I have been volunteering at Green Map and I'm very impressed with the its global impact! There are so many countries around the world that are adapting the Green Map System, together making our earth more sustainable! If you want to chart a sustainable area in your neighborhood, be sure to check out the website.
My involvement with Green Map has been longstanding and almost universally satisfying. Being involved with tools and networks that help people make connections within their communities, not only to challenges but to resources and opportunities for change, has been a huge personal and professional benefit. Especially since most of my work is policy oriented and deals with 'big' security issues, being able to maintain the connection to communities and their sustainability leaders has kept me (and others) grounded and energized.
Green Map operates on a shoestring, but if there is a lesson to be learned in our time it is that there is only a modest relationship between the size of your budget and the size of your impact. The creative and entrepreneurial spirit of people still makes the difference and Green Map has been able to tap such spirit in abundance.
Green Maps manages to be global and local at the same. Using grassroots efforts, Green Maps allows any community to better understand its sustainability capacity. We in Pierre, SD made an open green map to showcase those assets that make our community green so now we join cities such as New York and Chicago. Creating a map is simple, no GIS experience is necessary. The icons are clean and descriptive. Great support documents and a positive "vibe" from their social media. Very responsive to inquiries.
We have worked with Green Map since 1998. I am also on their Advisory. They have been core to the development of our own Community Mapping work, our UVIC Community Mapping Collaboratory and the Common Ground Mapping network - Info: mapping.uvic.ca . They have attended many of our conferences, we have co-produced publications with them and they have supported the process and production of over 15 community green map projects and maps in our own region here in Victoria British Columbia. Many sectors have benefited from their expertise and global vision.
Visual, simple, friendly, the Green Map System is a strategic tool to knowledge and outreach our identity from a rediscovery environmental, social and cultural of our communities.
No walls or borders. A global group of mapmakers, ready to collaborate, exchange experiences, ideas and make a diference around the world.
I wasn't sure what to expect when my hometown, Montclair, NJ, was selected to become a recipient of a Sustainable Jersey grant enabling us to acquire an Open Green Map. Thanks to our volunteers, and Wendy Brawer's guidance and technical assistance, our results are much greater than I could have even hoped. We have identified over 100 sustainability assets and attributes in our community - from electric charging stations to our Farmers' Market, and from historical places and our Recycling Zones to the Montclair Art Museum - and the OGM is now available to all residents and will soon also be available on our Township Website. We've had input from people I wouldn't have thought even cared, and we are excited about opportunities to be able to work with school kids as well. Wendy even came to our town for a day-long presentation and Map demonstration! The Green Map organization is a well-organized, successful, and generous group and we are proud to be a part of the international Green Map movement.
The Green Map System is spreading worldwide to help communities and groups
understand and act for sustainable development. Communicating among so many
different groups in so many countries makes this a truly valuable tool for all ages
and can even change the thinking of the inhabitants and the local governments.
Bravo Green Map keep sharing the icons and making the change.
Green Map System's Youth Mapmaking initiative is a wonderful approach for anyone to comfortably participate from society to connect, collaborate and learn while charting out environmentally friendly actions and sustainable directions. The organization's uniquely designed environmental iconography is not only a visual treat to the eye but is even simple to interpret, too.
Green mapmaking with Green Map System is so much more exciting, enjoyable and effective than ever before!
