Mappiness: why our new Green Britain map makes me happy

Wendy Yuen

12 March 2013

It struck me the other day that the availability of IT tools like Google Maps has led to a resurgence in the ancient art of map making. Everyone from the UN to music bands seems to have realised that maps are cool. But when it comes to campaigning can they help change the world?

Online maps for campaigns aren't necessarily a new thing. Frack Off has a map showing the threat of shale gas sites across UK and Greenpeace's beta project mapped energy and MP constituency data at the end of last year. We're all striving to do something useful, showing the connections across our work and helping people easily navigate today's data-rich world.

Friends of the Earth's new Map of Green Britain builds on The Guardian's data for English MP constituency boundaries by adding constituencies for Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It then adds to that a delectable choice of information about MPs, green businesses, community energy projects and renewable energy projects, as well as Friends of the Earth supporters and our local groups, and other local green groups.

The idea is that it shows anyone and everyone in your vicinity and across the nation who agrees that 'Green is Working' - that's to say it's tackling climate change and boosting the economy by creating jobs.

I've been on it and had a play. I think it's really exciting technology - and easy to use. It brings home how many renewable energy projects there all over the country, and how much support there is. And it's great to be able to turn things on and off so you can get a customised view.

So is an online map cool enough to deliver us a clean energy future?

On its own no. But if it can show us a different, greener view of the world, and lead us to someone somewhere we might not have noticed before who can help us with our campaigning, then yes a map and a few determined people most certainly can.

If you'd like to see more data added to the map, you can submit your own information here. And if you want to suggest new improvements or talk with others about building a clean energy future in your area, please head over to the CBE campaign hub to continue the conversation online.

Wendy is Major Campaigns Coordinator for the Clean British Energy campaign.