Hypocrisy, Greenwashing...Walking the Talk (or The Safe Path to Green)

Analysis Paralysis was a blog topic here a few months ago. It explored how paralyzing it can be to make green choices when faced with analyzing the myriad of alternatives, consequences and unknowns for every green option.

“Hypocrisy Horror” is equally-paralyzing for we green folk. Many Museums, Zoos, Gardens and Aquariums are fearful that they’ll be criticized for greenwashing the not-green activities when highlighting green changes.

They are right. They probably will be. It's a professional hazard.

Take a moment, after you read this, to read a post from Sami Grovner who writes on Business + Politics for Treehugger.com: Defence of Hypocrisy - In Search of The Sustainable Double Standard

Sami eloquently tackles the conundrum “how can we tell others to be green, when we’re not perfectly green ourselves?” Sami’s recommendation: remember that “Just as there are very few true eco-villains in this world, green saints are hard to come by too….”

But naysayers seem to be on heightened alert for people and institutions not “walking" every square centimeter of "the talk”.

So, what are your options?
• Say nothing while getting your house in order but not educating the public.
• Develop green momentum and start leaking green successes while educating the public through stealth messaging.
• Talk about what you've done, what you're doing, and what you're going to do -- all while educating the public.Obviously the first is not an option. Each institution has an obligation to educate the public about environmental sustainability at what ever level is appropriate for its mission and community. Very soon environmental sustainability will rank up there with health and safety; failure to educate others about, and act on, environmental sustainability will be unacceptable professional practice.

Option two is appropriate for some institutions, but is limited in its effectiveness for the institution and its public, not to mention our world.

Option three is best practice. Talking about what you've done what you're doing and what you're going to do allow you to acknowledges your institution’s successes, current professional practice, and aspirations. It identifies achievements, provides an update on your current efforts, and alerts others to your next intentions.

Certainly naysayers will still find areas to criticize, but sensible folk will not.

And by laying out your past, present and green future, you are providing a sample pathway for other institutions and individuals to follow.

You'll be walking the talk and inviting them along the green path with you.

Green Revolution – SITES’ Green Path for a Traveling Exhibit

It’s my dream com true: an exhibit in a PDF, with a guide to green community engagement.
Well, not exactly just a PDF, but darned close.

The staff at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (MSI) together with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) have combined the scientific sustainability content you crave for your audience, with a reduce-reuse-recycle exhibit-installation philosophy that makes Green Revolution affordable, very low-carbon, and just the ticket for involving your audience in making green changes.

Here’s how it works:

1) You license part or all of the exhibit (total cost up to $5,000…eminently fundable by a community grant). This gives you access to all the design materials, guidebooks, and support you need. You can choose among five topics: waste, energy, greening your home, carbon footprint, and composting/gardening.
2) With your staff and volunteer partners, read all the materials and view installation photographs, talk with the SITES staff, and then start planning your personalized version of Green Revolution.
3) Collect ‘found’ materials (a few optional interactives have small cash costs)
4) Use the exhibit-build process as a museum outreach activity
5) Follow suggestions for, or make up your own, programs and activities to help your audience learn about sustainability and make greener choices.
6) When you choose to end the exhibit, you can repurpose the materials or recycle them.

Then you and your community work together to create the exhibit your way and with your community situation in mind. Here on the Chesapeake Bay, we would probably focus on watershed impact factors such as not fertilizing the lawn, keeping roads clean to reduce nutrient build-up in the rivers, and reducing energy or using alternative sources so we don’t build a power line across the Bay. I can see having the Boy & Girl Scouts, 4-H, the Maritime Museum, and Adkins Arboretum all working with the River Keepers to create a community exhibit out of materials collected through Scouting activities and our Habitat for Humanity’s new ReStore. There is no shipping, no packaging, no big notebooks of installation instructions, and no changes to your spaces. Now that’s green, and that’s creative.

What kind of museum should do this? Any kind.

Obviously Science and Nature and Children’s museums are naturals, so are Zoos and Aquariums, Gardens and General museums. There are all kinds of cool options for Art and History museums. Think what you could do using art in your collection to illustrate these themes, or what a great backdrop your historic house would be for the energy and home sections. For many, it would be a great way to engage a new audience with a new message and experience.

And you can have faith that it works. The MSI folks premiered it, and the Bob Jones Nature Center in Texas tested it. SITES hopes to present at AAM on its experience. In the meantime, check it out at www.sites.si.edu/exhibitions/exhibits/greenRevolution/index.htm.

Let Green Revolution help you with your public engagement, while letting your audience know that your community’s health is important to you.

Just like the SITES materials say: “Green Revolution is more than an exhibition, it’s an event and experience for your entire community.”


Photo courtesy Smithsonian: In Southlake, Texas, the average daily water consumption per capita is 290 gallons. For their version of Green Revolution, the Bob Jones Nature Center displayed this surprising community stat by hanging 300 cleaned gallon milk jugs from a tree.