Museums & UN Sustainable Development Goals: II #MuseumsforParis and We Are Still In, #17 a partnership for the UNSDGs

(C) Sarah Sutton 2017

On Earth Day, April 22nd, the World Wildlife Fund and its many partners making up We Are Still In will announce a new sector of contributing non-state actors in support of the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: Cultural Institutions.

Last June, on the day President Trump announced the planned withdrawal of the United States from that critical agreement, I created #MuseumsforParis to align the individual efforts of museums, zoos, aquariums, gardens, and historic sites in support of public education and engagement around sustainability and climate change action, and to promote and expand operational efforts to reduce negative impacts and even become climate positive.

Recognizing that added value and power would come through its collective abilities and performance in partnership with other sectors, I looked for a way to leverage our field's public engagement impacts and our operational commitments for the good of the planet and all its living beings. We Are Still In is that opportunity.

Early signatories in the Cultural Institution sector include open air history museums, children's museums, science centers, aquariums, and gardens. They agree that regardless of political alignment or federal government practice, as part of this sector they have a responsibility to their mission and communities to contribute to the upholding of the US agreement.

In the coming months each will learn how to name a set of institutional goals and approaches to supporting that work.

• This may be energy use reduction in operations and transportation to cut Greenhouse Gas contributions. 
• It may be participating in a community risk assessment to understand and manage climate vulnerabilities in partnership with residents, emergency planners, and government. 
• Or they may wish to learn how to shift to socially-responsible investing in the next few years. 

Every institution and every commitment is welcome and so very important to creating the change needed for a healthy planet and healthy communities.

In the next three months Sustainable Museums will provide a series of webinars introducing new and potential signatories to this work, and helping them develop the goals and pathways needed to move forward. I hope you will join us in this work and encourage your peers to do so as well.

It's your mission; what will you do with it?

You can reach me at sarah@sustainablemuseums.net and 978-505-4515 to discuss this further. All questions welcome.You can sign up now via the www.wearestillin.org website.

I look forward to meeting you there.

#MuseumsforParis

This traffic safety poster sends an important
message that applies to museums and
their communities, humans and the globe

Would your institution sign onto the Paris Agreement?Are you in? Do you want to help your city or state contribute to meeting the United States carbon reduction goals?

These institutions (updated 6/26/2018) support the Paris Agreement Goals and have signed on to #WeAreStillIn - and you?

1. California Academy of Sciences
2. The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden
3. Monterey Bay Aquarium
4. Michigan Science Center
5. The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
6. The Brick Store Museum
7. The Abbe Museum
8. Science Museum of Minnesota
9. Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center
10. Strawbery Banke Museum
11. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
12. Madison Children's Museum
13. South Street Seaport Museum
14. American Swedish Institute
15. The Climate Museum
16. The Field Museum 
17. New England Aquarium

If the answer is yes, then please share your commitment by using the hashtag #museumsforparis when you make your announcement and share ideas.

SPECIAL NOTE: Climate Interactive, a DC nonprofit, is collecting our listings to add to its US Map of supporters. So use #MuseumsforParis to let me, @greenmuseum, and @bethsawin, know you are showing your climate moxie.

Then, let your city know, and track your contribution.  Last but not least, let We Are Still In know that you are committed: sign on as an educational institution. They adopted the Cultural Institutions sector, so we know we are making the right impression.

Museums & Portfolio Manager- Please Sign On

"The most successful voluntary energy efficiency movement in history..."

It's so easy and so helpful - to you, the field, the planet.  

In the EPA's online tool/database, you can record your energy and water (and waste) monthly, meter-by-meter. The idea is that if you track it - as in you enter it, compare it to other months and over time, and keep checking it, you will see what your energy use looks like.

Help Yourself: Seeing it on a dashboard gives you clues to reducing it - which means saving by identifying potential anomalies (leaks, meter defects, and equipment running too much), and identifying areas of just plain too much use.

Help the field: By supporting the development of an Energy Star category which makes it easier to satisfy USGBC's LEED standards and local code compliance. We have 100 museums signed up but need more to create benchmarks for each region.

Help the planet: Tracking your carbon reduction over time, and any increasing percentages of clean renewable energy use, documents your support of your city's contribution to the Paris Climate Agreement goals of carbon reduction.

The US goal is reductions by 26% to 28% from the 2005 baseline. What's the baseline you can establish and improve upon?

Questions, or need help? Call me, please. I'm thrilled to help. 978-505-4515

NOTE - Both EnergyStar and Portfolio Manager are Registered Trademarks of somebody, likely EPA.

Museums, Zoos, Sites: Join Your City in Signing the Paris Agreement

 The New York Times is reporting on mayors, governors, universities, and businesses bidding to be allowed to sign the Paris Agreement. Let's add museums, zoos, gardens, historic sites, and aquariums to the list.

Please contact your mayor and governor to let them know two things:

1) How you are contributing to the goals of the Paris Agreement

• Have you reduced energy consumption to run your museum through efficiencies and more thoughtful processes? 
• Do you generate clean renewable energy?
• Have you made your building more efficient, or have you downsized your space?
• Do you use less fuel to move employees or collections?
• Have you reduced material consumption and waste production?

2) How you can help them engage the community in making change happen

• Are you a forum for sharing information and facilitating discussions on how to contribute to reaching the Climate Goals?
• Do you raise awareness on environmental impacts while providing actionable ideas for personal or collective participation in change? 
• Do you work with peers or other organizations to improve green infrastructure and educate the public on the benefits?
• Do you publish your practice to encourage other accountable organizations to do the same?

There are many more examples, but this is a good start.

I understand that you may not have realized that you are contributing, or that you may feel it is too small to count. You ARE contributing if you're reducing your carbon footprint, increasing open space, keeping water clean and the ocean healthier, and helping others to do the same.

And ALL the change matters because it leads others to change, too.

Thank you.

Response to @RealDonaldTrump on Paris Climate Agreement

Artwork created previously by my talented sister Margaret Sutton Dimon, and chosen for this dark occasion.

President Trump's planned withdrawal from the Paris Agreement (and "negotiate for a better deal") was prefaced by references to the stock market, jobs, and development, peace and fairness, and concerns about terror. Ironic. Myopic.

He says it is his "...solemn duty to protect the United States and its citizens" - good luck with that and climate change.

The time for "America first" passed long ago. Let's have no nations first, but our planet first so all people thrive. 

Why not announce actions with words that hold us accountable, and lead others to change as well?

Ransom Note for a Future: XIX

Ransom note made on image of super piece by Bill McKibben in 2/2017 WIRED with image by David Bonazzi