Green Energy for Hancock Shaker Village

Shaker innovation is alive and well at Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts. For a few years now the staff and board at the museum have really embraced green opportunities. In a visit last summer I had a short course in bio-fuel research and their Switchgrass (and others)-growing project with UMass Amherst.

But today's news is about a 'bundle' of seven businesses and nonprofits and their new solar panels. The seven groups are installing solar arrays as I type, and they aren't paying for it. Instead, the green energy and financing company is funding the build, with a little help from the State, and the seven members of the 'bundle' have committed to long-term purchase at a good and stable rate.

The Village is installing its array on and next to the modern Visitor's Center, but the energy company will own and maintain the system. The Village benefits from price reductions and protection on a third of the energy it uses. Its staff, members, and community (meaning all of us) benefit from the Village's carbon reduction. And the project builds on the Village's role as a place to think about a more principled life in the 21st century, demonstrating sustainable practice at this site from the 19th into our times.

Renewable energy projects are complex: tackling them as a team is the best and fastest way to make an important difference. Ah yes, yet another example of museums making positive differences in their communities.

Sustainable - buttons?

Sustainable buttons - who knew? But there they are at my fabric store, ready for me to replace the not-so-great ones on the jacket I just bought. My fab friend and artist, Maggie, http://maggiestern.com/ms_people.html , will reuse the old ones for her creations and I can make a thoughtful choice for their replacements...or can I?

I chose handsome yet inexpensive cocoanut ones - but yikes! the fine print says to dry clean! So I chose a handsome yet inexpensive set of bamboo buttons instead and will be careful to turn the jacket inside-out when I wash it.

To be fair, my online research shows a great source for cocoanut buttons that does not specify dry-cleaning, just the inside-out rule. The site is a great resource for other thoughtful knitting and sewing work, too. http://www.nearseanaturals.com/index.php

The episode is a reminder of buyer-beware for green materials - even in buttons - and an opportunity: perhaps the Near Sea Naturals folks can become a resource for any museum's Historic Costuming program intersted in going green.

Adventures In Kyrgyzstan

Petroglyphs are new to me. Exploring this boulder field near Lake Issyk-Kul near Cholpon Ata in Kyrgyzstan is a highlight experience in my museum career. Mining history circa 1870 is about as old and rocky as I get, but these from 500 BC opened new doors to history.

The question was, How/If to make them accessible to the larger public? This site is a newly-discovered source - at least for non-herders. There's a well-known, well-mapped site not far up the road.

In this case, the more sustainable museum is the one not built.