Green Maps for a more sustainable future!

Summer is a great season for making Green Maps!

People often have extra time to explore, assess and map points of interest, based on a theme like preservation, outdoor activities, food security or green living. Lately, it has been so exciting to see all the new users sign in on our Platform, where a new Green Map can very efficiently and inclusively created, thanks to helpful resources like our data crowdsourcing Campaign tool. Here’s an example:

Have you heard of the Chance Lighthouses?

Over the course of the last 6 weeks, a global community of lighthouse enthusiasts and Green Mapmakers have come together to collate information about Chance Brother lighthouses on our new Platform. The project is led by the UK nonprofit, Digventures. It has been developed in collaboration with our Green Map team, Hannah of Tacit Tacit in Scotland and the GISCollective in Berlin.

Working with DigVenture’s Community Archaeologist Ms. Jago, the Green Map team has trained volunteers on using the Green Map platform, walking them through the leadership and management tools, even supporting them as they designed new icons for the Made In Smethwick: Lighthouses Around the World Green Map. There's a Campaign for quick data collection and the map-in-progress has over 260 entries - see it here!

Mapping these lighthouses gives facinating insight into the development of global trade routes, colonialism and the condition of our coastlines

The group of volunteers meets online to exchange perspectives and lighthouse stories, like the one shown below. Our director has also delivered a talk to volunteers about Green Map movement and how the tools support communities to understand sustainable living locally. Wendy notes:

"The Platform allows you to see the locations of Chance Lighthouses even before the description has been published. This is a great fit with this project’s phase 2 which encourages people to visit the lighthouses, and add photos, soundscapes, and condition or environmental-risk surveys. We love that participants are also mapped! "

Look closer at this heritage-based global Green Map project and its flexible program design. There's a culminating event and reunion on August 18th - watch our social media for an invitation. Our thanks to DigVentures and everyone involved in this fascinating global effort!

Every Green Map shares a unique perspective, whether in Scotland or South Africa (check out the Cape Town 13th Anniversary blog, for example) - your support makes it happen!  
 

Links:

• See the Chance Lighthouse map in progress
• Lighthouse Icons identify locations and current status

Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, and to all others around the world who are caught up in conflicts that are rooted in fossil foolishness. We have known our continued dependencies fuel so many ills, layering injustice and war on top of environmental and public health degradation. Between that and the crushing reality that our planet’s climate is destabilized, our energy choices must be made with our common future in mind.

Luckily, we don't have to drive ourselves to extinction! There are so many resources available today to promote sustainability by communities, companies and individuals, it’s possible and practical to switch to a variety of renewable sources of energy, including human power!

Thanks to the alternative-rich iconography utilized on locally made Green Maps, we’ve all been charting convivial ways to get around without a car, connecting people with the beauty of nature near home, showing local examples of solar, geothermal and energy efficiency, and illuminating opportunities for reducing our own carbon footprint and connecting with local groups advocating for justice and sweeping policy change in government, business, housing and public institutions.

In this way, Green Map System helps inspire local action that can impact effective global policy and help form larger communities of practice that address everything from access to clean drinking water to healthier oceans and education for a more sustainable planet.

GlobalGiving donors - if you want to see positive change accelerate locally, start at home and create a Green Map! Every community has positive efforts underway - you can put them on the map and make energy saving and renewables visible and desirable. It's a great way to help everyone do their part, meet people who want to share their knowledge and perspectives, and empower your community to move towards renewables and carbon smart practices.

We would be happy to help you get started! There’s a new Quick Start Guide for the Open Green Map platform we have been developing with your support at new.opengreenmap.org - it walks you through the steps to get started. Or, pop in for Green Map office hours and ask your questions - the next will be held on Wednesday April 6, 10 AM EDT, use this link - bit.ly/meet-gms422. Thanks to you, making a Green Map remains free for non-commercial projects!

Let’s use our power to change the ways we source and use our power!

Links:

• More from Oak Bay CA & how the Glenlyon school uses Green Maps!