Seattle Green Map, a new web-based map, was launched June 2. With the map, Seattle residents and visitors can look up eco-friendly buildings, recycling sites, organic and natural food stores, cultural sites, community centers, trails and transit, polluted sites and more.
The online map, at www.seattle greenmap.net, will include detailed site descriptions, locations and contact information, as well as video features of sustainable stories from across the city, as created by students at Seattle Girls' School.
Seeing Green
Seattle Green Map (a coalition of eight nonprofit organizations) and City Councilmember Richard Conlin launched the Seattle Green Map in Seattle City Hall's Bertha Landes Room. The launch was held in conjunction with the Neighborhood Green Mapping "Day of Sharing," during which 75 students from Cleveland and Nathan Hale high schools presented their findings from their school's Green Map curriculum.
These classroom programs were designed by the Homewaters Project, and funded by a City of Seattle Technology Grant.
Homewaters Project, a nonprofit educational organization based at North Seattle Community College, organized the Green Map investigations as a way to engage young citizens in building a more sustainable community.
As the youth Green Map hub for Seattle, Homewaters engages students in community explorations using the Green Map System and inquiry-based learning.
A worldwide effort
Completion of the Seattle Green Map capped four years of work by volunteers who worked together to define, organize and build a new and innovative green resource for Seattle.
The map reflects hundreds of volunteer hours and dozens of meetings and workshops involving 400 citizens and 200 youth.
The Green Map System is a locally adaptable, international framework for environmental mapmaking. Green Maps use shared icons to note various features within a community, and can be drawn by children or digitized by Geographic Information System professionals.
Seattle joins a growing list of Green Map projects worldwide. Since the creation of the world's first Green Map of New York City in the early 1990s, communities in 45 countries around the world have initiated more than 285 Green Map projects.
For more information about the Homewaters Project, visit www.home watersproject.org.
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