Being part of the Green Map Movement

Making a Green Map has always been a locally-led project. It’s a springboard, and can positively impact all the different green places and people in your community.

Locally, you can take initiative by organizing a team and involving the wider community in the process. Together, the mapping adds meaning and magic to daily life.

While it’s possible to make a Green Map in a few days, there is much to be gained by taking it slowly and merging many perspectives and viewpoints. Some projects create a series of maps alongside other kinds of projects at the same time. Others work iteratively, planning annual editions to include more voices and issues. Check out our tools and accelerate your progress.

 

Simple Steps toward Making a Green Map

Are you ready? Create a Green Map so everyone can take action. Some considerations:

  • Who can make a Green Map?
    City and tourism agencies, nonprofits and universities, design and planning groups, students, and YOU!
  • Who is going to use this Map?
    City residents, tourists, students, planners, policy makers or other kinds of users
  • Is this a general view or is the focus on important themes and issues?
    Support for a campaign, for example, energy, food security, or a UN2030 Goal, or the sustainable city in general - you decide!
  • Which icons to use?
    Select a few of our 170 icons to guide your local map research (and consider adding local icons)
  • Who will take part on your map team:
    Be inclusive! Involve local experts, green-minded people eager to discover more, and people with a different yet important perspective
  • What costs to plan for?
    While there's no required mapmaking fee, costs can include staff, printing, events, marketing, and more
  • How long will it take to publish?
    A print map could take 6-8 months, but interactive maps can be made public and continually developed. You can create a series or different kinds of editions, too
  • How to make the map exciting and engaging?
    Interactive, print and other formats can utilize creativity, communication, design and information to inspire users. Check out our Community Engagement section for tools like our Mobile Site Collector for our mapping platform, Style Guide for Print Maps, Mapping our Common Ground guide, and much more.
  • How do you promote the map?
    Launch events (with press release and social media) can help get the word out. Post a Story here too! Make it easy to find, whether online or in print!

Becoming a Green Map Maker

The definition of Green Map Maker is evolving alongside our ‘going open’ process. Mapmaker used to mean a person or organization that registered and paid to gain the right to use our name, icons, and tools. Now that we have gone open, we are un-coupling ‘map’ and ‘maker’. Literally, we have added space for your ‘beyond the map’ outcomes!

Sort the Project Stories to find outcomes that will inspire you. Explore how we are diversifying our interactive mapping platform options, and see how our globally designed icons can help you create an 'inventory of home' and a lively, lovable Green Map.

Our open license invites new possibilities! Apps, games, tourism products, company Green Maps and partnerships that contribute to the vibrancy, health and sustainability of communities all have great potential. Talk to us about your commercial ideas that use Green Map’s brand, icons or tools.