Think Global, Map Local! Sharing Your Sustainable Worldview
Green Map System (GMS) engages communities worldwide in charting a sustainable future. Utilizing our award-winning iconography and adaptable multilingual resources, locally-led Mapmaking teams investigate, chart, and promote living green, nature, social and cultural sites. The resulting maps guide users to experience, enhance and preserve local culture while minimizing environmental impacts. For tourists, Green Maps highlight attractive sites that offer authenticity and social benefit. A PR service for the hometown environment, GMS promotes involvement and exploration of local landscapes while fostering importance of resource conservation and respect for the community's cultural and ...
About You
Contact Information
Title
Ms.
First name
Wendy
Last name
Brawer
Your job title
Founding Director
Name of your organization
Green Map System
Organization type
Organization Type
Annual budget/currency
Annual Budget/Currency
Mailing address
PO Box 249
Telephone number
Telephone Number
Postal/Zip Code
Country
United States
Website
Email address
Alternative email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
PO Box 249
City
.
State/Province
.
Postal/Zip Code
Country
United States
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of tourist experience and educational benefit to tourists .
Organization size
Please select one
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Destination-stewardship business
Year innovation began
1995
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Open Green Map from Green Map System on Vimeo.
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Name Your Project
Think Global, Map Local! Sharing Your Sustainable Worldview
Describe Your Idea
Green Map System (GMS) engages communities worldwide in charting a sustainable future. Utilizing our award-winning iconography and adaptable multilingual resources, locally-led Mapmaking teams investigate, chart, and promote living green, nature, social and cultural sites. The resulting maps guide users to experience, enhance and preserve local culture while minimizing environmental impacts. For tourists, Green Maps highlight attractive sites that offer authenticity and social benefit. A PR service for the hometown environment, GMS promotes involvement and exploration of local landscapes while fostering importance of resource conservation and respect for the community's cultural and ...
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
Through locally-charted Green Maps, we engage communities worldwide in charting a sustainable future, helping residents and visitors discover their world from a green perspective!
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
Green Map System (GMS) engages communities worldwide in charting a sustainable future. Utilizing our award-winning iconography and adaptable multilingual resources, locally-led Mapmaking teams investigate, chart, and promote living green, nature, social and cultural sites. The resulting maps guide users to experience, enhance and preserve local culture while minimizing environmental impacts. For tourists, Green Maps highlight attractive sites that offer authenticity and social benefit. A PR service for the hometown environment, GMS promotes involvement and exploration of local landscapes while fostering importance of resource conservation and respect for the community's cultural and ecological sites, routes and initiatives. Today, there are over 550 communities in 55 countries with socially responsible, resource efficient Green Map projects. Over 365 unique editions have been published that guide diverse users to more sustainable everyday choices, encourage involvement in important new activities and provide visitors with best practice models to share back home. GMS is now developing an online Green Mapmaking tool that will reach a much broader audience, encourage global exchange, permit more immediate tracking of change and 'across the maps' viewing. With the first 50 maps online, the new Open Green Map mapmaking website is becoming a great way for visitors to express what they have experienced.
3 Since inception in 1995, the collaboratively developed GMS has thrived by carefully considering needs of local leaders and communities, grasping changing technologies and evolving understandings of community sustainability. In order to achieve its mission of inclusive participation, GMS?s approach has always been flexible, people-centered and toward the open and low-cost. This is exemplified by GMS?s shared iconography, the world's only known universal symbol set for maps. These Icons allow Green Mapmakers to rely on local resources, skills and sensibilities rather than a
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
Since inception in 1995, the collaboratively developed GMS has thrived by carefully considering needs of local leaders and communities, grasping changing technologies and evolving understandings of community sustainability. In order to achieve its mission of inclusive participation, GMS?s approach has always been flexible, people-centered and toward the open and low-cost. This is exemplified by GMS?s shared iconography, the world's only known universal symbol set for maps. These Icons allow Green Mapmakers to rely on local resources, skills and sensibilities rather than a one-size-fits-all program to make an evocative community portrait. Tourists can rely on 'locally-flavored' Green Maps and collaboratively produced books, presentations, workshops and tours for carefully researched and informed guidance on 170 types of sites including Farmers Markets, Traditional Neighborhoods, Community Gardens and more. Now Open Green Map, our participatory mapmaking website is helping people everywhere share their own collection of sustainability resources and social innovations, quickly putting more local investigations and narratives online as we build a vast base of best practices that can inform and inspire tourists. Open Green Map will involve thousands in helping share, update, rate and translate site information, empowering eco-leadership on an unprecedented scale. Moreover, its contents can be shared, viewed online, and soon, on mobile phones, enhancing travel experiences everywhere.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
GMS has a global degree of success with locally focused accomplishments, including 555 mapmaking projects in 55 countries, 365 published maps, and approximately 1300 new website users every day (113,000 page views per month)! Among the Green Mapmakers' network, each unique project outcome attracts visitors to important community features, many of which are previously unknown to tourists and residents. Project leaders take Green Mapmaking beyond print and into practice, promoting tourism that preserves local heritage while steering future development policy towards greater sustainability. The process is valuable, too. See http://greenatlas.org/download.html for this rural example: Robeson County North Carolina brought ethnically diverse groups of students, adults and elders together to investigate natural, spiritual, civic and recreational treasures while strengthening community collaboration and celebrating multiculturalism. For local adventures that link rich urban ecology and cultural diversity, view Toronto, Kyoto and Pune stories there too. The Tororo Eco-tourist Green Map project (entered in 2008's competition) exemplifies how mapmaking can support much-needed new tourism-related income generation where there are few green business opportunities. Rather than ignoring challenges to sustainability, our iconography acknowledges communal challenges, sparking redress and activism. While conventional eco-tourism creates larger ecological footprint, Green Map-inspired local tourism generates a more thoughtful approach to new places and perspectives.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
Thousands of community members of all ages and backgrounds have taken part in locally- mobilized Green Map projects, developing a vision that connects them to a worldwide effort. Communications, sustainability assessment, outreach and hospitality are among the skills gained. In many places, residents' involvement has led to multiple publications involving schools, citywide celebrations and successful beyond-the-map sustainability initiatives. Our Impacts book illuminates specific benefits - download it at GreenMap.org/impacts. Reaching and motivating a broader audience, Open Green Map will facilitate more participation and community input, engaging broader support for bicycle travel, green businesses, local cultural and many other kinds of social/sustainable resources.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
Environmental impacts and climate change are an increasingly important consideration for travelers. GMS's resources help everyone achieve a balance between environmental vitality, economic integrity and social equity, encouraging travelers to discover and interact with a community?s unique non-commercial eco-cultural aspects like Healthy Dining, Bird & Wildlife Watching, Nature Walks, Archeological Sites, and more. Green Maps encourage residents to visit the 'other' side of town, extending local/social engagement. GMS's Ecotourism Resource icon designates green hotels, tours and info-points. We offer fresh vantage points to all, and the social innovation Open Green Map interactive website will help travelers share views and images about their destination, too.
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
Green Maps give all users a fresh perception of place, and motivate new experiences, modes of travel, practices and networks. Highlighting both urban and rural resources, they encourage hometown eco-tourism and offer visitors an authentic alternative to typical fare and makes patterns of change or social inequity transparent. With OpenGreenMap, the dialogue about various sites' attributes will become public. Visitor can contribute images, observations and translations, helping both the site and future visitor experiences be improved. Successful green initiatives in one community can take root in another as tourists implement and replicate some of the best practices in their hometown.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
GMS's staff includes 5 -10 people, including interns. Our annual budget is US$200,000. (If we were to combine ours with the budgets of locally-led Green Map projects, we'd consistently top a million dollars!) GMS's income is derived from foundations and awards -70%, individual donors -15% and mapmaker registration & other sliding user fees -15%. Our goal is to reduce our reliance on grants by the end of 2010. We are developing a sponsorship program for the Green Map Icons that will generate revenue from carefully selected partners and we are planning a 'win-win-win' Green Map product. Our work and adaptable resources leverage far more social benefit that we can ever account for, but we are developing an 'impacts index' for Open Green Map so we can start to quantify this value. We carefully credit each contributor of collaborative/translated mapmaking resources, which are provided often in lieu of fees by low-income Green Mapmakers.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
Although our financial resources are modest, GMS is blessed with volunteered support that more than quadruples our bottom line. Indeed, many Green Mapmakers, interns and pro bono supporters have contributed hundreds of hours over the past 14 years, sustaining our trajectory and vision. GMS has become adept at utilizing open source and low cost resources and all Green Mapmakers manage their own programs in creative ways. Most Green Maps are distributed free and there are frequent free /low-cost events ? from workshops to tours to presentations ? that community members and visitors can take part in around the world.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
Open Green Map will reduce many financial and technical barriers to participation around the world ? indeed we are designing it so anyone from rural elders to developing world 'one laptop per child' youth to the most sophisticated web master will enjoy using it. We are planning in phases so issues like over-capacity and data storage don't limit our ability to involve the public in commenting, adding images, translations and personal impacts to OpenGreenMap.org, as well as their own maps. We'd much prefer to spend our time implementing the phases of Open Green Map than seeking funds, of course. Marketing is another creative opportunity for us, and we are responding in new ways, such as entering newsworthy contests, like the Geotourism Challenge, to reach and motivate new audiences. We have amazingly talented and dedicated people on our staff, but we do need to address the issue of underpayment so they can be on our team for the long term. Many nonprofits face this same dilemma; in our case, many stay in our network even after they leave, establishing a Green Map project of their own, or otherwise staying involved.
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
As a locally-led global program, expansion is constant. A steadily increasing number of new Green Mapmakers join each year (72 in 2007, 88 in 2008, and 2009 will be a new record, too). In 2007, we moved registration, our tools and Mapmaker's exchange online (see Resources at GreenMap.org) to streamline administrative tasks. We're now in 55 countries, but would like to do more outreach in low-income communities where participation and sustainability are not yet well-established. We have nascent support Hubs in Indonesia, China, Colombia and other countries that can be remarkable effective at capacity building, but we lack support for this important decentralized leadership development. We are planning a Hub exchange and regional development in 2010, pending support.
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
An eco-designer, public educator and director, Wendy Brawer is best known as creator of NYC?s Green Apple Map and as Founding Director of the award-winning Green Map System. In addition to producing Green Maps, websites, books, exhibits and presentations, Wendy has taught, spoken and written on eco-design internationally since 1990. For developing this new locally- directed communication vehicle that maximizes engagement while minimizing ecological and climate impacts, Wendy was named Designer in Residence at Smithsonian National Design Museum (1997) and Woman of Earth 2005, among other honors. Being an ecotourist herself and working with wonderful Green Mapmakers worldwide an every day joy!
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
In December 1991, our founding director, Wendy Brawer, mused about the thousands of delegates and NGOs coming to the United Nations for several weeks in spring for pre-Earth Summit negotiations. When out and about in New York City, would they be able to perceive the signs of progress toward sustainability she was noticing, such as farmers markets and green shops, community gardens, cleaner beaches and greenways, ecology and conservation centers, and more? Wendy decided to make a universally understandable resource-efficient map of NYC's green spots to provide an enjoyable green tour for visitors and as a guide to engage residents in sustainable living and 'hometown ecotourism'. A few weeks later, published copies of the Green Apple Map were promoting the city's natural and built environment. It was well received, and quickly sparked the concept of the Green Map System, a locally managed, globally linked social media movement.
Creating Green Map System's resources, policies and structure was exciting as the o2 Global Network of eco-designers was involved from the start. This meant the universal Green Map Icons were collaboratively designed and vetted by sustainability practitioners from a dozen countries. Created to be a living lexicon that evolved with our understanding of sustainability in the community context, Green Map Icons function as an inventory tool for the mapmakers and lively connecting points for map users of all backgrounds. Still at the heart of the Green Map movement, version 3 of the Icons debuted in 2008, and included many new symbols of interest to tourists, as seen at GreenMap.org/icons.
Green Mapmaking thrived.By year 2000, we had published 36 unique Green Maps, and had about 100 projects underway around the world. We received our non-profit status and began capacity building for the long-term. Our first disk of Youth Green Mapmaking Resources was created and more multilingual resources were being shared. Our work was recognized by President Clinton (US National Sustainability Award), the Hannover EXPO 2000, United Nations Global 100 List, and others. More recently, we have empowered support 'hubs' in Indonesia, Japan, Cuba and other countries, taken part in major events including EXPO 2005, re-launched GreenMap.org as a multi-voiced, multimedia Web 2.0 resource and encouraged theme-oriented Green Mapmaking to highlight eco tourism, cycling, waterways, etc.
Today, in 2009, there are countless stories about the ways Green Mapmaking works to impact the communities being charted in 50 countries, including how they have benefit visitors and tourism resources. Explore locally-authored profiles (click Mapmakers or see outcomes at GreenMap.org/impacts); GreenMap.org/youth gives quick insight into how we help young people value the nature near home and make local eco-tourism an everyday enrichment. Now that we have surpassed the 500 Green Map project milestone, we're addressing the need to lower the technological and financial barriers to online mapmaking, and delighted with the way Green Map project leaders and public contributors are interacting with OpenGreenMap.org mapmaking tool. Celebrating and promoting sustainable tourism -- near home and abroad -- is core to our ongoing, ever-expanding effort!
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
.Want to compare sites? Tell each place how it has changed your life? Translate a description that will guide others to a great experience? Check in advance for wheelchair accessibility, if a place is free or near public transport? Send site information to your friends? Add your video to help others see the place as you do? Open Green Map has it all. And soon, users will be able to create a tour, and add it to their own Facebook page, website or blog. What to know What's Green Nearby?? Check our forthcoming iPhone app.
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Open Green Map extends GMS?s mission of inclusive participation by featuring open commentary, 'impacts index' and images from visitors and resident. Everyone - students, travelers, site operators, journalists and the wider public - can get involved! Developing initial and subsequent project phases requires many skills, supporters and content partners. Strengthening our support "Hubs" (in Indonesia, Latin America, etc.) and empowering decentralized program leadership throughout the Green Map network is crucial, especially as the number of registering Mapmakers is growing 30% faster than ever before. Participating in Changemaker's interactive contest helps us understand the goals of other applying organizations, encourage their participation in our own project, and gain important exposure to press, tourists, and others!
 | 156 weeks agoWendy Brawer said: - Your innovation is very exciting! Thanks Dana – we are really thrilled that we can involve so many more people in the mapmaking ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 156 weeks agoDana Frasz said: Hi Wendy, Your innovation is very exciting! Can you provide some updated information that reflects how the Green Map system has ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 158 weeks agoWendy Brawer submitted this idea. |
