Citizen Staff Writer
ALAN FISCHER
afischer@tucsoncitizen.com
You are invited to make your mark on a new map project pointing out local “green” and sustainable highlights in the community.
The Green Pueblo Map will allow participants to show others what is going on locally in the sustainability arena, said Beth Gorman, program manager at the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality.
“From now on people can make their mark,” Gorman said. “The whole purpose is to educate each other on what is available in our community to sustain it into the future.”
Highlighted sites will not be limited to just the typical ones that come to mind when thinking green or environmental, she said. Included will be things like food banks, farmers’ markets, recycling facilities and second-hand stores, she said.
Participants can go to the Web site, www.greenpueblomap.org, and nominate a building, home, recreation site, store or other site that showcases Tucson’s environmentally sustainable, cultural and social features, Gorman said.
The map, which was launched Thursday, will be officially introduced Friday at the Pima Association of Governments’ Sustainability and Energy Expo at the Tucson Convention Center, she said.
Attendees are invited to mark their favorite green and sustainable sites in person at the expo, which runs from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, she said.
Sites can be nominated at any time using the Web site. There is a delay while nominations are reviewed and placed on the map, she said.
The project also has a Green Explorers education component for schools and after-school programs, said Lori White, co-founder of The Inner Connection, a nonprofit organization that creates programs in health, education and the environment.
“You don’t see a lot of conservation with kids on green,” White said. “This is an interactive, fun way of bringing kids into the equation. We’re getting kids involved in green.”
In addition to participating on the online map project, students will also be encouraged to do their own creative green mapping, White said.
Pima County, Tucson and The Inner Connection collaborated on the project.
Tucson joins more than 500 cities around the world with green map programs in place, Gorman said.