July and in August, an exchange of completed Green Maps and lessons learned by this cohort of students from six universities. We’ll also invite the 2009 participants who have continued to develop their Green Maps all year! You are welcome to the exchange – watch the blog for details.

2009 was the first time we held the ‘semi-virtual internship’ and we have improved the process for 2010. We appreciate having the support of Con Edison for this New York-based project, but hope that you will contribute generously as we aim to share the process and outcomes more broadly, creating resources that will help Green Map projects around the world, hosting their own versions of this program. Of course, we'll incorporate the outcomes of related programs, such as the 4BsHive, a network of European Green Mapmakers who are involving a diverse group of adult learners in a European Union-funded exchange mapping program (shown in the attached photo in Budapest's technology lab).

Our ongoing in-house interns as well as those who take part in summer programs and trainings give so much to the global Green Map program. Your donation is a big THANK YOU to their thoughtful efforts to make the world a better place for all of us.

Help us extend a hand to far more youth, life-long learners and other dedicated Green Mapmakers who love their home places!

As our thanks to you – we invite you to visit GreenMap.org/widgets (linked below) and find out how to add our great content to your website or blog. It's easy and you'll be showcasing Green Maps, green sites, photos and more that help spread the word about the global Green Map program!

Our best wishes for a green and healthy summer!

The award-winning Green Map movement has joined the mobile revolution! Two great resources for green living debuted in February - a mobile website designed for all internet-enabled cellphones and the Green Map iPhone App!

Ideal for locals and tourists alike, both feature "What's Green Nearby?™" a handy tool for connecting with green resources on the go. The iPhone App includes 10 additional sections, delivering an insightful view into this global movement through its engaging Green Maps, videos, photos, blog, and more. In keeping with Green Map System's mission of inclusive participation in sustainable communities, this dual launch is designed to serve a broad diversity of mobile phone users at no cost.

Access the mobile website: Simply type GreenMap.org into any phone's browser. An array of green living resources pops up, arranged by those nearest to your location. Click any site for details, and then, click the address to plot the site on your phone's built-in map. Or, type in a city you plan to visit. Navigate with your phone's buttons and connect with nature, culture and sustainability sites directly. Today on the beta version, you can explore 9000 sites. In the future, you will be able to interact and contribute your own viewpoints, images and more.

Get the Green Map iPhone App: Search for Green Map in the Apple Store or click GreenMap.org/app. Version 1.0 delivers a view of this dynamic locally-led global sustainability movement unlike any you have ever seen before.

"Richly illustrated with expressive, locally-designed Green Maps, background on the Green Map movement and its impacts, media reports and news all come into view so users can directly explore the remarkable people, places and outcomes of the Green Map movement", noted Wendy Brawer, Founding Director. "Our design team utilized AppMakr to develop the iPhone app in less than a month, and members of our Board pitched in to create the mobile website. With the help of sponsoring companies, foundations and individual donors, we'll be building richer versions and continually improving exploration and interaction, contributing much to community well-being and the future we all share."

We invited our Global Giving supporters to be among the first to use these new tools and we welcome your feedback.

During the App's first week, it was downloaded in 21 countries, an indication of global interest in green living. Articles appeared in Treehugger, the Daily Green, Download Squad, 3R Living, and other places. A new feature was added - the ability to explore the sites by the Green Map Icon! Click Take Green Map With You at http://GreenMap.org for updates and more about our first mobile tools.

At Green Map System, we've started planning yet another way for people to discover the green sites with an on site marker system that requires no technology, not even a map! Watch for news on this and other resources for youth, community and civic Green Mapmaking – and our sincere thanks for all you do to help us support dynamic locally-led Green Map projects worldwide.

It's been quite an exciting season at Green Map System!

We were very pleased with the generous response you made towards our participation in the Give More – Get More Campaign. A total of $7,390 was raised, including Global Giving's match and bonuses from our Board. Early in the new year, we will draw prizes, as promised, and contact the winners. Your support is very important to over 625 communities worldwide with registered Green Map projects, and helps us build a sustainable future together.

December was especially meaningful to me, as Green Map's director. I went to Copenhagen for the United Nations climate conference COP 15! I've created a series of blog posts, starting at GreenMap.org/cop15 about events there with Green Mapmakers from Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia and Taiwan. It was a great opportunity to develop movement-wide plans for the decade ahead and meet people who will initiate new Green Map projects and partnerships.

Today, people everywhere are seeking meaningful ways to address climate change, overcome a lack of government vision and restore hope for a healthier and greener future. With your donation to Green Map System, we can offer millions of people a new opportunity to create a sustainable future, starting right in their own hometown.

We have offered this opportunity for nearly 15 years – what makes it different now?

First of all, 2009 was a remarkably effective year for us. One key indicator: the number of newly registered projects surged 35% - now another 119 communities, from Sao Paulo Brazil to Edinburgh UK to Dalian China to Oakland California - have Green Maps in progress!

Our technology took a giant step forward in 2009. Through the launch of our Open Green Map platform, we have made it so much easier to publish, share and explore Green Maps. Each of the 7,300 sites mapped to date is ready for your viewpoints, assessments and images. Now, the Open Green Map is even available on your mobile phone! We'll be announcing this breakthrough in January but you can give it a whirl today by clicking GreenMap.org on any internet-enabled phone.

We want to help you make the world a better place, too!

• If you are working with teens, we have free modules and mapping strategies that will help them plug in to climate-healthy energy uses and empower them as citizens and leaders.
• If you are seeking model best practices, the Open Green Map offers a quick no-cost way to compare how diverse green sites are making change happen – click open the 'info-window' on any site, then 'connections' and 'related sites' for nearby and worldwide insights.
• Seeking ways to spur community engagement with remarkably beneficial outcomes? Download our 2009 book at GreenMap.org/impacts, and explore articles by media worldwide. Of course, GreenMap.org has downloadable Green Maps provided by local project leaders, our global Blog and Store.
• If you are ready to join our network of city agencies, NGOs and grassroots groups, schools and social entrepreneurs who are using Green Mapmaking to create a powerful vision of change in your community, click Participate and lead the way.

Our world is a beautiful place. Join us in telling its story from your place in the world, and help everyone see it that way!

Best wishes for a sustainable start to the New Year and new decade from everyone at Green Map System!

All Green Map project leaders are invited to blog at GreenMap.org/news, where you can quickly enjoy some of the latest activities and impacts of local Green Map projects. Here are some highlights from our Blog's front page today:

Copenhagen: Green Map System and Green Mapmakers are presenting our practical, community building approaches at several events and meetings during COP15, the UN climate conference.

Indonesia: 3 prestigious national media awards recognized creators of Green Map stories!

Craik Canada: This rural Green Map project has added 1500 images to the online resources it already offers. Now building an eco centre using natural materials, the Craik Sustainable Living Project is planning to make a new Green Map in 2010.

Tianjin China: The "Love Without Borders" group provides delightful images of the 25 people who experienced their October Green Map workshop. Scroll further down for a translated Blog.

Iceland: Green Map Iceland held an exhibition celebrating the 3,171 sites they have charted using both Green Map Icons and ‘home grown’ Icelandic icons signifying volcanoes, whale-watching areas, light-houses and turf-houses.

Kauai Hawaii: Enjoy Current TV video clips about the Kauai Green Map and how it supports local green businesses created by Malama Kaua'i, a Kilauea based non-profit.

New York City: Recent interactions with local universities and student interns' reflections on their experience at the global Green Map office.

Budapest Hungary: A terrific new digital Budapest Green Map was launched at a press conference and resulted in exciting media coverage for the Hungarian Association of Conscious Consumers on World Heritage Day.

Detroit USA: Announcing plans to restart their project, Green Map Detroit invited all interested partners to meet and discuss at the Great Lakes Bioneers Detroit event.

Cape Town South Africa: As the city gears up to host the FIFA World Cup Games in 2010, the City of Cape Town is moving quickly on printed and Open Green Maps.

Click the 'More' link at the bottom of each page of the Blog - the stories continue. This is an inspiring testament to the diversity and impacts Green Map System has supported worldwide!

We hope you are inspired to support our work and all these green communities worldwide. Your donations are worth 50% more to Green Map in November, thanks to Global Giving and our board of directors. Special thanks to all who help us meet this Challenge. We all win when we work together to make the world a better place!

Visit GreenMap.org/news anytime for fresh Blog posts and inspiration, thanks to the dedication and insights of Green Mapmakers around the world.

Around the world, people of all backgrounds are stepping up their 'habit change' to reduce the speed of climate change. What does this mean to Green Map System and our global network?

Last week Green Map System participated in Climate Week NYC as the United Nations convened on this critical issue in our hometown, New York City. As part of the exhibit "How Climate Risks Might Change the Map of New York" we were able to share our energy-themed Powerful Green Map of New York City with many other New Yorkers (read more about the exhibit in the New York Times http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/climate-change-is-on-the-map-and-in-the-spotlight/).

We're also preparing to take part in COP 15 climate events in Copenhagen in December along with local Green Mapmakers as our work helps so many communities and individuals change habits and save energy, reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. Merging awareness, education and local resources, each Green Map leverages human power, a most valuable form of renewable energy!

Green Map System is reaching and motivating more cities and regions than ever – today, there are 600 locally-led Green Map projects in 55 countries. The interactive Open Green Map is also growing daily, with 6,000 sites charted since its launch on June 5, 2009. A great example of a climate-themed Green Map is the Swedish city of Malmo's Climate Open Green Map (OpenGreenMap.org/node/6303) featuring green buildings and advanced energy generation. Explore all the Open Green Maps for a plethora of green sites you can compare, share and learn from today! Enhance each map with your own site suggestions, viewpoints, images and impact assessments.

At GreenMap.org/csr, find out how Company Green Map projects have helped increase efficiencies, improve workplace practices and strengthened community relationships. Green Map System also takes action to reduce climate change from our wind-powered office and by working on our carbon-neutral server. We also have a worm bin composter, recycling bins, water filter, and are careful about our use of energy, materials, and resources. Most of us bike to work or walk to work, some commuting up to 10 miles!

By getting involved and supporting Green Maps now you will help reduce climate impacts and promote greener healthier communities worldwide.

We had an amazing launch - 13 events in 10 countries on World Environment Day! Download our illustrated report and then explore the first 55 Open Green Maps and 4700 sites!

Now we are developing the mobile applications, sharing, youth and low cost resources to go with it. See the first of these on the website under Share and Promote!

This is a great time to get involved with Green Map System!

Each day brings new partnerships and progress to Green Map System!

Our social mapping platform-in-progress was most recently presented at at the Ashoka Changemakers - We Media Pitch It event at the end of February, where it was honored as a finalist. It's gained great press as you can see by clicking Testimonials on the home page. You'll also see that there are now more than 40 interactive Open Green Maps from a dozen countries, ready for the public to add their own insights, images and impacts! All users are invited to explore the maps, compare the sites, engage with them in person, then help assess and expand their profile online. Click In Progress on the upper menu to see a short video and upcoming plans.

This website is also drawing new leadership to become Green Mapmakers, too. We recently experienced a record-breaking day with the most new projects in a 24 hour period – 5 joined from three countries! Each can immediately access all our tools and adapt them to suit local needs and issues.

Our new youth modules are being downloaded more frequently too - check them out at GreenMap.org/youth and get the students you know involved, too! These Energy & Environment Exploration modules were piloted in NYC, where our office is based. For a video, click http://GreenAppleMap.org/page/modules Want to hear more from the Green Map global network? Add your email address to the Newsletter box on our homepage and 6-7 times a year, you'll get the inside story on Green Map System's effectiveness in communicating sustainability across the USA and in 53 countries.

Click Contact on the bottom menu of GreenMap.org and OpenGreenMap.org to send us your thoughts and advice - we'd love to hear from you!

It's been a tremendous season of activity, thanks to your support! We are making great strides and continuously discovering the limitless potential of the Open Green Map (OGM). Please preview our work in progress at OpenGreenMap.org, and explore the first 2000 sites and 30+ maps that have already been posted. There's lots more features to come before we celebrate the public launch in Spring 2009.

In the summer, we opened OGM to all Green Mapmakers around the world, so their maps could set a high standard for the thousands and thousands of sites we expect to follow. Already OGM is showcasing a vast array of sites, paths and resources charted by our network worldwide, soon to be enhanced by a great diversity of insights, images and impacts that have been added by the public. New features will be added throughout 2009 as OGM further expands its user base and magnifies its impact. Using widgets, each map will be accessible from many different websites and blogs. Users will be able to filter their view and discuss, share images and personal impacts related to each green site. In the coming months, OGM will support mobile phones access and data sharing, connecting with calendars, newsfeeds and potentially even offline exhibits or textbooks. OGM has already been a Finalist in the NetSquared Challenge and in Tele Atlas' Maps in Apps competition, appeared in numerous articles and blogs, and presented in several countries and conferences.

Demand for this remarkable new tool is constantly increasing - and at the same time, OGM is building the demand for our traditional mapmaking resources. Our network is expanding faster than ever! In October 2008, we reached the 500 project milestone, and we welcomed new project leaders from our 54th country!

In preparation for the significantly expanded audience generated by OGM, in May 2007, we re-launched GreenMap.org as a multilingual presentation-collaboration-tool center. This past spring, we completed an expansion of our award-winning global iconography, so OGM’s symbol set reflects our updated understandings of social justice, economic integrity and environmental vitality. This past summer, our in-house OGM team of staff and interns at Green Map System expanded to 12, and our network of OGM advisors and supporters grows weekly. Our motto is “Never underestimate the power of a small donation.” Your small ($10 and up) contributions helped OGM rank in the Top Ten of America’s Giving Challenge – thank you Global Givers! We are very happy to receive your assistance through this website. Or contact us directly if you wish to hep us in other ways.

Thank you again for your continued assistance and encouragement. We hope you are as excited as we are to realize the brighter future of communities worldwide, thanks to the Open Green Map, our suite of adaptable resources, and the spirit of Green Mapmakers everywhere!