The Mycelium Map

What is the Mycelium Map – Chilterns?

The Mycelium Map connects people in their local communities to take action on climate change.  It provides a comprehensive mapping and listing of local climate action groups in the Chiltern area, from small neighbourhood initiatives to large-scale organisations. With the Mycelium Map, you can find the groups closest to you, learn more about their activities and join their efforts to tackle the climate-nature crisis.

When people see how many support organisations are springing up to help decelerate the climate-nature emergency, a wider sense of confidence can replace the current sense of powerlessness. We don’t need to wait for a peaceful, grassroots, climate-nature movement to happen: we are already here! And the Mycelium Map makes this reality visible.

Who is it for?

Green community organisations, sustainability-focused SMEs, faith groups, schools, local councils and the public: in other words, everyone who lives in the area. As the climate-nature crisis presses ever closer, and climate anxiety spreads, communities need support to become more resilient both in practical and psychological ways. The Mycelium Map helps communities grow stronger and greener fast, by joining the green dots.

And all this high-quality promotion is available to community groups via the Map for free.

The Map is also for green companies. Businesses would also strongly benefit being on the Mycelium Map because it provides them (as explained above) not only with convenient, low-cost promotion but ‘warm leads’, since their goods and services are being seen by individuals and members of community groups actively interested in greener ways of living.

Can we put our green group on the map?

Yes, you are welcome, so long as your organisation meets our criteria:

• You are located in the Chilterns, broadly speaking: that is, with a postcode in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire.
• You are active in the area of climate or nature
• You agree with the values of the Chilterns Mycelium Map and with the terms and conditions of membership. Check these out here

Each group on Map is responsible for its own entries: the description, any pictures and videos and, above all, the range of events that it is running.

To become an administrator for your group, please submit the ‘Join the Map’ form from the hamburger menu on the top right of the map. Or drop us a line at hello@mymap.eco.

Can green companies join?

• Yes, so long as they are working directly in the environmental sector, or otherwise have a clear environmental policy with impact assessments

What are future plans for the Map?

The Map initially covers the area of the Chilterns. There is growing interest in extending the Map to other regions of the UK.

Who Started the Map?

The Map was initiated by The Hedgerley Wood Trust, a charity whose charitable object is public education, and has a particular emphasis on climate. HWT was founded and registered with the Charity Commission in August 2013.

As well as the Map, HWT runs a range of projects to this end, e.g:

• running the OneClimate Centre, a lively, fast-growing community hub for people from local climate organisations across the county
• making high-quality climate-related documentaries.

The Map Team

This is a uniquely experienced team that has pioneered and run world-first digital media innovations for social benefit over the past 40 years, including:

• The BBC Domesday Project [1984]: the world’s first user-generated multimedia project, aggregating the contributions of a million schoolchildren and 6 universities mapping the state of the UK
• The multi-awardwinning OneWorld Online [1995]: the world’s first sustainable development platform and portal, aggregating the online work of over 3,000 sustainable development NGO networks worldwide, and pioneering a series of further world media innovations over the following decades
• Global Report, the critically lauded BBC TV special report presenting an alternative look at the State of the World
• Earth Conference One [1988] with James Lovelock and Carl Sagan et al, showing why climate change was a key threat to global survival

Anuradha Vittachi

• Mycelium Map initiator, co-director and network coordinator
• UK civil society delegate to the G8 Summit [2000]
• Winner, LSE Global Civil Society Pioneer Award, for pioneering media for social justice
• Co-founder, OneWorld
• Founder and Executive Director of OneClimate (2006)
• Author of ‘Stolen Childhood’ [1989] on how adults worldwide exploit future generations instead of guarding their futures

Peter Armstrong

• Mycelium Map co-director and tech coordinator
• Initiator and Director, BBC Domesday Project [see above]
• Winner, BAFTA Lifetime Achievement award
• Co-founder, OneWorld
• Initiator and Executive Producer, Global Report [see above]
• Initiator and Executive Producer Everyman, BBC’s flagship series

Tim Hartley

• Co-founder of SeeChange
• VP Product and architect for SeeWare, a platform for designing AI solutions
• SEE: 2023 winner, Artificial Intelligence Innovation of the Year award (British Computer Society)
• Product Owner for the Arm NN framework
• Head of research and development team at the BBC exploring multimedia techniques and technologies

Cami and Jamie Perrelet

• Digitalis, leading software design and development company
• Successful collaborations with HWT since 2019