Wendy Brawer

Activist, Artist, Connector, Consultant, Designer, Environmentalist, Explorer, Idea generator, Producer, Social entrepreneur, World traveler

I grew up in Detroit (Cass Tech HS) - and return often. Had I not gotten Covid a week before the Countdown, I would be meeting you all in person, especially Detroiters, and regional people. Please reach out to me, especially if you are interested in creating a new local Green Map or my approach in general, please connect - and now, my bio: I'm an eco-designer and co-creative. Working together, all can thrive. Combining sustainable design and the urban environment, my original Green Map of New York City’s green living practicalities sparked a locally-led movement in 1995. Now impacting 65 countries, each Green Map project is unique and all share an award-winning iconography that highlights nature, culture, climate justice and sustainable living resources. Under my leadership, Green Map System relaunched in 2018 as an open source organization. Explore the organization’s numerous local maps, events and media projects, complementing the evolving adaptable toolkit, along with the new mapping Platform designed for collaboration and versatility. Making a better NYC is also central to my work. I am involved with community green infrastructure in Long Island City and Lower East Side; bicycling as a vehicle for social change; renewable energy and efficiency (I am co-developer of NYC’s first building to be certified as a Net Zero Passive House building (2015)) and related projects in public health and climate design. I co-founded LES Breathe I was named a TED Resident in 2017. Among other honors, I have been the Designer in Residence at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, included on the Post Growth Institute’s (En)Rich list, and named a Lower East Side Neighborhood Hero.

I'm passionate about our common future and doing all I can to help insure that all people and species have the same creative freedom, good health, verdant outlook and regenerative potential as I do.

Where are we going? In the early days of the sustainability movement I could see finding our way forward was overwhelmingly complex. I sought to bring it down to the local level with a map. This sparked the attention of people who wanted to make a Green Map for their city as well. I realized a new iconography would connect the disparate locally-made maps, regardless of format, language, etc. Now used on maps in 1,000 cities and towns, the icons are open source so they can be used in new ways, engage innovation, and support communities struggling to adapt to climate change and balance social inequity.

air quality monitoring, bicycling, Community Development and Engagement, community participation, Creative / artistic director, infrastructure reuse, Mapmaking, open streets, preparedness, public education, renewable energy, Sustainability & Cultural Shifts, Sustainability and Social Enterprise, urban agriculture

I went to TED 2006, thanks in part to long-time TEDdite DK Holland, who was on Green Map's Board of Directors at that time. I took part in TEDuniversity and gave a 'class' called CO2 Diets, based on the energy-themed Powerful Green Map of NYC we'd published that month. It was thrilling to see Al Gore present the slideshow that became the Inconvenient Truth, and see Majora Carter and Cameron Sinclair give their TED talks, among many other momentous moments that week in Monterey. I'm still working on ways to reduce the climate-impacting effects of events, yet enhance the culture change gatherings at TED inspire. Being a TED Resident was game changing!

Listening and cross-referencing inspirations to spur innovation/momentum. Connecting across borders.