Why Environmental Sustainability Will Work This Time

Environmental Sustainability is a perfect example of “knowledge in the age of the Net”. It’s all linked data and results; new information arrives constantly to build knowledge and that constant influx means there are always new ways to try to improve our green work – it’s a journey, not a destination.

Those characteristics mean that environmental sustainability today is better-suited to succeed even when it didn’t in the Net-less 1970’s.

In David Weinberger’s article The Machine That Would Predict The Future, in Scientific American, December 2012, he wrote how predicting the future includes an understanding of “knowledge” even as its definition changes.

We humans are used to limited-source, printed or recorded information: a book, an article, a study or a history -- what Weinberger calls a publishing system. However, increasingly knowledge has a much broader medium, he says, better described as a networked public. He writes “We may get lots of knowledge out of our data commons, but the knowledge is more likely to be continuous argument as it is tugged this way and that. …never fully settled, never fully written, never entirely one.”

No wonder museums use green teams to get work done.  And no wonder integrated design fuels environmental sustainability solutions. Green team, integrated design...they're just other names for a networked public. Do you have one?

STEM, Environmental Sustainability, and Museum Work

The President's Advisory Council on Science and Technology  published a report last week called "Engage to Excel". It was all about what's missing and what's required in US efforts to engage students in Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning so that the country can graduate an additional million 21st Century-ready students from college.
No job is isolated from STEM learning, its says. STEM skills are called for in so many actions, and often without us realizing it.

Sounds like a description of sustainability skills to me. No job is isolated from sustainability skills, and they are called for in so many actions and often without us realizing it. And we'd be better at our jobs if we were conscious of, and continuously cultivating sustainability skills.
In five years, sustainability skills will be critical to all museum workers. You'll need it to make environmental control decisions, manage the garbage, choose and manage your utilities, design and select resources for exhibits and special events, and of course understand it if you are rehabilitating, expanding or building a museum.

Will you have sustainability skills?

Here's a quote from the report with "sustainability" replacing 'STEM" in every instance: In general, no job is completely isolated from the influence of new technologies and new ideas. All Americans regularly encounter the products of [sustainability] in their jobs and in their daily lives, though they may not recognize the connection with [sustainability] subjects. The decisions individuals make in supermarkets, doctors’ offices, and voting booths often depend at least in part on ideas drawn from [sustainability] fields. To the extent that people are comfortable and familiar with [sustainability] concepts, they are better able to take advantage of new opportunities and make good decisions on [sustainability]-related issues. In doing so, they help create a cultural environment that is conducive to [sustainability] endeavors and to the benefits those endeavors can produce. p. 122

Environmental sustainability isn't the local dialect yet, but when it is, will you be fluent enough to do your job?

Public Rating of Energy Use in Museums?

What will your public think when your energy consumption is posted online as if a tax record, added to an energy consumption black list, or branded on the side of your building?  Will they be proud, disappointed, or so annoyed they don't write that Annual Appeal check?

In the United Kingdom, all buildings housing a 'public authority' or providing regular service to the public, and of a certain size, must post a Display Energy Certificate annually. It ranks your energy efficiency from A - G, lists your carbon emissions, and identifies your energy sources - including renewables. It's quite colorful and must be prominently displayed. Can you imagine one in your museum?   

Well, Seth Godin's blog post Will Energy Consumption Stay Private? talks about a similar possibility: connectedness and measurements lead to information in the public domain.

Just like Pilot Fees, expect to see Energy Carbon Certificates on a museum near you soon. Why not pre-empt it with an Energy Star label or LEED plaque instead?