Although the 8 million people who live in New York use less energy than the average American, far too many of us do not understand how our food choices, the way we treat garbage, how we get around, our workplace practices, etc contribute to energy inefficiencies, a degraded environment and social disparities. If New Yorkers knew options were available nearby, everyone – even children, renters, and marginalized communities - could conserve energy. Green Maps help everyone get involved with green living resources where they can experience how something as simple as buying apples directly from a local farmer at a greenmarket contributes to personal health as it cuts transport impacts, keeps the region green, and supports resilient local production. With a Green Map in hand, anyone can act on their good intentions, and find cycling resources, where to tour green buildings, energy conservation training, or how to compost their kitchen waste.

Green Maps also highlight natural, cultural and social resources. New Yorkers use these maps to discover a rich and verdant side of the city, saving energy by vacationing at one of our 15 beaches accessible by mass transit or volunteering at a community garden rather than buying flown-in cut flowers. Green Maps help to educate and inspire new ways of thinking about the environment and one's own role in cultivating a healthier common future.

The impacts are even more profound on the people who take part in community Green Map projects. Each gains a durable new sense of responsibility to their community, and a stronger voice with which to engagingly present their carefully researched findings. We feel, the more New Yorkers involved, the better our city will become. This will also benefit all who see our city as a model for their own community.

Thanks to our globally designed icons and multilingual resources, Green Maps are universally understandable, making them ideal for our diverse population (as well as the millions who visit NYC each year). We expect our open houses to generate new relationships, support collaborative development and strengthen the drive toward a sustainable, energy-smart city, across the board.

Community Green Mapmaking is a powerful way to bring people together, find common ground and create fresh, accessible perspectives on the community's progress toward sustainability.

Each project generates human energy and leads to collaborative development, organizing and communications skills that are greatly needed to support the emerging low-carbon economy. Our nonprofit draws inspiration from working directly with a diversity of people of all ages and backgrounds in our home community of New York. We aim to do more to support our global network by creating a series of face-to-face gatherings that will improve each team's effort and lead to effectively updated tools, technologies and methodologies useful across throughout the US and even beyond the 55 countries where Green Map has already taken root.

Our bi-monthly events will be promoted on our websites and through outreach via local press, emails, listservs and blogs. Staff, volunteers and presentations will be ready for educators, community organizers, youth groups, grassroots activists, university students, professional planners and designers, sustainability agencies, media producers and the general public. We expect to take people on walking tours and utilize training methods that maximize participation. We'll also show people how to create thematic Green Maps, such as our 2006 citywide energy edition (see the interactive version at OpenGreenMap.org/nyc. Click Info on the right to download 2006 map). We expect to get feedback useful for updating our GreenAppleMap.org website, toolkit assessments and develop new collaborations at these events as well.

We need your help to cover venue costs, refreshments, and staff time to develop this program comprehensively, then promote and implement it. We'll also document the events and share the presentations online so people unable to attend can benefit. We expect to feature different boroughs and themes, and offer bilingual interpretation. A year's worth of programs will cost $10,000.

Over the last three years, we have focused on technology, and helping Green Mapmakers in 55 countries create and share interactive Open Green Maps. We launched this 'social mapping' platform in June 2009. Today, there are over 115 maps and 10,000 green sites to explore and enhance with your own images, insights and impact assessments. These green sites can be shared in diverse formats, including through a mobile website (GreenMap.org on any phone with internet access), the Green Map iPhone App and on 'widgets' that can be added with ease to any website or blog. The Open Green Map platform has been recognized by 6 awards and global press.

We also developed effective youth modules that can be downloaded free (see GreenMap.org/youth) to help students and educators explore energy and environment by charting neighborhood resources such as street trees and green spaces, getting around without a car, school energy use, etc. Each module comes with a leader's guide and can be used in whole or in part to complement ongoing school or after-school programs.

We recently published short stories about our impacts (download free at GreenMap.org/impacts) and created multimedia resources you will find throughout our websites. We also updated the Green Map Icons (get the poster in several languages at GreenMap.org/icons).

Our nonprofit has been based in New York City for 15 years, and now, there are Green Map projects of all kinds underway in classrooms, clubhouses and living rooms in many parts of town. With your help, we can build the capacity of each to make a wonderfully effective Green Map. Moreover, this work will not only benefit New York, but help us develop more of the adaptable tools, icons, and methods that we share with Green Map teams in other cities. Think global, map local!