Going Green with Example

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If my advice is good for my clients, then it should be good for my business practices as well, so, in-keeping with the mantra I provide for my clients, I am updating this blog with a highlight-review of the green work I've done (since 2007), doing now (this year), and going to do (in 2015).

This is an accountability list. It keeps me honest about, and focused on, the degree to which I practice what I preach. It also keeps me stretching to improve my practice every year. Writing it out is a valuable practice for noticing what I've done and what I haven't, then organizing the work left to be done into a path forward. I can't yet do it all, so I must be intentional about what I can do. The bonus is that every year it gets easier to do harder work.

Here is some of the green work I've done since 2007:

• Co-wrote three articles for Museum, with Elizabeth Wylie
• Co-wrote two editions of The Green Museum, a Primer on Environmental Practice, with Elizabeth Wylie
• Prepared interpretive materials for a green building tour of the new Peoria Riverfront Museum
• Began working with the Detroit Zoological Society advising them on their journey of environmental sustainability across the zoo.
• Prepared a successful application to the NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage grant program for Dumbarton House, DC.
• Celebrated the publishing of The Green Nonprofit: The First 52 Weeks of Your Green Journey  (coupon code TheGreenNonprofit154 for publisher's 10% discount)
• Co-chaired AAM's PIC Green, the professional network on environmental sustainability
• Co-chaired the Summit on Sustainable Standards in Museums at the 2013 AAM Conference
• Began annual purchase of carbon offsets for client travel

Here are examples of green practice from this year

Anteater; my favorite
Detroit Zoological Society photo

• My client, the Detroit Zoological Society, won an Award of Merit at the AZA spring conference - the only green award given out this year
• Participated in NEH Sustaining Cultural Heritage program planning projects at Dumbarton House and the Minnesota Historical Society
• Began developing a sustainability tour for a site owned by the Minnesota Historical Society
• Facilitated the writing and publishing of the White Paper on the 2013 Summit on Sustainability Standards in Museums:  Museums, Environmental Sustainability, and Our Future 
• Launched the Mend The Marble Family Activity Deck on Kickstarter but had to cancel
• Took on five subcontractors so I can expand my green work; they all work from home
• Switched to wind-derived power for utilities
• Took charge of my personal finances and divested myself of fossil fuel stocks
• Purchased a Massachusetts-made and sustainably-sourced stand-up desk through Kickstarter

Here are my priorities and celebrations of green practice for 2015

• Create a consortium of museums recycling nitrile gloves
• Become a knowledgeable resource in museums' change to zero waste
• Continue my work on understanding the value of sustainability standards for US museums
• Celebrate the publishing of Environmental Sustainability at Historic Sites and History Museums
• Re-launch the Mend the Marble Family Activity Deck on Kickstarter
• Heat my home and office primarily with wood, already downed on my property, using a second-hand wood-burning stove installed by a local contractor

No one goes all-green, and no one goes green all at once, but it is critical to start wherever you can, and then to keep improving your green practices as you go. It's just as important to let go of the guilt for what you do not do; it only gets in the way.

Go green and prosper!