Missoula News

Mapping Missoula

Green Map Guides Missoulians to Sustainability

By Stefanie Kilts, 3-14-07

Click the map above to go to the full online Missoula Green Map at www.missoulagreenmap.org

Green businesses, places, and services got much easier to find with the release last fall of the first edition of the Missoula Green Map.

Rebecca Williamson who completed the project said she liked the idea of a green map for Missoula because “It was a holistic approach to sustainability.”

“A lot of people want to do the right thing and I wanted to help them do it,” Williamson said. She saw the map as a tool for people in the community working to live sustainably.

Williamson took on the project in 2005 and after working on the map for a year and a half, began selling it in close to a dozen businesses around Missoula. In addition to the printed version, a website, missoulagreenmap.org, features the map along with history, events, and other information.

The printed map includes a layout of Missoula city with 89 icons marking the location of places like community gardens, Eco Design resources, green businesses, environmental organizations, and organic farms. The map also includes bike lanes, pedestrian trails, open space and parks. The back of the map expands on more than 100 sustainable places and resources in Missoula with phone numbers, e-mail and mailing addresses, and websites.

Williamson, formerly the director of the Missoula Urban Demonstration (MUD) Project, first heard about the green map from Sustainability Alliance of Western Montana (SAWM) members.

The idea originated during the 2001 SAWM Conference. Members at the conference discussed the need for a list of sustainable resources in the community. The idea also took root from greenmap.org, an organization providing framework for the creation of city maps highlighting natural and cultural places in the local community.

SAWM members laid out the criteria for “green” by identifying three basic groups of sustainable resources and places and began to compile a list of potential map markers for Missoula. SAWM decided to first include basic needs such as sustainable food, clothing, energy, and waste management services. SAWM also planned to include places such as wetlands and parks and finally list green businesses and organizations in the community.

Williamson then continued the work of SAWM by volunteering long hours of research to make the final selection of places for the map, making numerous phone calls to find out correct addresses and information, and finishing the design and production of the map.

From the beginning, Williamson decided she did not want businesses or organizations to pay for advertising space on the map. Instead, Williamson found one main sponsor, Portico Real Estate, who has paid for the printing of the map and web design. This allowed the money from the sales of map to be put directly into a “self-sustaining” map fund.

KD Dickinson, broker at Portico Real Estate, first heard about the map from Williamson when she still worked for MUD and said she decided to sponsor the map because “Supporting green businesses, being a green business and helping to get the word out that sustainability is important is a high priority for me.”

Other volunteers include the Geography Department at the University of Montana who provided a grid for the printed map and the website, Green Valley Designs for the publication design, Missoula Sustainability Coalition for map listing selections, and MUD for research.

Williamson stressed that the project should be a continual movement toward a greener community and said that Missoula still has a ways to go to become more sustainable. She pointed to the clusters of icons on the map that divide into the Reserve area, downtown and University area, and the North side and the gaps in between.

Williamson said the map creates a link between the many individual projects people are working on in the community. The map, Williamson said, should get community members to “…focus on the big picture rather then the little window” and work to fill the gaps between the icons on the map.

Dickinson said she hopes the green map becomes Missoula’s main map and gets into the hands of all people in the community because “…the kind of house and the kind of community one lives in has a huge impact on the environment,” Dickinson said.

Williamson is also planning a Green Map Bike Tour to coincide with bike-walk-bus week in Missoula. The event will be held on the afternoon of April 21 and will be free for the public. Williamson wants the bike tour to be a “scavenger hunt” for sustainable places and services in Missoula.

Although Williamson enjoyed creating the map, she said she hopes the project will find a permanent home at a local organization. Williamson said she also wants to see a creation of a steering committee with representatives from various organizations, businesses, and groups that will meet once a year to evaluate the green map project and oversee changes.

Green maps have gained popularity in many other cities around the world. According to the green map website, 279 green maps have been published, including ones in Johannesburg, Jerusalem and New York. Missoula is listed as one of the newest additions to the green map system.

The Missoula Green Map is steadily selling and Williamson is pleased that she is continually delivering more maps to local businesses. To Williamson, “Sustainability depends on a community where members have a system of meeting needs locally,” and the map is just the tool to laying out that system.

Like this story? Get more! Sign up for our free newsletters.