Article Review: Sustainability in Conservation Practice

in the Journal of the Institute of Conservation   

by Megan de Silva and Jane Henderson

For those of you in conservation practice, undoubtedly you’ve seen this valuable article in The Journal of the Institute of Conservation; for the rest of us, the authors Megan de Silva and Jane Henderson, both in the Conservation Section of the Department of Archaeology and Conservation at Cardiff University in the UK, have prepared a valuable review of recommended sustainability practices active in the UK, recommendations specifically in the conservation sphere, and an example of benchmarking practices to encourage adoption of sustainability practices.

The first third of the article provides a valuable overview of sustainability work to date in the UK - one that will encourage US museums to get a hustle on; the balance of the article includes practical ideas for getting that hustle on.

The eight tables illustrating benchmark levels are excellent resources.

Revisit - The PILOTs are Coming!

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.

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.

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: