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!

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.

 

 

Sustainability Survey for Museums - completed

The American Alliance of Museums' Professional Network on Environmental Sustainability has just closed its survey on sustainability in museums. 

We'll be posting results eventually on the PIC Green Facebook Page after we share the information at the upcoming Summit on Sustainability in Museums at the AAM conference in Baltimore May 21st. 

In the meantime two more participants have won free copies of The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice:

• Ignacio Guzman, Jr., Director of Facilities at the National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago
• Carol Majahad, Executive Director at the North Andover Historical Society, Massachusetts

Thank you all for participating.  Please follow PIC Green on Facebook and we'll keep you going green!
 

Sustainability In Museums - A Survey

If you didn't have a chance to participate in the green museums survey late last year, here is your chance. 

The American Alliance of Museum's Professional Network on Environmental Sustainability - PIC Green - is interested in understanding if  - or which - green building and practice and product standards work best for the field. And we're interested in learning if we need to tweak those or adopt some of our own, or "none of the above".

To create a foundation for this discussion we greatly need your input.  The survey here is for any US-based museum (we'll go global next time) - any museum. You don't even have to be doing anything green. We want your comments on what you've done or not done, and why. 

So please, take 8 minutes to fill out this survey. Two randomly-selected  surveys will receive a gift copy of The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice. [Three have received theirs from the first run of the survey].

Your comments now will help shape the future of environmental sustainable practices for the field. 

Thank you so much for participating.

By the way - congratulations to book winners from Round I:

• Melissa Hermes, Education Coordinator at Otter Tail County Historical Museum in Minnesota
• John Farr at Grand Encampment Museum in Wyoming
• and Allison Titman, Assistant Director and Curator at Hammond-Harwood House in Maryland.

Preparing for the Summit on Sustainability Standards and Museums

This May, at the American Alliance of Museum's annual conference in Baltimore, the Professional Network on Environmental Sustainability - PIC Green - will host a summit on the topic of sustainability standards for museums. We're interested in understanding if  - or which - green building and practice and product standards work best for the field. And we're interested in learning if we need to tweak those or adopt some of our own, or "none of the above".

To create a foundation for this discussion we greatly need your input.  The survey here is for any US-based museum (we'll go global next time) - any museum. You don't even have to be doing anything green. We want your comments on what you've done or not done, and why. 

So please, take 8 minutes between now and November 30th to fill out this survey. Five randomly-selected  surveys will receive a gift copy of The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice. If you already have one, then please share it with a colleague who does not.

Your comments now will help shape the future of environmental sustainable practices for the field. 

Thank you so much for participating.

Here's that link again: www.sustainablemuseum.com