Climate Action United States Project #39557

NYC Green Maps + Climate Action

by Green Map System

Project Report | Dec 30, 2024
Looking ahead, hopefully!

By Wendy Brawer | Director

Talking with teens at our natural history museum

To all our GlobalGiving Donors -

Firstly, thanks so much for standing with us in 2024 - New York has had a quite a year from a climate perspective, capped off with the passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act on Dec 26th, statewide. Green Map takes part in many campaigns and we are especially glad this one is moving forward.

As you may have noticed, this year, not everything is a step forward. Now it’s more difficult to send out an upbeat message about the year ahead. 2025 has so many unknowns!

But what we do know:
• Being active in our communities is an antidote to our worries.
• Digging in to nurture nature is an effective climate countermeasure.
• The energy transition is making great headway. It’s more affordable than ever to take charge and use power more efficiently, and even to become a generator of clean renewable energy yourself.
• Shop locally to strengthen small business, from the farmers market to the family-owned shops, and help keep the local economy in motion.
• If you feel a divide, reach across to meet people where they are, and help rebuild the civic fabric of your home place.
• Create and use Green Maps to discover resources for everyday choices that are better for the environment and better for you and your community.

In this time of uncertainty, our work helps to ground people to home places and together, and accelerates progress towards reaching our full potential. Please donate to keep sharing our unique resources further each year.

Our most recent News post details a slew of resources for the under-resourced - these work equally well for those that are well-equipped. This includes our terrific new website builder (with AvenueC.greenmap.org being one of the first to try it out), our new set of Local Food Icons, a freeform Open Office Hour each month and much more made possible with your support.

Thank you! We're gearing up, with your support.

all out best from Wendy and everyone at Green Map System

Join us at an Open Office Hour in 2025

Discover the music along Avenue C

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Dec 2, 2024
We're helping more projects thrive with your help

By Wendy Brawer | Director

Use Green Map's new Space to create your website

Thanks to your support, Green Map’s Platform now provides engagement space that can be customized to draw in local participation. While still in development, mapmakers can already use the platform’s new “space” resource to build websites, either starting from a template or building from scratch. We provide templates that quickly merge the project’s Green Map and public Surveys with other features, including a calendar so mapmakers can add events. We are excited about this new feature - now, map users can see when to go, in addition to where to go to connect with the local environment and pitch in.

This new website builder is a boon to under-resourced Green Map projects and a major plus for those who want to engage more participation - see for example, http://growdundee.blog which draws everyone to the garden in this Scottish city.

Closer to home, we’ve just started a space for an emerging cultural corridor in Manhattan with AvenueC.greenmap.org. Check it out and add sites to the map or join an event! We look forward to working with NYC groups on their own "Space" in the coming months!

We are grateful to the ongoing partnership with GISCollective and Tacit Design for the progress to date. Our team is also developing tools to enable users to design print maps and other printable visual materials using the same intuitive visual editor. The Spaces feature will be fully realized when it supports the customization of mobile apps created on our platform. Your support will make all the difference!

Our first Spaces demo was held in November, and our December monthly Open Office Hour will include it too, join us Weds, Dec 4th at 11 ET - rsvp at https://bit.ly/GMooh24

We’re so glad to have had your support this year. We’re grateful to the Green Mapmakers who share their project stories, such as Society of Wilderness’s latest post on cooperation and from Telluride Institute in Colorado, insights on the Scape water quality app and more!

New Yorkers will also link our Climate Week report - we loved working with the Harbor School on Governors Island, and our Director is now part of their Professional Advisory Committee!

Our best to you tomorrow on Giving Tuesday, where your support is boosted by GlobalGiving. Thank you!

Locally and globally, Green Maps transform places

Outcomes from a two-week student mapping project

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Sep 18, 2024
Coming right up - Climate Week in NYC!

By Wendy Brawer | Director

Harbor School mapping on Governors Island, NYC

Hello Friends!

We are happy to announce a new grant has come in for our Local Food mapping initiative. We’d like to thank the Puffin Foundation for their support of this project. We’ve already had meaningful outcomes, including the completion of the Local Food Icons.

We’re now getting ready to use these symbols at NYC's citywide GreenThumb Harvest F air on September 28th, which honors the best veggies, herbs, fruits and dishes produced community gardeners. Come and see how locally grown food and resiliency go hand in hand.

We’ll be mapping and sharing data that collects the gardeners' feelings about security, needs and resource sharing. Come by to see the prize winning produce and more of the beneficial outcomes of community gardening from all across the city at El Jardin, 710 East 5th Street between Aves C and D.

While you are in the East Village, there’s a plethora of events - check out 10 days of fun, music and garden magic that includes the splendid LUNGS Harvest Arts Fest, merged into one calendar at bit.ly/924evcal - all of this overlaps with Climate Week NYC, which brings thousands of experts together to move the mountain forward on every front.

We are activated on Governors Island (which has its own schedule of events), supporting students in the Marine Affairs Career Technology program at the Harbor School as they chart island resources using our mapping platform's 'snap to the map' surveys. Guided by a terrific teacher, they are learning about the UN Global Goals (the SDGs), eco system services and zero waste principles. Making a Green Map is the first project of the year for three classes. We’ll be sharing outcomes via social media soon!

With local food production a resiliency imperative, we’re especially glad that Washington State's stellar school and food bank project that's growing with the support of the Green Map project was covered by the Seattle Times (pdf here) and is continuing to expand, thanks to a great team and the leadership of Ms. Hunt, a frequent participant in our free monthly Open Office Hour.

You are welcome to pop in with questions:
Today! Weds Sept 18 - 11 AM ET RSVP
Weds Oct 3 - 11 AM ET RSVP
Weds Nov 6 - 11 AM ET RSVP

“The Green Map System has proven effective in identifying opportunities for new green spaces and enhancing existing ones, illustrating how citizen science can inform and improve urban green infrastructure planning within an adaptive management framework," says Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. We’ve also worked with Mr. Collins of Telluride Institute on the Scape water testing app - he recently spoke about it (remarks on Green Map start at 49:10).

In our next newsletter, we’ll have an update on the Green Map of the Green Map Projects - our digital archive development project. Want a sneak peek? See it here.

With the new season just around the corner, we look forward to being solutionary, together with you, month after month!

Links:

New! Overview for new users of our new Mapping Platform

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