Sustainable Museums

Revisit - The PILOTs are Coming!

2012-01-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

This article in MassNonprofit discusses the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) fees being paid by nonprofits in Boston, MA.

Scroll down to the end of the article and the note about the Museum of Science and New England Aquarium declining to pay the voluntary fee based on their provision of services to the City.

Darned right they provide services! And I bet they can quantify the green steps they've taken as part of those services. Think of the value of managing stormwater runoff on behalf of Boston's Harbor, reducing water consumption on behalf of Boston's municipal water system, and reducing electricity consumption in support of the grid shared with the City.

I worried about these troubles for museums in my May 10, 2010 blog post on PILOTS.

So, to reiterate - what avoided costs and important benefits do your green practices offer your community? Can you quantify them, value them monitarily and avoid the PILOT fees coming your way?

Are you ready?

Book Review: The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy: skills for a changing world.

2012-01-20T15:30:00.002-05:00

Edited by Arran Stibbe. Green Books, Ltd., UK, 2009.

The goal of the 'sustainability literacy' movement is to fashion a citizenry that not only understands and can discuss environmental sustainability, but one that can critically interpret actions associated with the environment (an just about every action is); recognize its causes and effects, opportunities and risk; and take thoughtful action.

To get there, we have a lot or prep work to do. So this book is for the sustainability thinkers.

It’s for the worriers who don’t want to be worriers anymore, but who want to facilitate broadly-distributed change in the face of an environmental crisis.

And it’s for the explainers trying to find the best way to impart complex sustainability information.

The book has too many good thoughts to present here, so this is just an overview with more details to come in a few future posts.

There are two parts to The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy, the first has 28 essays describing skills for a changing world; this section has some tough essays to parse, but it offers valuable thinking about the necessary skills of a sustainable citizenry need, and the complexities, barriers, opportunities and demands of developing sustainability literacy.

Skills topics include:

• Melinda Watson’s “Materials Awareness: the ability to expose the hidden impact of materials on sustainability”

• Ling Feng’s “Effortless Action: the ability to fulfill human needs effortlessly through working with nature” (about awareness of ecosystem services)

• Bland Tomkinson’s “Coping with Complexity – the ability to manage complex sustainability problems”

• Glenn Strachan’s Systems Thinking: the ability to recognizes and analyze the interconnections within and between systems

• Sue Wayman’s “Futures Thinking: the ability to envision scenarios of a more desirable future”

The book’s second part has only four essays. They address how the educational system must change to facilitate teaching these skills, and are critical reading for non-formal educators in zoos, gardens, aquariums museums and historic sites.

For example, I’ve just heard AAM’s Ford Bell preaching a theme akin to A Learning Society – “If learning is a social phenomenon, education cannot be limited to schools, colleges and universities.”
You’ve heard me press themes very similar to these three essays:

• Citizen Engagement – “Complexity is at the very core of sustainability” and our traditional either/or approach to problem solving is frustrated every time by sustainability decisions

• Re-educating the Person – “Current schooling uses teaching and learning methodologies which are based on a left brain…system” which teaches few skills for creating new solutions and accepting multiple answers

• Institutional Transformation – We must move beyond educating about sustainability, and educating for sustainability (we teach and model), to become “permeable, experiential learning communities”. Museums can offer experiential learning, in collaborative and private ways, so engaging that learners change their values and practices, and help others to do so, too.

Teaching sustainability is not as easy as you might think; we have a lot of learning to do alongside our visitors.

Addendum to Natural Step: The OMSI Story

2011-09-19T08:39:00.003-04:00

Near the end of my review, last month, of The Natural Step Story I mentioned that OMSI, Oregon Museum of Science & Industry has a great collaboration going, with National Science Foundation encouragement, to address a host of sustainability issues. Here's a link to a story on the changes they're making.

I'm developing a list of the best and the brightest of sustainability in museums.

OMSI is at the top.

When does your museum start working its way onto the list?

Book Review: Nonprofit Guide to Going Green

2011-08-29T15:15:00.000-04:00

This is a guidebook to keep within arm's reach. From "Questions to Ask a Recycler", and "Evaluating a Carbon Offset Provider", to step-by-step planning for "Green Press Events", you'll find the nitty-gritty you need to quickly make strides in greening your nonprofit's work.

Any book has to choose a focus - philosophy or how-to, for example. And this one is the go-to for how-to. It is so complete that it took three editors and over 30 authors to provide all the information here. It was written under the auspices of GreenNonprofits.Org to give the nonprofit sector "practical advice it that will lead to concrete action...that will positively affect the environment. Just as corporations and individuals must, the nonprofit sector must take its place in the green movement.

For those of you just starting out, the "Nonprofit Office Audit" chapter may be the most helpful. For those with more mileage, it may be time to read "Creating Your Green Marking and Communications Plan".

I can't cover the 400+ pages here, but here is a chapter listing. As soon as you're done reading this list, go ahead and get two copies - one for your desk and one to share with colleagues. It's a great investment.

Part I GREEN MANAGEMENT

Chapter 1 Raising Green by Being Green

Chapter 2 The Green Bottom Line

Chpater 3 Developing a Green Management and Employee Plan

Chapter 4 Creating Your Green Marketing and Communications Plan

Chpater 5 Green Events

Chapter 6 Greening Your Organization's Travel

Part II THE GREEN OFFICE

Chapter 7 Building Green and Greening Your Building

Chapter 8 Green Purchasing

Chapter 9 Making the Move to Green Transportation

Chapter 10 Green Office Practices

Chapter 11 Green Technology Solutions

Part III ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

Chapter 12 Being Green

Chapter 13 Closing the Loop

Chapter 14 Water-Wise Actions in a Warming World

Chapter 15 Green Energy for Your Nonprofit

Chapter 16 Advocacy for Green Nonprofits

Part IV GREEN NONPROFIT OFFICE AUDIT

Part V CASE STUDIES then Appendieces, etc.

This is the tool to make your fall the greenest season this year - Go on! Here's the link!

Book Review: The Natural Step Story: Seeding A Quiet Revolution

2011-08-02T14:49:00.000-04:00

Green is so complex, and changes so rapidly, that we have trouble knowing what to do. You’ve read my thoughts on this here, now it’s someone else’s turn to give museums a tool: Dr. Karl-Henrik Robѐrt.

The Natural Step (TNS) Framework, oversimplified, shows us that fixes (like recycling) are treatments for symptoms (waste) not the illness (production of too much waste in the first place). The Framework helps us prevent the illness. Thinking like the ecosystem, and realigning our approaches to living, manufacturing, and consuming, promises to create an improved Quadruple Bottom Line here: People, Planet, Program and Profit, for all.

Dr. Robѐrt’s story of the birth of the TNS Framework is an inspiring book, well-“illustrated” by the author’s commitment to walking the talk. You’re familiar with the saying that “green is a journey, not a destination”; this is a story about a journey well underway. In a world where 30-minutes of TV can show us ‘how it’s made’, or who came the furthest, and who has achieved the most, all in telescoped time, it is very valuable to experience a multi-year journey that reminds us that the process of discovery is valuable, not just the discovery.

The first part of the book describes how Dr. Robѐrt, a Swedish cancer researcher, worked to create the team that developed the TNS Framework. Dr. Robѐrt describes how concepts familiar in his research, and his efforts to involve other scientists in discussions about sustainability, all helped him develop an approach to what he called “sustainable development”. Three ‘aha’ moments lead to developing the TNS Framework:

• He recognized that what is true for cancer cells is true for “an overbuilt landscape”: “in integrated systems of high-level performance, continued physical growth becomes counterproductive to development”

• He recognized that at the time (1989), sustainable practices were more likely to be band-aid approaches to treating symptoms rather than remedies for the true cause – the planet needed a new approach

• He came to understand “…already existing knowledge really was enough to induce substantial change, and that most people only need to be allowed into the dialog to be prepared to act”.

This last point is one reason why the TNS Framework is designed to be universal – so that any one of us could use the Framework to join that dialog and be prepared to act.

The rest of the book describes The TNS Framework’s Four Systems Conditions/Four Core Principles, and provides great case examples from organizations and the personal stories of their leaders. The Systems Conditions/Core Principles are the tools you need to become an effective decision-maker. The Framework also includes valuable communication techniques for moving through sustainability discussions while keeping supporters and detractors engaged. This part is very important for leaders wondering how the heck you can tackle this conundrum in your organization, and for instigators wondering how the heck you can get leaders to tackle the conundrum with you. Don’t worry, its universal design means the TNS framework will fit well with your museum, leaving your mission entirely intact, and poised for strengthening.

Please read the book twice – it’s comfortable to read, and a lot to consider. A second-time through will help you truly understand and internalize these methods. When you need a quick reference, here’s the link to an overview.

I know of two museums that have used the system, Atlanta Botanic Garden and the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry case example here. I am hopeful – sure – there are others who have. I would like very much to hear from you.

The Natural Step Story: Seeding A Quiet Revolution Dr. Karl-Henrik Robѐrt, New Catalyst Books, British Columbia, CA. 2008

Green and Gaming: Citizen Sustainability Goes Viral

2011-07-08T20:51:00.000-04:00

I've been following @erodely (Ed Rodely of the Museum of Science, Boston) on Twitter and his excellent blogposts on Gaming the Museum and so I'm exploring how museums can engage the public through gaming (NOT gamification (ack)), but also through any type of true engagement that stimulates action by the visitor...action that means they make a difference for the environment after they leave the museum and because they experienced the museum and its messages about sustainability.

Ed's exploration is definitely worth a read - four posts. The end one reminds me of Dan Pink's great book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and how creating "autonomy", enabling "mastery", and fostering "flow" is what will truly engage our visitors and call them to action when they leave the museum.

I'm interested in developing tours, activities, online and in-person programs, promotional materials - ANYTHING - that will get visitors to make individual choices about the differences they can make for the environment, and then actually making that difference.

But wait, there's more: a wise woman once reminded me of the visceral importance of feedback ...and that's what I'm really, really after.

Where are the museum programs that don't stop at asking the public to change their behavior at home, but ask them to tell the museum, and everyone else, about that change. It's Citizen Science turned into Citizen Sustainability.

Can you imagine how valuable it would be if we knew how many visitors made how much difference just by experiencing our museums?

Can you say "leverage"?

AAM 2011 Session: Sustainable Preservation Strategies for Museums

2011-06-17T08:39:00.000-04:00

These NEH-coordinated sessions are so valuable. They bring together NEH program staff and the practitioners and participants in the agency's Sustainable Cultural Heritage Collections grant program. If you're considering assessing, planning and implementing upgrades to your climate conditions - in storage and on display - you owe it to yourself to attend (or buy the CD of) one of these sessions.

NEH's Senior Program Officer, Preservation & Access program, Laura Word describes this important grant program this way: As the field grapples with how to define guidelines for good collection environments, there is a growing acceptance that one size does not fit all; that striving for flat-lined conditions is not always necessary and is rarely sustainable. There is also growing interest in making the systems already installed work better and more efficiently, and in looking for passive and low-energy alternatives to complex, energy-intensive mechanized systems for managing environmental conditions. [National Archives Conference, 2011]

The environmental sustainability achievements from this are huge - not to mention the benefit of better, more thoughtful, care for collections. I urge you to check out the website at http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SCHC.html [2011 deadline not yet announced]

And just quickly - here are some tid-bits from this year's presenters. Note that though they discussed T/RH, it was not a feature of either presentations ... thoughtful, responsive, integrated design is what stands out:

Mike Henry (a marvelous preservation engineer who has provided services for many, many grantees)

decisions about the best, most-efficient use of your space available is basic sustainable practice
with those spaces, choose which are the best and worst for which types of collections
remember that case exhibits buffer objects from the larger space's conditions
but box within a box is not an "active" microclimate
"if you use recipes you might overlook the opportunities"
"go for the base hits; fill the bases then go for the home run"

John Childs, Historic New England (a grantee)

follow the KISS principle (Keep it Simple, Stupid)
if you can use off-the-shelf, do it - its simpler in so many ways
the planning and design process should be inclusive: curators, registrars, directors, engineers, architects, preservationists all at the table at the beginning
prioritize threats to the collection
analyze and understand current systems
consider phased approaches
and small and doable is better than big and impossible: "The Best is the enemy of Good"

If you would like more information on the early public discussions that led directly to this NEH program, there is great content here: May 2009 NEH-CNR Conference in DC.

Book Review: Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century

2011-06-15T09:19:00.001-04:00

Author - Rachel Mandan with case contributions from practitioners around the world.
Publisher - MuseumsEtc, Edinburgh See Book Details Here.
[This publisher has a wide variety of global-perspective publications...keep an eye on them.]

Sustainable Museums provides solid foundational information for greening museums. It is a mix of the author’s work and a solid list of contributed cases from museums, trusts and agencies in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Denmark and Kenya.

After an introduction on the key events in literature and politics leading to the current state of sustainability worldwide, author Rachel Madan, a UK museum consultant and Executive Director of Green Museums, provides eight sections addressing the value and design of the foundation for greening your museum: vision, leadership, team development, impact assessment, strategy development, use of targets and milestones, developing policies and plans, and then communicating sustainability practices and messages.

She’s dead on when she points out how the world and the museum field has made too little progress on sustainability, and, sadly, I had to laugh and one of interviewees referring to green team situation as more of an ‘after school club’ than an agent of change. It’s true. Green teams have become common, but rarely do they mature past interest-group status to leadership teams.

Madan’s suggestions on developing vision, identifying barriers and ‘drivers for change’, and creating strategic communication methods and sustainability steering groups, caught my eye. I particularly like that in her suggestions, as well as the case studies, that there is very little green ‘bling’ and very much an emphasis on efficiencies, collaboration, and sound baseline information.

The sales pitch is a bit strong, but the author's solid experience, and the valuable cases, soften the advertisements. Among the cases’ great stories I found many valuable snippets I’d hope the field could emulate. If forced to choose favorites, here they are:

 Shedd Aquarium (US) has evolved from a Green Team to A Green Sustainability Department

 Minnesota Historical Society (US) is tackling a statewide, property-wide assessment for efficiencies

 National Gallery in Denmark creates carbon accounts for exhibits

 United Kingdom museums and trusts are benefitting from collaborative, government-supported, direct-delivery programs supporting energy reduction

 The Design Museum (England), uses a cross-comparison of audience datasets between “GreenAware” and “Mosaic” software for evaluating audience awareness of and commitment to green practice, and the correlation to museum interest and support.

 The highly-efficient Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center honors the site by also using local materials, respectful profile and emotional planning.

 Renaissance South East’s (England) Green SLIME program (Science Links in Museum Education) for partnering with schools to advance environmental understanding and practice

 Hull House (US) and its Re-Thinking Soup program using local food to provide a weekly soup lunch for discussing food sustainability, security, and resourcefulness

They were a pleasure to read, and a shot of inspiration. Some days I feel I am banging my head against the wall, and others I feel at least I’m not doing it alone!

AAM 2011 Session: Climate Change & Collective Action

2011-06-09T21:30:00.000-04:00

I have a tendency to attend any presentation on any topic by either Wayne LaBar or Emlyn Koster, both of Liberty Science Center, NJ, but this time they were really speaking my language - museums and their role in increasing human practices of environmental sustainability.

Wayne and Emlyn are part of a mostly-Australian dialogue on how museums can collaborate to address climate change...how museums can help humans navigate the Anthropocene (see Wikipedia...new, unofficial term for the geologic age where climate is changed by human activity...see also Curt Stager with Tom Ashbrook and Bill McKibben March 24, 2011 interview. The project is Hot Science Global Citizens and it's an Australian Research Council Linkages Project. Wayne and Emlyn's presentation was sort of 'news from the field' as they reviewed the project's early-stage exploration of museum interventions, intersection of science and humanities, and responsibilities of citizens and the media.

Two parts stood out - Emlyn's discussion about why tackling climate change is so difficult for the field (with me loving that we agreed on many points, but I also learned a good bit); and Wayne's discussion about how museums must work to address the realities of public response to climate change understanding.
Emlyn listed museums' structural disinclination to address climate change meaningfully. For the most part, museums still tend to:

focus on collections
rely on exhibits primarily
are slow to collaborate deeply and meaningfully
are poor at integrating past, present and future
their funders are cautious
museums tend to avoid the risk of controversy
museum schools, which might have tackled this topic mightily, have not been a widespread success
grants tend to support the status quo, not innovation
and museums are rarely visionary and do not take global leadership positions

Wayne pointed out that "Climate change is no longer a science event, but a cultural change and it won't be solved by science policy." And he tackled the question of "why are people slow to change in response to climate change?" The collaborative project discussions have articulated two critical disconnects - one of time and risk, and one of science and emotion.

First: Education about climate change is scientific; response to climate change (perception of personal risk exposure followed by changes in behavior) is emotional. Water and oil.

Second: Since the risk of loss or injury due to climate change has an uneven and unpredictable timeline for each human perceiving it (will rising sea level affect me anytime soon or in a way I can see? Did a hurricane just him my house?), the debate about when and how much change there will be becomes a distraction that leads to a stalemate.

So Liberty Science Center, instead of doing an exhibit on climate change, much they way they might do an exhibit on skyscrapers or on human health, has chosen to educate about sustainability across all exhibit platforms. It's not a science fact to be learned in a few discrete lessons, but a cultural issue that must seep into human processes from many, many sources.

As a field I believe we should work hard to address the science/emotion and time/risk factors, but let's also use our position as educators, collaborators, and authorities to emphasize positive aspects of environmental sustainability: cost savings, resource conservation, and livable communities, so that we don't lose our audience.

I'm delighted to be introduced to the Hot Science Global Citizens Project and will follow their further adventures.

Headed to AAM's Annual Meeting - High Green Expectations

2011-05-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

Each year I wait to see how many others are presenting green topics - I'm conflicted over hoping for many and hoping for few -

Many means we're getting the word out on this important topic, and enough practitioners have enough to say to support multiple presentations.

Few could mean thre's too little work going on, too little interest, OR it's too 'normal' for special sessions.

So the truth is that I hope for that last definition of few. Sadly we are nowhere near that yet.

But I am heartened by what I see on the schedule - I can't even get to them all! I"ll report on those I can attend; then post-conference I'll get the CD's of those I miss. Remember - you too can buy CD's of all these presentations in case you're carbon-reduction plans are keeping you at home!

Here's what I get to attend:

Sunday - Climate Change and Collective Action
Monday - Changing Environmental Standards (collections care conditions)
Monday - Green 101 Workshop (presenting)
Tuesday - Going Green at the Museum
Wednesday - The Long View - Leadership Decisions for Environmentally-Sustainable Msueum Projects (chair)

Here's hoping there's green magic in the air at AAM this year.

Get Your Green Training

2011-03-29T11:22:00.016-04:00

There’s a lot of good material out there for learning about greening your museum. Here are some resources:

Websites
The American Association of Museums PIC Green website (Professional Interest Committee on Green) http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/comm/green.cfm. In fact, it has much more of what you see here – be sure to check it out.

The Green Museums Initiative of the California Association of Museums
http://www.calmuseums.info/gmi/index.html

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s website on preservation and environmental sustainability http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/sustainability/

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums Scientific Advisory Group
http://www.aza.org/green-practices-scientific-advisory-group/

bMuse: Sustainable Museums is my website: http://www.bmuse.net/051810/greenmuseums_home.html
Greener Museums is Rachel Madan’s website for her work in the UK and abroad: http://www.greenermuseums.org/

Training
April 19th, 2011. The Green Museum (online conference) with AAM, AASLH & AAM’s PIC Green.
http://www.aam-us.org/getinvolved/learn/green.cfm

The Museum Studies programs at The George Washington University http://www.gwu.edu/~mstd/ and The Univesity of Delaware http://www.udel.edu/museumstudies/

Books
Brophy, Sarah and Elizabeth Wylie. Green Museums: A Primer on Environmental Practice. Lantham, MD: AltaMira Press. 2008. http://www.altamirapress.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=0759111642&thepassedurl=[thepassedurl]

Carroon, Jean. Sustainable Preservation: Greening Existing Buildings. New York: Wiley Books on Sustainable Design. 2010.
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470169117.html

Chamberlain, Gregory. Greener Museums: Sustainability, Society, and Public Engagement. London: Museum-ID. 2011. http://www.museum-id.com/books.asp

Madan, Rachel. Sustainable Museums: Strategies for the 21st Century. Contributed cases from around the world. London: Museums, Etc. 2011. http://museumsetc.com/products/sustainable-museums

If you have anything to add, please let me know and I"ll collect them for the next training update.

Green: One Size Fits None

2011-03-23T10:05:00.000-04:00

Rainbarrel a no-brainer? It depends.

I love my green museum work, but it has one down side: the frustration that, no matter what the question, what the situation, my answer can only be partial: I have to say “it depends” every time.

But “it depends” because green is truly local construct. Don’t be tempted or pressured to copy what anyone else does. Have the courage, and take the time to find the right green answer for your situation. One size fits none.

Sunlight is different in New England compared to the Southwest.
There are lots of reusable timbers in the old sawmills of the Northwest, but not in the Southeast.
Geothermal doesn’t work on Cape Cod as well as in other places.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland is short on slate and any other rock, but big on wind.
Some historic sites have enough room for CSA’s or farmers’ markets; others are in urban settings and can hardly grow a window box.
Waterpower in one region comes from waterfalls and in another from waves.
Some communities require all stormwater management onsite; in Denver you can’t capture rainwater.
Some offices can have a 5:1 ratio of people to printers; others have sensitive information or disparate locations that don’t allow for printer-sharing.
One museum might have rooftop space for an ESCo to install a solar array while another is in an historic district that isn’t interested.

Few answers fit more than one situation.

Green is an ecosystem concept that depends entirely on related systems and local situations. Local -- right here, in this place, in this way, right now – is what defines your green journey differently than anyone else’s.

Don’t let anyone sell you an off-the-rack solution.

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

2011-01-28T12:32:00.017-05:00

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

2011-01-19T11:57:00.005-05:00

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.

Twelve Days of a Green Christmas at the Historic Site

2010-12-05T10:41:00.004-05:00

On the first day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site a much-needed energy audit

On the second day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Two stormwater cisterns

On the third day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site a Three-part compost bin

On the fourth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Four solar golf carts

On the fifth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Five miles of window seal tape

On the sixth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Six chimney pillows

On the seventh day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Seven heritage cattle

On the eighth of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Eight rooms of insulation

On the ninth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Nine hens a laying

On the tenth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Ten recycle bins

On the eleventh day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Eleven storm window inserts

On the twelfth day of Christmas, donors sent the historic site Twelve Compact Fluorescents

Anlysis Paralysis

2010-11-29T08:30:00.007-05:00

Sometimes the hardest part about going green is deciding. It can be hard to decide how to best label the recycle bins, decide which flooring is most durable and most green, or decide when to implement renewable energy installations. There is so much to know, and green options change so frequently, that it's difficult hard to recognize the right choice and the right time.

Get over it. There's no right thing or right time. You will make a thoughtful, informed choice, and then move forward on that path. Meanwhile other paths will appear that you may no longer be able to follow, and others who have chosen different paths, will speed ahead of you - or not. This is why it takes leadership to make green decision. A leader makes the best possible choice at the time and moves forward.

Getting stuck deciding is a greater issue than any concerns you have about second guesses.

I have a simple story I tell to illustrate analysis paralysis, it's about a cup of coffee.

I was at a conference having made the keynote presentation earlier in the day. I was part of a group of greenies and we were heading into the dessert and coffee part of the moving-dinner-at-museums evening event. With this group of greenies coming in behind me, I poured a cup of coffee - caffeinated. Well nuts, I couldn't drink that at 8:30 pm! what to do? I couldn't put it back, I couldn't waste it and the now-used cup and saucer with it. And no one wanted it, of course.

I froze. People lined up behind me waiting for their coffee. The group around me - imagined or real - watched to see how green I really was.

Jim saved me. He stood next to me and said, in a calm voice and as if it was a TV show I held a loaded weapon: "it's okay, Sarah, just put...the... cup...down".

I was freed from the spell, set the cup aside to be dumped and washed, and poured myself another.

Not very green. Not a big deal either.

Your challenges of course will be much weightier, I'm sure, but still the parable applies. And be assured, as you make more and more green decisions, you'll become practiced at identifying the priority needs for a situation, then identifying the pros and cons of possible solutions, weighing time and money and innovation factors, and then making a decision.

If you need practice, start with a coffee, move up to recycling bins and office supplies, then perhaps test a floor surface or a low-VOC paint in a small area, and gradually you'll regain that confidence you had before you had to think green.

Twelve Green Museum Days of Christmas...

2010-11-28T14:57:00.006-05:00

Here's hoping for a green holiday for all museums everywhere:

On the first day of Christmas, donors gave the museum a Building Management System

On the second day of Christmas, donors gave the museum two green roofs

On the third day of Christmas, donors gave the museum three living walls

On the fourth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum four PV Arrays

On the fifth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum five car-charging stations

On the sixth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum six stormwater cisterns

On the seventh day of Christmas, donors gave the museum seven bioswales

On the eighth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum eight motion sensors

On the ninthday of Christmas, donors gave the museum nine recycle stations

On the tenth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum ten operable windows

On the eleventh day of Christmas, donors gave the museum eleven low-flow faucets

On the twelfth day of Christmas, donors gave the museum twelve composting toilets

No AC - Important Interpretive Theme for Historic Houses

2010-10-11T08:45:00.005-04:00

Our Summer Experiment: Living without AC tells me that “How Did People Live Without Air Conditioning?” would be an important major interpretive theme in historic houses for the next few years.

During the first semester of teaching The Green Museum, as my students conducted their own greening projects, The Brophy Family (of four) did its own: collecting and measuring waste generated during the month of December – yes the one with Christmas in it. With recycling at the usual level, we contained our non-recyclable waste to one garbage can.

In preparation for this semester’s class The Family conducted a summer-long experiment: how long can you go without AC? We made it through with only one night’s AC and localized it to the master bedroom. I was pretty impressed myself, but before you call Stan Lee’s Super Humans at The History Channel, keep in mind we can all do this.

Over the last few summers we worked ourselves up to indoor temperatures of 82 and often 84 degrees before turning on the AC – and that was in a bungalow built for AC with tiny windows with zero, I mean zero cross-ventilation. We even had to install screen doors and we were renting the place! And of course now we live in an 1875 home designed to manage Southeastern US heat and humidity: set up off the ground on a raised basement to catch breezes, tall and operable windows aligned expressly for light and cross-breezes, VERY tall ceilings with ceiling fans, a through-house staircase taking heat up and out through the third floor window, and the best front porch in town. Even though working from home meant being here during the hottest times, yet I needed to head to shared AC at the coffee shop or public library just three times this whole hot summer.

With thoughtful window-management throughout the day I could control sun and air to keep it comfortable. I pulled out my sons’ clay projects from over a decade ago and used them as paperweights and doorstops. One other trick: we turned off the hot water heater, too. Water tanks warm up in summer with ambient air temperature, don’t you know, so the water was comfortably cool. Who needs a hot shower in summer anyway? The question is, once we get an on-demand heater, will I use it in July and August? Maybe not now that I know I don’t need it.

So, all you historic house people, I’m thinking that “How Did People Live Without Air Conditioning?” should be a major interpretive theme in historic houses for the next few years. Think what great community engagement opportunities it offers, and what great ‘try this yourself at home’ ideas you could share with your visitors. YOu could do a 'bring back the front porch'-themed event; you could show your collection of fans (hand-held, or ceiling); and you could interpret the advent of ice boxes and ice cream and popsicles! Man, a popsicle is heaven on the front porch on a hot night...

The down side to our experiment? I’m so acclimatized that winter may be a tad tough with interior temperatures at 64 degrees. I have a plan, though. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Green and Dan Pink's Drive

2010-08-18T17:37:00.005-04:00

Dan Pink has a new book out: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. He's good. You should read him.

This new book is a great explanation of how Green works, where it will work best, and how to keep it working.

Dan says, after much research and with great evidence, that Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are the best motivations/ incentives/conditions for solving 21st century problems – the tricky, complicated problems that require new solutions. He says that the old “carrot and stick” approach to motivating workers (incentivization – and I add regulation) is best for 20th century tasks that have a narrow focus and a clear solution.

Green has neither a narrow focus nor a clear solution. Green is all about applying new (or long unused approaches) to complex problems. Green is a big-time 21st century challenge and though we may hope that incentives for saving energy and mandates for carbon reduction will help move the market, it’s clearly going to take more than that. It’s going to take Drive.

Green requires Autonomy because it’s a do-it-yourself program. There are lots of guidebooks out there, but few on the hard Green topics of clean energy and Cradle-to-Cradle solutions. We all must constantly adapt our green practice to meet the demands of each situation. Most of the time we’re making it up as we go along.

Green encourages Mastery because it has a feedback loop that makes it addictive. Once you recognize opportunities to reduce waste and pollution in one situation, you can’t keep from recognizing them everywhere. And once your brain releases the first endorphins associated with your first green achievement, you can’t help but try to recreate that success.

And, of course, Green is its own Purpose.

So, if you’re a manager and are hoping your staff will increase its green practices and develop greener solutions, figure out how to harness Drive and encourage Dan’s three conditions associated with creating it.

If you’re a government official looking to encourage Green business and practice, use incentives and mandates for the narrowly-focused problems with clear solutions, and fund the folks with Purpose so that they have the Autonomy to develop the Mastery to solve our really complex Green problems.

And if you’re a Greenie looking for a way to explain to others why you do what you do, just explain that you have more Drive.

Dan's website and book link: http://www.danpink.com/drive

Museums in a Climate of Change - Part II

2010-07-07T10:03:00.015-04:00

Climate Change Exhibits and Programs on Environmental Sustainability

Museums used to consider climate change discussions as advocacy – or at least far too close to it for comfort. Today, fewer feel that way and, as climate change discussions, TV programs and debate become ubiquitous, and green building and practices spread so rapidly, much of the public is hungry for green ideas no matter what kind of museum you are.

Each museum has to assess and make choices on interpreting green practices and telling green stories, but the climate change discussion is showing up in many ways all around museums.

If you’re thinking about an exhibit on climate change, check out Mark Walhimer’s blog http://climateexhibit.blogspot.com/, THE resource for exhibits on climate change. This is such a widespread museum theme that Mark was nearly overwhelmed with examples when he asked for recommendations on the Museum Design Group at LinkedIn. This blog entry collects those links exhibits around the world.

But what if you're not scheduled to do a big climate change exhibit? What if you haven't built (or don’t want to build) a state-of-the-art green building with bells and whistles to demonstrate - how do you talk about climate change?

If you’re a science or natural history museum in between climate change exhibits, you can create exhibit labels, branded with a “climate change facts” symbol, to install as a another layer of interpretation throughout current exhibits. Of course, if you’re into podcasts and audio tours, you can do it electronically. Or you can follow Museum of the Earth’s lead and create a Global Change Project Web Portal http://www.museumoftheearth.org/outreach.php?page=overview/globalchange.

If you're an historic site you can compare past sustainable practices - using a clothesline or convenient bushes to dry clothes; dumping wash water on the garden, not down a drain; sharing a bed for winter warmth - with nightcaps of course; a Victory Garden or an earlier kitchen garden with a little compost on the side and a lesson on saving seeds....you get the picture.

If you’re an army museum, you could interpret Army Green – the current science and practice of environmental sustainability in the US Army.

If you’re a general museum you could do an “I Spy” exhibit, or a matching objects exhibit showing energy-efficient collections items with object or images of today’s counterparts.

If you're an art museum you might post a mini exhibit in the entry-way or at the front desk that outlines the proceedings of the Plus/Minus Dilemma (my previous post). You might list your green choices in exhibit design. You might let the public know why you have motion-sensored gallery lights. It all shows that you care about your resources: those that are donated, those you preserve and interpret, and those of the community around you.

And don’t forget to offer the public some reading suggestions. I use some in my Green Museum class in the George Washington University Museums Studies Program:

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, North Point Press, www.fsgbooks.com.

The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists by Michael Brower and Warren Leon at Three Rivers Press, www.randomhouse.com.

And this year I’m adding Paleontological Research Institution’s (Museum of the Earth at Cornell University) Climate Change, Past, Present & Future: A Very Short Guide, by Warren Allmon and his team, www.priweb.org.
Anyone have other reading suggestions?

Don’t be shy about discussing climate change in your museum. We all share the same climate: highlighting our relationship with it is okay to do in public.

Museums in a Climate of Change - Part I

2010-07-01T21:13:00.021-04:00

Weather, Money, Collections and, oh yes, The Plus/Minus Dilemma

If you’re in the museum field, your world is being rocked – probably violently.

If you are responsible for collections stewardship, then you’re following the Plus/Minus Dilemma discussions.

If you are a zoo, garden, aquarium, then you’re examining Climate Change and its affect on your species’ futures.

If you’re a museum, then you are interpreting, or figuring out how or why to interpret, Climate Change for your audience.

If you are an historic site, then you are monitoring the future of Save America’s Treasures.

If you are in the Gulf, then you’re following Deepwater Horizon and are fearful for your budget.

What’s a professional to do when the basic tenets of practice are challenged repeatedly and intensely? We do what the museum field is good at: share what we know so that we can all learn from each other.

A number of talented, dedicated people are working together, nationally and internationally to address these really big problems and they are sharing their discussions with the rest of us. So do yourself, and your museum, a favor and take the time out of your daily museum practice to read from these links. It will inform your practice and remind you that we all can and will tackle these huge challenges – but that no one has to go it alone. The field is behind us all.

There’s so much excellent work going on, though, that smashing it all into one post is a waste. So I’ll post the first set of links here and in the coming days put on the rest in segments.

Let’s start with the Plus/Minus Dilemma:
Many others are going into this, so I shall pass on the information for you to make your own decision, but I clearly vote for more flexible parameters that provide acceptable ranges for types of materials so that we can save energy for the planet. It’s complicated, yes; but certainly more collections appropriate and energy efficient.

Rose Daly, who is doing her own good work on collections their climate management, has provided a recap http://www.iiconservation.org/news/?p=1026 of the most recent meeting on this issue of what to do with the age-old tradition of collections climate parameters widely assumed to be 70˚ Fahrenheit and 50% Relative Humidity plus or minus. The video at http://www.artbabble.org/video/plusminus-dilemma-way-forward-environmental-guidelines.

Her article also has a link to the transcript of the first of the International Institute of Conservators’ Dialogues for a New Century series. The IIC President, Jerry Podany, whom I had the great good pleasure to finally meet at AAM, is a champion’s champion. http://www.iiconservation.org/dialogues/IIC_climate_change_transcript.pdf..

Along with the important T/RH discussions there’s a great discussion of physical climate events affecting heritage resources. You’ve seen the maps of what New York City will look like with sea level rise, well the Noah’s Art Project presentation has images of how European regions’ heritage resources will be affected by humidity, heat and biomass changes.

James Reilly (who was a part of this first IIC discussion) and Richard Kerschner of The Shelburne Museum are on the agenda for Environmental Management: Stewardship and Sustainability at the Folger Library sponsored by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts http://www.ccaha.org/education/program-calendar/2010/07/27/environmental-management-stewardship-and-sustainability in July. I would kill to go but, alas, will be on the road. PLEASE will someone take notes to me – or archive it on video?

In between those two Dialogues, there was a meeting at the MFA Boston (US) on climate control. And here’s a link from Rachel Madan’s newsletter (UK) http://www.greenermuseums.org to the American Institute of Conservators’ blog called Rethinking the Museum Climate with a recap of the Boston meeting called Rethinking the Museum Climate, plus useful links and a topical bibliography: http://blog.conservation-us.org/blogpost.cfm?threadid=2227&catid=175

This is really complex stuff, hence the various links, voices, meetings and recommendations. This is a big chunk of our core work, so there will be a lot of churning. We each must be responsible for keeping informed and contributing whatever we can to help with this incredibly important field-wide discussion.

Please, please, please take the time to pay attention.

Of Paperweights and Other Sustainable Practices

2010-06-27T09:57:00.004-04:00

Picture a 1940’s office: the portable fan in the corner rotates quietly - blowing the fabric bits tied to its wire blade guard, moving the air just enough to create a semblance of cool. On each pass the papers on the desk ruffle a bit but stay put. On occasion a cross breeze comes through room, bumping the door.

What’s going on here? Is it? Are they? No, it can’t be! I can’t remember the last time I saw a doorstop in use, much less a paperweight in action.

I’m rediscovering the humble doorstop and ubiquitous paperweight as critical work tools as I sit in this unimproved 1875 house in the southeastern United States. I’m trying to see how far into the summer I can go without AC yet remain productive. This house has 14’ ceilings, 8’- tall windows, and an Eastern Shore cross-breeze that qualifies as a gale. And it reminds me how, long, long ago, people used paperweights.

It’s easy to see how our work-efficiency focus of the last decades drove us to choose all-on and all-off services for our lights and temperature controls, and how efficiency in the building process drove us to put all services in one conduit, on a single switch, and in all-in-one systems. Of course that is near-term efficiency, not long term. The flipside has the near-term inefficiencies of raising and lowering shades and windows throughout the day, changing to heat-strategic work hours, and acquiring doorstops and many, many paperweights. Often I value that inefficiency for the time it means I can leave my computer chair, for the opportunity to see and hear my neighbors, and for a moment to appreciate the design of this old house.

I don’t always appreciate the inefficiencies, but so what? It is good for the planet, and so far the bonus is that it’s easier than I thought. Ask me again in August.

It made me think of all the cool museum vignette exhibits each of us could do: "Air Conditioning the Old Way" with paperweights, doorstops, ceiling fans, desk fans, transoms, double-hung windows, cross ventilation....you can see how much fun this would be!

I've had one near miss during this experience, though. I lost my mind for about 30 minutes the other day as I looked up antique paperweights online and fantasized in a very ungreen way about collecting them. My true-green kicked in and I went to the drawer and took out the clay rabbit figure I just cannot throw away (for all sorts of reasons). My now-16-year-old son made it about eight years or so ago. It’s a perfect paperweight. Hmm, a tidy desk and a fond memory all rolled up in an energy-efficient paperweight. Life is good.

Come to think of it, he made me a very cool green-and-orange clay dragon that will be perfect for the pile of use-the-other-side scrap paper I keep by the printer and just in front of that tall window.

Guest Blog: Museum Loans and Climate Change by Simon Lambert

2010-06-21T16:56:00.007-04:00

Climate change reduction is top priority for everyone. Many museums worldwide are taking significant steps to reduce waste and utilities use. The museum loans industry is also investigating how it can make a positive contribution. The International Exhibitions Organisation (IEO) is leading discussions on how museums can reduce their carbon footprint by relaxing the acceptable relative humidity and temperature ranges. The International Convention of Exhibition and Fine Art Transporters (ICEFAT) has adopted guidelines to encourage its members to ‘green’ their operations. However, all this comes with its share of contradictions.

While museums aim to lessen their impact on the environment, they also face growing demands to increase their loan activities. Meanwhile, exhibition budgets everywhere are being slashed. The UK Museums Association’s 2009 report on Sustainability and Museums showed the growing interest of the museum sector in the “triple-bottom-line” approach, which considers the social, environmental and economic impacts of decisions and actions. But how do museums balance the environmental impact with the social and economic benefits from lending collections?

Through a close and fruitful collaboration with the National Museum Wales, UK, a new carbon footprinting tool for museum loans was developed in 2009. It allows museums to quantify the impact of their use of wrapping materials, packing cases, transport and couriering and offset this against the number of loans made. The Museum’s Art Department kindly granted full access to its loan documentation, enabling the calculation of its 2006 loans carbon footprint along with several evidence-based recommendations to reduce it.

This pilot project defined a performance indicator for sustainable loans (SLpi), allowing museums to rate the triple-bottom-line alignment of their loan activities themselves. With this indicator, it is possible to determine how well a museum is using its carbon footprint to increase access to its collection through loans. For the time being, the loan carbon footprinting tool focuses on outward loans of single institutions, but it could be used for entire travelling exhibitions (several institutions and venues).

The results of this study and the user-friendly calculation tools will be made available in 2011 but any museums wishing to trial the method should contact the author at simonlambert9@gmail.com.

Simon recently received his MSc Care of Collections from Cardiff University, UK. He also has a BA in art history and Italian literature (Canada) and a Laurea in paintings conservation (Italy). He currently works as a consultant for the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in Rome (ICCROM).

Quadruple Bottom Line: People, Planet, Profit AND Program

2010-05-18T21:52:00.006-04:00

Believe it or not, the world is beginning to get used to a Triple Bottom Line, not just the usual single one of cold hard cash.

The Triple Bottom Line is the 'valuation' of the good an activity does for three important criteria: the people (staff, customers, community, the world). the planet (from the immediate surroundings, to your bio region, to the world), and for profits.

Well now it's time for a Quadruple Bottom Line - add a fourth "P" - Program.

For museums this is critical. We always consider our mission - our program - in decision-making. Well when you're considering a green practice, it matters how green affects, supports, or interferes with programming. So add it to your equation as you try to balance it all.

Here's an example: Someone has suggested that when you replace the roof membrane on your building, that you consider a green roof. After you get through sorting out whether or not your structure is appropriate for a green roof, consider the good it does for each of the four "Ps".

People: With a sturdy fence around it, and the right construction, the green roof can be good for People because it provides a green outdoor space far more pleasant than a classroom, more flexible than an exhibit, and way more relaxing than a picnic table by the loading dock.

Planet: It's good for the Planet insofar as it reduces energy use: by reducing heat-island effects it reduces the cooling needs inside your building and in the area around your building, and it provides more insulation in winter. It also creates a teeny bit of natural habitat, and helps manage stormwater runoff by slowing down the runoff and cleaning it up. If you capture and reuse the runoff you help the Planet even more.

Profit: Up front the green roof may not help profit, but if you have to replace parts of the roof anyway, the first-costs are well under control; and since a green roof by nature protects the membrane from sun degradation, you'll get a longer life out of your entire roof. So by saving energy, reducing water use, making the roof last longer, and timing the build with a necessary renovation, it's sounding like a great investment.

Program: And if you can use this space for educational programs like growing a Victory Garden or teaching about bugs and butterflies; or you can use it for financial sustainability: to compliment your cafe (like the one at the MCA Denver in the photo) or to host fundraising events, or as a setting for yoga for mom's while kids play, you're on the plus side again.

So, when you make that next decision about a green practice or project, consider the whole bottom line, QBL, so your choice makes sense for the whole museum, not just one quarter of it.

The PILOTs are Coming: Use Sustainable Practices to Pay your Payments in Lieu of Taxes

2010-05-06T20:58:00.002-04:00

The PILOTs are coming; the PILOTs are coming – even to little Concord, Massachusetts.

As more financially-stressed municipalities turn to PILOTs – Payments in Lieu of Taxes – and other nonprofit fees to build revenue, wary nonprofits are exploring ways to respond. ‘Right’ or ‘wrong’ is no longer the discussion; mitigation is.

I believe that by using sustainable practices to reduce demands on municipal utilities and services, museums could challenge their costs to the city: measure the reduced demands you make on city services through your green practices, and use that to stave of requests for PILOT fees.

Municipalities including Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indianapolis and even Concord, Massachusetts, are beginning discussions about PILOTs and asking mostly large, but even small nonprofits like Concord’s Emerson House to make payments to the municipality. What’s a museum to do? No, it’s currently against the law to tax a nonprofit, but these requests are in lieu of taxes; they are pressure points, not tax bills.

Now I’m all in favor of responsibility, but I’ve been preaching the green practice is a museum’s responsibility and that green practice reduces museums’ costs to the municipality. I think it’s our responsibility to reduce those costs, but I also think that museums should get credit for those savings in lieu of Payments in Lieu of Taxes!

Since PILOTs are about money, the negotiations between the museum and the city will require quantification: the value of your services, the cost of your demands on the municipality, and fair compensation on both sides of the equation. Measuring the benefits of environmentally-sustainable practice is your ace in the hole:

- how much has waste-reduction reduced your museum’s demand on municipal disposal services?
- how much has water-use reduction and stormwater management reduced water flow from your site?
- how much have energy-saving measures reduced your demand on public utilities?
- how have your museum’s transportation policies and practices reduced demand on transportation infrastructure?

If you’re using this tactic now, or if you do decide to use it, please let me know. I’d love to work with you on this!

A few links for the curious:
Concord and the Ralph Waldo Emerson House
http://www.massnonprofit.org/news.php?artid=1925&catid=13

Boston’s Task Force and plans for
- creating “a consolidation program and payment negotiation system, which will allow the City and its tax-exempt institutions to structure longer term, sustainable partnerships focused on improving services for Boston's residents”;
- clarifying “the costs associated with providing City services to tax-exempt institutions” and - developing “a methodology for valuing community partnerships made by tax-exempt institutions.” http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/PILOT.asp

Overview of Cities asking for PILOTs: Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, British Columbia
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/nonprofit/2009/11/local-tax-exemptions-at-risk-boston-cleveland-pittsburgh-and-british-columbia.html

Hawaii, Kansas, Pennsylvania, etc., etc.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/28charity.html

The Situation in St. Louis.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9F3DB4701FB3A495862576FE000A93D1?OpenDocument

A Blog Post suggesting students might help measure the value for Penn:
http://temple-news.com/2010/03/29/sans-estimates-city-nonprofits-have-no-landing-strip-for-pilot/

Call for Nonprofits Participation in Policy Discussions
http://www.blueavocado.org/content/attack-tax-exemption-killers

The National Council of Nonprofits report “State Budget Crises: Ripping the Safety Net of Nonprofits” http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/sites/default/files/Special-Report-State-Budget-Crises-Ripping-the-Safety-Net-Held-by-Nonprofits.pdf

Green Energy for Hancock Shaker Village

2010-01-29T13:32:00.017-05:00

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?

2010-01-17T12:14:00.007-05:00

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

2010-01-08T14:28:00.007-05:00

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.

NAME's Review of THE GREEN MUSEUM

2009-04-20T10:15:00.004-04:00

I am delighted with a positive review of our book The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Sustainability, especially since the reviewer said the book "...now has a place in our department library alongside The Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines and other documentation we consult regularly. It should be considered core reading for anyone involved in green initiatives."

We hope that others will feel the same!

The review did describe a "few missteps" and these include the absence of a strong and clear call to action, and no notice of the recycled content of the materials to produce the book.

Believe me, we jumped up and down with the publisher about that one and here's what happened: When we first requested recycled materials the publisher's staff said it was not something they could do at the moment. Six months later, on their own, when it was time to print, their research had uncovered new options and low and behold The Green Museum was AltaMira's SECOND book published with recycled materials. Though the information didn't make it into type-set, the website reads: The Green Museum is printed with soy-based ink on recycled stock. We're delighted that our work triggered this change and look forward to it spreading throughout the publisher's list and increasing the level of sustainability in each book!

As for too little call for action, check out the end of the book. In self-defense, the text was completed 18 months ago and the field wasn't sure it was ready for the book, let alone shouting a call to action, but there is a call to action, and one we continue to promote. Since green has accelerated faster than the print publishing industry can print, anything about green looks old....glad that soon the book will be available on Kindle and Sony! Elizabeth and I have an article in the works for Museum that will take a 100-year viewpoint...now that's acceleration.

Go green, and prosper.

Recession's Possible Effect on Museum Attendance

2009-03-11T19:44:00.004-04:00

This just in - March 10th in Shaila Dawan's NYT article "A Casualty of Recession": "Holly Moreno, 30, a part-time Web site manager in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett, Tex., whose husband is a business analyst, said she had been taking their 2-year-old son to indoor playgrounds at the mall and free story-times at the library instead of paying to get into the children’s museum, their favorite wintertime haunt." http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/us/10reset.html?th&emc=th

This is the time to promote museum membership as low-cost,unlimited access: a recession-minded, cost-effective for everyone positive leisure-time activities. Right now museums should see memberships grow the way we can expect to see YMCA/YWCA memberships grwo.

Your museum or site is a safe and smart place to play with the kids, a safe and smart place to walk safely, and a safe and smart place to walk your dog safely (think Trustees of Reservations' Green Dog plan). Encourage folks to think creatively:

"Meet your friends for a picnic"
"Have coffee with The Masters every Saturday morning",
or "Remember when you could spend all day wandering?"

Think about it, a solid percentage ofyour members are movitated by commitment to our institution, the rest by the return on their membeship cost. I've never been a fan of membership, but I can see how in this economy membership is a way to encourage increased visitation as users chase more bang for the buck. It's our opportunity to turn the economic transaction into a long-term friendship; but you can't do that if they're going to the library or mall instead.

Museums should be a balm to recession-weary citizens. If you're looking for a way to build public currency right now, this is it.

Watch the UK's Creative Spaces

2009-03-01T18:15:00.005-05:00

Keep an eye on Creative Spaces, the National Museums Online Learning Project. By connecting the collections of nine National Museums, the site offers users a chance to learn from all the collections.

I particularly like the notebook feature. If you were Darwin, you'd be creating a field notebook and collecting specimens. Here, you can do it, and save it, online. That's terrific public engagement.

The site launched just last week - with much pomp and circumstance. Looks worth it! Try it - http://nhm.nmolp.org/creativespaces

~ SB

Colbert, Humor, and American Museums

2009-02-28T18:19:00.003-05:00

Last winter there was a large-format digital print hanging temporarily at the National Portrait Gallery. Yes, the one on the way to the second-floor bathrooms. Yes, Stephen Colbert’s portrait.

Originally the Gallery had planned to keep it on view for six weeks. It garnered so much public attention that the Gallery extended its stay four more weeks until ~ April Fool’s Day.

There were lines down the hall on Saturdays. Strangers took pictures for each other as they posed with the portrait. Teenagers and young men -- not the Gallery’s usual demographic -- came in droves. Compared to the same months last year, attendance jumped 20% in January with only two weeks of Colbert exposure. It jumped 33% in February, and then 57% in March as the public got in its last month of portrait-viewing.

The run was good for Colbert; it could be great for museums.

Museums and their staff value humor much more than the stereotype implies or our performance illustrates. Clearly the public values any humor we museum-folk might dare to share. Still, some museum-types (people and institutions) are uncomfortable with what might be considered a media ‘stunt’ to attract attention. They worry that it might lead to dilution: of mission, message, importance, quality…all very valuable associations for museums.

The Colbert Episode shows that humor (and the media) can lead to discussions, engagement, excitement, new opportunities…all very valuable associations for museums.

The Gallery’s foray into public humor, and so into public discourse, was a masterful example of sharp minds at work: that of Colbert, his staff and the Gallery staff.

And it’s a sorely-needed example of public playfulness in a museum. May we see more of it and may the public help museums practice it and relish it.

~ SB