Mapping a more sustainable future - for everyone!

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. 

Links:

• NetSquared Invitational Award Announcement
• Papanek Social Design Award
• Treehugger.com Best of Green 2011

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.

Links:

• Green Map System's list of cities
• Baltimore's Blog
• Victor J Papanek Social Design Award Winners

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!

Links:

• Wendy at 140edu - Green Maps, Education & Social Media
• Green Map's Summer Newsletter
• Green Map's Blog