GreenMap NYC: What We Offer You

The Green Apple Map offers a perspective of the city unlike any other. It will help you understand how and where sustainable development is taking root in the city as it provides an informative resource for greener living with real potential to improve your everyday choices. And, thanks to our supporters, virtually every copy of the 350,000 Green Apple Maps we have published to date has been distributed free, lowering the barrier to participation to New Yorkers of all backgrounds and means.

Each of us can help protect biodiversity, the climate and the rich cultural environment of NYC using the Green Apple Map. It’s proven its value to:

• longtime residents who discover anew great places and greener resources,
• newcomers who might be guided to select a greener neighborhood,
• people seeking green networks and learning opportunities,
• visitors who can experience thousands of ongoing community efforts and the first round of improvements under Mayor Bloomberg’s 2030 PlaNYC,
• journalists seeking exciting, timely stories about the authentic Green Apple,
• decision-makers and entrepreneurs seeking successful concepts that can be replicated in new places,
• children and older students looking for concrete ways they can help NYC become a healthier place to thrive.

A Publicity Service for the Hometown Environment
Local green businesses and greenmarkets; beaches, community gardens and other kinds of public parks; bicycle lanes, ferries and other ways to get around, energy conservation and waste reduction programs, organizations and agencies – these are just a few of the kinds of places that have benefited from being on the Green Apple Map. It also supports green jobs and sustainable innovation of all kinds. In short, we offer tangible, practical ways to bring sustainability into your life.

What is Sustainability?

Here are two ways we define it:

Sustainability is finding the balance between environmental integrity, social equity and economic vitality.

Sustainability is living, working, eating and recreating in ways that will not jeopardize the health of the planet or the quality of life for all cultures, species and generations to come.

There is no single pathway to sustainability, and it’s not ‘written in stone’ so it’s difficult to find a 100% sustainable site, pathway or resource. NYC does have hundreds – even thousands – of places and projects headed in the right direction, and that’s what we offer to you, conveniently charted on the Green Apple Map!