VCU news

By Mike Porter

A new VCU map with a focus on sustainability will help visitors locate recycling containers and solar trash compactors, parking areas for bikes or scooters, and neighborhood restaurants that serve locally grown produce or vegetarian meals.

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Sustainable Communities Institute is putting the map together and is seeking help from VCU students, faculty, staff and alumni in determining which sites should be placed on the map.

The new Virginia Commonwealth University Green Map will serve as an interactive inventory of economic, natural, social and cultural assets linked to sustainability on both campuses.

Along with streets, buildings and major attractions, the map includes sites that demonstrate the university’s commitment to sustainability.

“We want to highlight and focus awareness about the sustainability initiatives on VCU's Monroe Park and MCV campuses, providing a helpful resource for students, employees, visitors and neighbors,” said Meghan Gough, Ph.D., assistant professor of urban studies and regional planning in the  L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs and co-director of the Sustainable Communities Institute.

In addition to being a resource for the community and visitors, Gough said the map provides an excellent learning opportunity for VCU students, faculty and staff, allowing them to think about sustainable living on campus and in surrounding neighborhoods as they also consider issues of environmental protection, economic development and equity and social justice.

“We want to put our students in the driver’s seat to understand and promote sustainability,” Gough said.

The map’s offerings will be displayed through a set of universally recognized icons established by GreenMap.org, a global center and online showcase for a worldwide network of community-led Green Map projects. Green maps exist in more than 700 communities in 55 countries.

Gough said when the map is completed, clicking on an icon will give users a multimedia experience, with photos and videos and people sharing their personal stories of sustainability.

“This spring, we plan to do interviews that will be attached to the icons, asking people why they use the space,” Gough said.

The VCU Green Map follows a similar mapping effort in downtown Richmond last spring by students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program, made possible by a Center for Teaching Excellence grant in 2009.

“When we completed the Richmond map, we looked in our own backyard and thought a similar map would be important for VCU,” Gough said.

Gough pitched the idea to VCU’s Sustainability Committee, which provided $25,000 to support the first year of the project.

“The concept of mapping sustainability assets on or adjacent to the VCU campus was compelling given the VCU commitment to sustainability and its ongoing investments in ‘green’ projects and initiatives,” said Jacek Ghosh, director of sustainability. “The VCU Green Map will help to strengthen the university community as well as build stronger ties with its surrounding neighbors. The map will also provide prospective students and their parents with a comprehensive and interactive picture of sustainability as VCU steadily greens its campuses.”

While the map is currently available online, students in the design center, an upper level applied design studio in the Department of Graphic Design, will design a paper version of the map, which will be completed later this year and could be available alongside traditional maps.

“It’s a truly collaborative effort,” Gough said. “Planning students will contribute the data and design students will create a paper map. I hope that this triggers new partnerships with other schools so we can use the skills and talents of students and faculty on both campuses.”

Visit http://www.opengreenmap.org/greenmap/virginia-commonwealth-university-green-map to suggest a site or to watch the map’s progress. To become involved in the mapping project, contact Meghan Gough at mzgough@vcu.edu or call 804-827-0869.