By Wendy Brawer | Founding Director
With our global headquarters in lower Manhattan's East Village, many have asked how we fared in the midst of Hurricane Sandy. We have been quite lucky. The floodwaters stopped 1.5 blocks from our office, sparing this lovely old building from damage. Nevertheless, the office lost power for the entire workweek. Using our bicycles, we found places to work outside the dark zone, and helped pitch in on the relief efforts.
When the internet came back on, we decided to use FEMA's data to add the high water mark to our interactive map of NYC's energy resources. Our goal is to help people make the connection between energy conservation, renewables and climate change. This is a theme we have included in our hometown Green Maps for many years. You can even download the PDF of our 2006 edition (to the right of the online map under Info), which outlines infrastructure impacts and other aftermath realities. We designed the interactive edition so you can embed it in your own website or blog, sharing knowledge and awareness - use the link that's below in this report. In the coming days, high water lines throughout the region will be added to OpenGreenMap.org/nycenergy. We expect to share this with other maps on the Open Green Map platform.
It's stunning to see how and where the water rose and as you probably know, Sandy has become a broad call to action for a more resilient approach to planning for climate change. We're surveying Green Mapmakers in Chinese, Spanish and English now and hope to share updated mapping resources shortly.
While we had several Sandy-related postponements, including our planned Green Map Archive Launch event (new date TBA), we are happy to invite you to two events in December in NYC:
On Sunday December 2nd, join the Adapting to Change Cycling Tour. Riders will explore resilient solutions that reduce energy consumption and increase climate awareness. Noted speakers will be joining us on this free ride (click our Facebook link below for details and to RSVP). This ride builds upon our ’10 Days of Climate Action’ prize-winning Green Culture Cycling Tour, and its resulting map.
On Wednesday December 19, come for a bit of holiday cheer from 6 to 9 pm at Green Map's office, 220A East 4th Street, in the East Village between Aves A & B. All are welcome, no need to RSVP.
We're taking part in #GivingTuesday on Nov 27 and of course, we invite you to support our work in China at this time. The newest Green Map project is at Northeast Normal University in Changchun with the Green Vitality Environment Protection Association! You can be sure we're working hard to support this and other efforts to support healthier, more resilient communities all across the country.
Links:
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