NYC Green Maps + Climate Action

Climate Action! We’ve been thinking global. But also going local: NYC, like so many cities, feels a bit vulnerable these days. Can we co-create a new road map that helps New Yorkers find the green path forward and supports social resilience?

We’re planning an inclusionary project for 2023 that contributes to more equitable and sustainable development by working together, sharing knowledge and raising eco-literacy, along with building organizing, assessment and communications skills. Your support, boosted by the Giving Tuesday incentive fund here at GlobalGiving by Midnight ET today, will make all the difference in our aim to activate everyone through a new ‘train the trainer' program we’re calling activateNYC.

Our plan is based around our new open source mapping Platform – already highlighting nearly 100 Green Maps charted by local people in a dozen countries - and reflects a history that includes 65 countries where locally-made Green Maps have illuminated resources for climate health, and verdant, convivial communities. As we pilot this new approach, we’ll recall the lessons learned creating and sharing our 2006 energy-themed NYC Green Map (bit.ly/NYCenergy06) and model our activation process to benefit other cities that may want to follow suit.

activateNYC will develop a home-grown Green Map in partnership with local climate justice, environmental, tech training and regenerative planning groups. We will provide training to local nonprofit staff members, interns and others to use the Green Map Platform to highlight themes such as environmental injustices, carbon reduction, wildlife protection, etc., in accordance with their own mission. Maps have the capacity to communicate universally; ours will highlight active living and green jobs alongside climate health resources, local initiatives and mission-aligned places, pathways and resources.

activateNYC incorporates a train the trainer approach that includes:
• Strategy sessions to maximize potential, aligned with their project goals
• Engagement and community participation
• Online training and resources
• Group and individual check ins
• Potential to coordinate Green Map field days, workshops & map debuts
• Social media and other promotion
• Reflection on the process, iterations and future mapping

With fresh and in-depth information, the resulting Green Maps will show people your perspective on the challenges and available solutions. Each can be embedded on other websites or viewed either individually on our Platform, or collectively on the world-view Green Map. Each map can be filtered, and its data can be imported or exported in various formats for convenient usages.

There’s more! Participants will learn to understand the complexity of sustainable development using the Green Map Icons, and to take charge of their data while building capacity to work with a range of community stakeholders, as well as develop creative use of digital tools through an ethical climate lens.

We’re scaling our plan and requesting other support, but your donation today will ensure that we can pilot activateNYC this spring. NYC needs this and we need you to help make it happen!

Thank you for being our partner and ongoing supporter of our work in NYC! Our best wishes for a green and healthy season ahead.

Links:

• See our global progress here on Global Giving
• Green Map NYC overview

Hello and happy Autumn to all our GlobalGiving supporters! 

As the leaves turn golden and drift down to earth, we think of trees. Caring for urban trees, with all their eco and social benefits, is at the root of climate action.

Building on our 2019 campaign for the Lower East Side Tree Canopy, we joined the citywide celebration of City of Forest Day, a new annual NYC event. We co-organized “Remembrance and Protection for Urban Forests” with community gardeners. More about urban trees, stewardship and shared resources is at bit.ly/urbantrees22. Although we have lost far too many mature trees here, over 500 new street trees have been planted in our district since 2019. 

We have found that stewardship is a popular theme at Earth Celebration events, and our director will be the first speaker at their November 9th event. Tune in - we'll be inviting people to help us assess what people value about trees and crowdsource favorites across NYC ! Find more events on facebook.com/greenmap, too. 

We've been taking part in myriad events, including It's My Park Day at Sara Roosevelt Park on October 30th. We're part of the coalition to reactivate a former recreation center there, and we were so glad our new City Councilmember and new Commissioner for Manhattan Parks were there to talk about a new phase of community partnership.  

Globally, we're glad our NYC maps and the Green Map movement are part of Tools for a Warming Planet, created by our long-time colleague, Ms. Ferguson and 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!

This has been a great year for progress on the Green Map Platform progress, and there is a constant stream of updates thanks to our developer team at the GISCollective (you can also view their 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 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.

Our best wishes to all as the season changes. Stay healthy and hopeful and love your local trees!