Environmental Communication: Blogpost on Biodiversity from Phipps

Phipps' Edible Garden

The work at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh leads the field in so many ways:
- green buildings from smart to Living Building
- sustainable site management in the SITES program
- teaching about healthy food and healthy eating habits, and modeling them
- and environmental communication

The recent blog post on Love, Not Loss: A New Way to Talk About Biodiversity is a must-read and a great example of how we who interpret nature and climate science, and the human connection to our world, must learn to reframe the discussion.  The post describes a campaign by the Commission on Education and Communication at the International Union for Conservation of Nature to change the way we communicate about biodiversity so that we can improve our effectiveness and supporting biodiversity. The way environmental activists and educators have talked about making change doesn't seem to have been as effective as we'd all hoped...time for a new approach to create real change. 

Here's an excerpt from the post:
The three core aspects of this campaign are 1.) localizing its focus to regional species, 2.) humanizing the message and 3.) talking about the people behind conservation successes. The goal is to combine this positive messaging with a call to action. These two things together are what the IUCN are hoping will create a real shift in conservation attitudes and actions. As an educator, this approach resonates because of the pervasiveness of negative messaging in environmental education for children. Sometimes doom and gloom are the main motivators of a program, which can scare and guilt children; students who are given negative messaging retain less information and are less likely to make an attitude change than when given a positive environmental message (Source).  Another danger is that a focus on loss and extinction can often lead to apathy and inaction (Source). We should be inspiring our students towards opportunity instead of scaring them away from consequences. It is entirely possible to engage our students and inspire action, not fear.

Combining messaging with a call to action, changing from doom to hope with a plan - now that's what we museums, zoos, gardens, aquariums and historic sites can do in a way few other places can.  Think about it, then practice it.

Greening STEM - Taking Technology Outdoors

Taking Technology Outdoors is a big part of National Environmental Education Week [April 14 - 23 alongside Earth Day] and they're singing my song: Citizen Sustainability!  - well almost.

Take a look at this list of kid-oriented outdoor tech tools. They are exciting apps for involving students in recording environmental data - bird migration, the presence of wildlife, and the amount of trash in nearby rivers or along the ocean. This sort of citizen science is an important awareness tool and research support tool.

I hope next year they're working toward Citizen Sustainability - where apps encourage kids [and their friends, teachers and families] to change personal behaviors and to share those changes with others. When people see the change it's a lot easier to be the change. This work is starting at the college and city level with Joulebug.


Volunteering for Pickering Creek and Blackwater
National Wildlife Refuge with funding from Toyota
for native grass materials.

And how about beyond apps? EPA has funded two cool-looking Environmental Education in Action projects. Never underestimate the power of inspiring your visitors to get outdoors and get dirty. It feeds the soul - yours and your visitors'. 

Museums can help this work leap forward -- what difference is your museum making?

The Apps are Coming!

Elizabeth Merritt at the Center for the Future of Museums just sent me this  link to a great article on an app that might help offices become greener.

It sounds a lot like the Citizen Sustainability post I put up last May about using apps to engage individuals in measuring their sustainability improvements in an engaging, sometimes gaming way, while piling up data on gains for the environment.

The article in Good addresses offices, mainly, but the JouleBug video  (the developer)  shows how ordinary people can use it in all sorts of situations. Hypothetically I already have 5 points for the reusable coffee mug, 28 points for my reusable water bottle, and points for walking, sharing items and lurking about the Goodwill store; or I would if I had an iPhone. 

Don't you think we should do this sort of thing in museums?  And especially do this sort of thing in our communities for our communities?

Come on - as soon as they make it for Androids I challenge you all to play with me.  And once we really understand how it works, let's band together to create this type of app-supported environment to mobilize our museums' staff, volunteer and visitor forces for the greater good.

Citizen Sustainability: Using Social Media to Encourage Visitor Feedback on Sustainability Practices Learned Through Museums

My best source sent me this Mashable INFOGRAPHIC by RecycleBank on "What if Environmentalism were as big as Social Media?" It caught my eye because it has the germ of an idea I've been working on - and struggling with.  I am trying to launch a program, an action, a revolution: Citizen Sustainability. 

But let's look at the INFOGRAPHIC first - The title uses a Facebook iconic design with "Share Responsibility for the Planet", then a tag line of "Create a Network Effect on the Planet with small changes to your everyday behavior."

Network Effect.

The graphics say, for example, that "if every Twitter user shut down his or her computer for an hour, it would be like taking 9,1278 cars off the road for a year." There are more associations with YouTube, Facebook, etc. The piece calls for social media users to use their power in numbers to make small changes that the climate will feel in total.

Hmmm...more here of the germ I am trying to nurture -- with a cue from Citizen Science, I am going to get museums to create and measure their Sustainability Effects by fostering Citizen Sustainability.

Citizen Science and Citizen Sustainability take a Network Effect on the planet to the next level:

• Citizen Science aggregates the data to use for real discovery and for changes in practice
• Citizen Sustainability would aggregate the data, sharing it in real-time to broaden and deepen participation, and so museums can demonstrate their relevance and their positive impacts on their communities.

The American Association of Museums estimates 850 million people visit a museum in the United States each year. Just think what a Sustainability Effect museums could have if each visitor encountered a sustainability message and took it home with them:

• These solar panels help us generate enough energy to run the Planetarium for 45 days of the year
• We use air dryers to save trees and reduce landfill waste
• The mosaic in the entry hall was created by a local artist using glass and ceramics from landfills
• Filling your own water bottle from our new filling fountains reduces petroleum use for 600,000 plastic bottles every year
• Please help us reduce greenhouse gases and save energy and money: turn off the lights when you leave

And what if each visitor told the museum they filled a water bottle, they turned off the lights at home when they left the room and cut their energy use by 10,000 kWh in a year, or they kept 350 pounds of waste out of the landfill by composting and reusing materials? It would make a difference to the planet. And a museum could measure that.

What makes me think visitors would do this? 1) The public is fascinated with social media and other electronic means of collecting, accessing and sharing information, 2) Citizen engagement in science – data collection on plant and animal species in particular – is a successful format for harnessing the volunteer efforts of a nearly unlimited resource to support scientific work and shows signs of adaptability to this project, and 3) Many people would love to see their work associated with the work of museums.

This is an opportunity waiting to happen. Are museums going to go for it? Or miss their chance?

That INFOGRAPHIC ends with "What relationship do you see between social media and helping the planet? What can you do to make an impact? Let us know in the comments." 

This post is my comment on what the relationship could be.

And what can I do to make an impact? I can figure out how to make this Citizen Sustainability a reality. All I need is a social media partner, or two, and a team of museums to design and test this with me...write me: sarah@bmuse.net