Green Map for Cape Town

Those who live in Cape Town are the envy of most of the coun­try. It is one of the most spec­tac­u­lar set­tings on the planet, although its unique envir­on­ment is also its most fra­gile asset. It lies in the heart of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, the smal­lest and most diverse of the world's six floral king­doms, is one of few cit­ies in the world with a national park within city lim­its, and is home to two world her­it­age sites — Table Mountain National Park and Robben Island.

Now Cape Town has its own green map to illus­trate its nat­ural beauty, and the myriad green, eco and sus­tain­able options avail­able in the city, whilst encour­aging people to live more sus­tain­ably to pro­tect its vul­ner­able environment ...

Use the Cape Town Green Map to make greener life­style choices and exper­i­ence the Mother City’s wealth of sus­tain­able resources.

In June this year www.capetowngreenmap.co.za went live with a vir­tual and car­bon neut­ral launch, a couple of really good radio inter­views, as well as fea­tures in vari­ous com­munity news­pa­pers. The web­site is home to the online Cape Town Green Map, which uses the Open Green Map sys­tem as its plat­form, and is powered by Google.

It's a great map, allow­ing vis­it­ors to the site to zoom in and scroll around Cape Town, to find all of the green resources, products, local and organic mar­kets, respons­ible accom­mod­a­tion, recyc­ling drop off sites, box deliv­ery schemes, nature reserves and the like close to you. There are already over 250 green sites on the map.

A handy tip: when vis­it­ing the site, click on the large map ver­sion, either the link dir­ectly above the vis­ible map, or click on the 'green map' but­ton on the top nav­ig­a­tion bar. This allows you to use a search and fil­ter func­tion to make it easier for you to find what you're after.

The web­site also allows you to sug­gest a site, shows latest green events, a sum­mary of  icons and cri­teria used on the map and a 'go green' sec­tion, based on the Smart Living Handbook pro­duced by the City of Cape Town, gives you a break­down of how you can go green at home and at work. The map is a pro­ject of the Host City Cape Town Green Goal 2010 – the pro­gramme behind green­ing the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

The great thing about the map is that it adopts the open source ideo­logy. It is based on the Open Green Map sys­tem (www.opengreenmap.org) — an inter­na­tional online map­ping plat­form used by 55 coun­tries  in over 600 com­munit­ies that together chart a sus­tain­able future with a series of ward-winning icons. So, if it's green and ful­fills the cri­teria of the map, it auto­mat­ic­ally goes on the online Cape Town Green Map – no cost involved.

Since this week the Cape Town Green Map is now also avail­able in print. The print ver­sion — a handy snap­shot in time of green Cape Town — was launched on 24 November to the media and is avail­able for down­load – visit www.capetowngreenmap.co.za. You can also pick up a free copy from December at your local Cape Town Tourism Visitor Information Centre, so if you run a Bed & Breakfast or offer accom­mod­a­tion in Cape Town, this is an ideal leaf­let to add as a room drop.

The print map, prin­ted on SAPPI sponsored triple green paper, gives an over­view of green Cape Town by com­bin­ing a num­ber of vis­it­able sites such as nature reserves, local organic mar­kets, respons­ible accom­mod­a­tion, where to eat and shop organic, local recyc­ling drop-off sites and more. It's aim is to remind both res­id­ents of Cape Town and vis­it­ors to the Mother city to live, work and play respons­ibly so as to reduce our impact on the fra­gile eco­sys­tems within the city.

It will also be dis­trib­uted via box deliv­ery schemes, selec­ted organic food out­lets and eco product sup­pli­ers. Look out for a copy near you.

Useful Links:
The Cape Town Green Map
Download print­able ver­sions of the map
Suggest a Green Site for inclu­sion on the map