Make Me a Map

How Wendy Brawer put green on the map

Don’t let Wendy Brawer’s urban address fool you — this New Yorker has a soft spot for nature. After all, she’s the founder of Modern World Design, an eco-design firm, and has spent the last 11 years at the helm of the Green Map System, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping citizens all over the world document and map their local environmental resources.

 

Wendy Brawer with two Green Map System staffers (Photo: Paper Sky) 

It all started with a map of New York City. With U.N. delegates swarming in for several weeks of preparation for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Brawer wanted to find a way to highlight the city’s eco-features. Pooling their experience, she and her coworkers came up with 143 sites, ranging from community gardens to bike paths to green buildings — “even the toxic hotspots of the Big Apple.” The resulting “Green Apple Map” was a hit, and by the time the fourth edition came out eight years later, it contained more than 1,000 points of interest.

As activists in other cities got wind of the project, they wanted in. Using the original map as a template, Brawer and an international group of designers created a set of open-source tools and icons in 1995. Since then, locals in 46 countries have started more than 330 related projects to create their own green maps, and student groups have also gotten involved.

Green Map System: Charting and Promoting Healthier Communities Worldwide

In October 1989, in the Arab Night Market, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a captive orangutan and I locked eyes. Her long arms stretched outside the confines of a tragically tiny cage, restlessly flipping a stone up and down in her hand. I was transfixed by the sorrow in her face and wordlessly, I tried to communicate my concern. The orangutan’s smooth, round stone flew toward me, and as they say, I caught the stone and “turned green.”

Mengenal Kota Lewat Greenmap

Oleh: Christiantowati

Majalah Intisari, Edisi 480, Juli 2003

Informasi pada sebuah peta kota seperti yang kita kenal saat ini rupanya dipandang kurang mencukupi. Untuk memperkaya informasi di dalamnya, diciptakanlah green map. Uniknya, ide membuat peta hijau itu muncul cuma gara-gara timpukan kerikil seekor orangutan kepada penggagasnya.