Green Map System

Think Global, Map Local!
Founder, Director and System Designer since 1995

Creating resources and guiding this locally-led global sustainability movement, Wendy has supported passionate participation in sustainable community development in 65 countries. Hundreds of locally printed and interactive Green Maps highlight and link local nature, culture and green living resources, and given the urgency of climate change, the movement has now ‘gone open’. With a new website, open policies and collaborations can be seen at GreenMap.org.

The global Green Map System was initiated by Wendy Brawer in 1995, shortly after she published the original Green Map of NYC through her eco-design company.

This locally-led, globally linked mapping movement quickly gained the creative support and involvement of a diverse network of designers, environmentalists, students, engaged citizens and civil servants. In 2000, the award-winning movement became a not-for-profit organization that Wendy continues to direct. Now, nearly 1000 diverse communities are thinking globally and mapping locally.

Through the mapmaking experience, participants become experts on the local environment. They gain skills they can use as a springboard, including design, social innovation and communications; organizing, project management and community engagement; partnership development, planning and visioning.

An innovator whose most important client is our common future, Wendy's original concepts include the collaboratively designed Green Map Icons that highlight, promote and link sites on every Green Map. This evolving set paved the way for ongoing collaboration and promotion of powerful, practical choices that support sustainable community development. Matched to the SDGs, the United Nations 17 Global Goals, the Green Map Icons are now available to use with multiple GIS mapping platforms, reaching new audiences and generating locative data for further innovation.

Green Map System is now ‘going open’ to address the urgency of climate change. Wendy is developing the organization’s open trajectory and new partnerships that promote climate stabilization, community wellbeing and resiliency. Extending her skill set toward making new green places in addition to mapping them, Wendy’s work is pointing to new directions in the organization’s future.  

View an overview slideshow below and download the Green Map Impacts book and the Green Map Icon poster.