Draft Characteristics of Excellence for Environmental Sustainability in US Museums

For over a year now, PIC Green (our facebook page), has been gathering comments on how the field should proceed on incorporate performance related to environmental sustainability into its professional expectations. PIC Green (AAM website page) is the professional network, formerly Professional Interest Committee, on environmental sustainability for the American Alliance of Museums.

Last year we hosted the Tides of March online discussions about how to move ahead (note - this link has even more links to other professional association with developed standards). As a result of those talks, and the three years' previous Green Summits at the AAM conferences, we drafted a set of Characteristics of Excellence.

While AAM is reviewing its overall process for establishing characteristics and standards of excellence, and we wait to hear about IMLS support for that effort, PIC Green continues to move its project forward. This year at the AAM conference we held a flash session to discuss the draft and made some valuable changes.

We would appreciate your comments on what we have developed so far:

The museum states its role in stewardship of the environment, demonstrates how its choices align with that role, and actively addresses related environmental concerns within the community.

The museum measures and makes public its environmental impacts; sets goals for continuous improvement; and evaluates progress and effectiveness.

The museum demonstrates leadership by exceeding environmental codes, regulations, and professional standards as appropriate, e.g. higher efficiency, or more effective practices. 

The museum has reviewed its investments and set a time frame investing in a socially responsible portfolio.

The museum has a plan and time frame for becoming climate neutral, then climate positive.

The museum identifies risks resulting from climate change, and takes steps to anticipate and mitigate risks and damage for itself and, in collaboration, on behalf of the community.

Tides of March: Consensus Webinars on Environmental Sustainability in Museums

The Wild Center. Photo by Barrier Free Travel

All around, and sometimes within, the museum field there are thinkers, worriers, and the hopeful who create tools and expectations to strengthen the pursuit of environmentally-sustainable action and thinking.

But it appears there is no field-wide opinion on how to extend and expand this work that is so critical to our missions and to our planet.

The first Tides of March discussion took place yesterday. Four directors stepped up to share their experiences and thoughts on best practices and standards, and how good green work might affect the field.

Ron Kagan of the Detroit Zoological Society, Julie K. Stein of the Burke Museum, Bill Eiland of the Georgia Museum of Art, and Nina Zannieri of the Paul Revere Memorial Association have led the way in encouraging organized, deliberate discussion with national leadership decisions to move this discussion off its current mark of "interesting, but not vital."

What do you think? What do you hope?  What change do you want to see?

Please join us for the next two conversations, online or by phone using the AAM WebEx access:

March 8, 2016, 3 pm EST with association leaders:

·  Bob Beatty and Cherie Cook, American Association for State and Local History

·  Sarah Beck, American Public Garden Association

·  Tim Carter, Second Nature

·  Shelly Grow, Association of Zoos and Aquariums

·  Tim McNeil, California Association of Museums

·  Dan Yaeger, New England Museum Association

March 24th, 2016, 3 pm EST with observers of the field

·  James Elder, Campaign for Environmental Literacy

·  John Fraser, New Knowledge

·  Greg Johnson, Perkins+Will

·  Susie Wilkening, Reach Advisors

·  Douglas Worts, World Views Consulting

You can find us here:  Tides of March: Consensus Webinars on Environmental Sustainability

PIC Green's AAM Summit on Environmental Sustainability Standards for Museums

If you're attending the American Alliance of Museums' annual conference in Baltimore next week, following it on Twitter (#AAM2013) or buying CDs of sessions afterwards, I hope you'll follow the developments of PIC Green's Summit on Sustainability Standards for Museums. We hope it leads to focused work in the museum field to share best practices in environmental sustainability.  Your participation is critical!

 

The goal of the meeting is to assess the field’s experience with, response to, and appetite for environmental sustainability metrics.   The day’s three sessions begin with a panel to briefly introduce the standards programs (LEED, SITES, Energy Star, Green Globes, Living Buildings and exhibitSEED) and to discuss museums' needs and expectations for standards. This will be followed by a session for museum professionals' presentations on their experiences in using sustainability metrics in their work, and a final moderated discussion to draw conclusions and plan next steps for our work as a field. 

 

Part I: Where/What We Are        8:45 – 10:00 AM   Convention Center 338

Coordinator: Sarah S. Brophy, bMuse sarah@bmuse.net

We will review current use of common U.S. sustainability metrics, most notably LEED, GBI Sustainable Sites, International Living Future Institute, exhibit SEED and the EPA's Energy Star programs.  The panel of invited representatives will interact with the audience in a council presentation/discussion approach.

Presenters:  Andrea Schnitzer, EPA; Kari Jensen, ExhibitSEED and OMSI; Erin Shaffer, Green Sites Building Initiative; Lorraine Doo of Doo Consulting, International Living Future Institute; Holly Shimizu, SITES and US Botanic Garden; and Todd Garing of Mueller Associates representing USGBC

 

Part 2: What We've Been Doing  10:15 – 11:30 AM        Convention Center 338

Coordinator: Roger Chang, Westlake, Reed, Leskosky

Representatives from art, history and natural history museums and an historic property will present their experiences with LEED, Energy Star and other metric programs, including their view of pros and cons with the benefit of hindsight.

Presenters: Susan Glassman, Wagner Free Institute; Sarah George, Utah Natural History Museum, Shengyin Xu, Minnesota Historical Society; Barbara Campagna, Haas-Lilienthal  House; Jocelyn Groom, Cooper-Hewitt; and Jessica Rinnaman, Balboa Park Cultural Partnership

 

Part 3: Deciding Where We Want to Go  1:45 – 3PM  Convention Center 339

Coordinator: Shengyin Xu Minnesota Historical Society

Laura Roberts of The Museum Group will moderate a discussion session reviewing the day's discoveries, comments on opportunities and limitations of the current systems, hopes for sustainability in the future of museums, and thoughts on next-steps to advance the field.

 

PIC Green and AAM will be publishing a white paper this fall based on these proceedings. We hope your voices are included.

 

See you at the conference - in person or virtually!  Follow developments at #AAM2013 and @PICGreen and @greenmuseum.

 

 

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.