Blogs

February 17, 2026 Highlights from COP30 – Culture Check-in We are off to another busy year and continue to look back on global climate conversations. We recognize that the news moves at full speed, given the many local and global changes taking place. In the frenzy, you may have missed happenings at COP30, which took place November 10 to 21, 2025, in Belém, Brazil. In recent years, many have written off the COP (Conference of the Parties), since it has been inundated with fossil fuel lobbyists and inaction from world leadership. However, culture has demanded a seat at the table and is starting to be heard. We’ll share some big wins and some disappointments ...

December 22, 2025 Sustainability News in Heritage Conservation & Committee Updates We don’t know about you, but 2025 has gone by SUPER fast for us here on the AIC Sustainability Committee! As the year draws to a close, we look back on some of the great work being done across the globe. It has been inspiring to see challenges turned into opportunities as relationships build across disciplines, geographies, and perspectives. Highlights: In April, The International Museum Conference on Climate Change took place in Vienna, Austria. The meeting, organized single handedly by Dr. Pascal Querner, an independent entomologist, brought together ...

Hi there! As we continue to explore different avenues to expand environmental sustainability in museums, we must consider how exhibit design and construction fits in. Choosing a “greener” approach to exhibit design and construction not only reduces the environmental footprint of heritage institutions but can also promote local and circular economies and other wider sustainability goals. Planning plays the largest role in “green” exhibit design. The overall reduction of waste by decreasing new materials purchased, is the best way to limit the footprint of exhibit manufacturing. This includes recognizing the display needs of objects instead of ...

In just over a week, several California cities have received over half their average annual rainfall causing widespread flooding. These cities include Oakland, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco among others. However, this large amount of precipitation does not alleviate the state's historic drought. In fact, droughts exacerbate flooding, by reducing the ground's ability to absorb the barrage of water. The flooding has caused death, loss of property, and damage to the state's infrastructure, disrupting lives with a yet-unknown cost of recovery. Strong storms and unusually early tornadoes swept through swathes of Alabama and Georgia, also causing loss of lives ...

If you still haven't finished your holiday shopping, the Sustainability Committee is here to help with a series of economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable gifting ideas! Give your family and friends experiences rather than stuff! A class, a massage, a meal at a nice restaurant, a new exercise activity, or tickets to a concert, play, or comedy show are gifts with a low carbon footprint that boosts the local economy. There are lots of musicians and comics on tour again after time off during the pandemic and they could use your ticket sales! Think about supporting a woman- and/or Black-owned business in your community that offers classes ...

The Sustainability Committee would like to echo the sentiments of the Equity and Inclusion Committee concerning our colleagues at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of Washington Libraries, and others who are taking action as part of their unionization and negotiations. We applaud their brave collective action for positive change. Economic and social sustainability are just as important to a truly sustainable future as the more often highlighted environmental sustainability: The importance of economic sustainability is clear in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 1 "No Poverty", Goal 5 "Gender Equality", Goal 8 "Decent Work ...

The Sustainability Committee stands in staunch opposition to the United States Supreme Court's decision to strip the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its power to regulate air pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal and other fossil fuel burning power plants. The EPA must be allowed to do exactly as its name suggests: protect our environment. Without regulations on power plants, "it becomes mathematically impossible for the US to meet its climate goals" which are aimed at avoiding the most devastating effects of climate change. A s outlined in the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment ...

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a federal protection for the right to have an abortion. In light of this devastating decision, the AIC Sustainability Committee wishes to issue a statement in support of gender equality and safe, legal abortion access for all who seek it. The UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals outline many forms of sustainability including social and financial, as well as environmental. Goal 5: 'GENDER EQUALITY', and more specifically target 5.6 states, "Ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International ...

Read the latest Sustainability Now Newsletter below: By Amy Crist , for the Sustainability Committee You’ve probably seen carbon neutrality claims on everything from clothes to food to vehicles. My running shoes are “carbon neutral.” The cow milk I buy is going “carbon positive.” Even BP will be “net zero by 2050 or sooner.” Yep, the petroleum giant, whose product—petroleum—necessarily, by the simple fact of combustion , produces carbon dioxide, will be net zero. How could producing and consuming stuff, including hydrocarbon fuels , be neutral, or even beneficial for the environment? When you check out the websites ...

As the Sustainability Committee drafts this dispatch, the UK has recorded its highest ever temperature of 40.2 C (104.4 F) recorded in multiple locations throughout the country. Exacerbating the oppressive heat in the UK and across Europe, widespread fires have broken out, affecting both wild and residential areas. Workers were encouraged to stay home and train and tube service were canceled in many areas. At least 1000 people have died. Earlier this month, Tunis recorded a temperature of 48 C, breaking a 40 year record and causing serious damage to the country's grain crops. In China, roads buckled, tar melted, and tile popped off roofs. Extreme heat waves have ...