Sustainability Forum

Dear Suzanne, 

Thank you for your question. We appreciate you coming to the Sustainability Forum. You have come to the right place. 

In recent years, the AIC Sustainability Committee has focused much of its energy on generating content in a variety of forms on energy reduction practices that are safe for the preservation of cultural heritage. 

Museums are among the highest carbon emitters in cities, sometimes even more than hospitals!  Nightly/weekend shutdowns are one such practice that can be used to lower energy usage and costs while allowing for environments that preserve art and heritage. This is not a new concept. Many institutions around the world have been using this strategy to lower their energy consumption. There have been studies showing how safe and effective shutdowns can be and many institutions around the world use this strategy or a similar one to lower their energy consumption. As was the case with this institution, sustainable actions can also provide the added benefit of dramatic cost reductions to institutions with tight budgets. And much work has been done on the efficacy and safety of these practices.  Of course, every building is unique, so the effectiveness of shutdowns depends on the building itself, and the nature of the collections it holds. We cannot speak to this institution in particular, though we do applaud them for taking a stand in the name of sustainability!

We point you to the following resources:

• Our Committee's webinar series "Conversations with Change Makers - Strategies for Reducing the Energy Consumption of Buildings". In this webinars series, we speak with conservators and allied professionals who are implementing changes to reduce the energy consumption of their buildings while maintaining an environment safe for their cultural heritage.

• Episode 1: Conversation with Nancie Ravenel (Shelburne Museum) and Patty Silence (Colonial Williamsburg) and the full transcript for episode 1

• Episode 2: Conversation with Rob Pearce (Amgueddfa Cymru/Museum Wales) and the full transcript for episode 2 

• Episode 3: Conversation with Karen Zukor (Zukor Art Conservation) and full transcript for episode 3 

• Episode 4: Conversation with Sarah Lewery (Churchill Archives, UK), Elie Hughes (Ely Museum, UK), and Deborah Walton (University of Cambridge Museums, UK) and the full transcript for episode 4

• Episode 5: Conversation with Chris Dunbrack (The MET Cloisters) and Bethann Heinbaugh and Brock Manville (The National Gallery of Art) and the full transcript for the episode 5

• Episode 6: Conversation with Michael Cataldi (Paradise Framing), Mike Dunphy (Small Corp), and Laura Gaylord Resch (Cleveland Museum of Art) 

• Episode 7: Conversation with Jae Gutierrez, Executive Director of the Image Permanence Institute

• International Climate Control Conference organized by Ki Culture fully available on YouTube Day 1 and Day 2

• The Sustainability Committee's Green Tea podcast addresses this topic in our episode with Caitlin Southwick of Ki Culture. This episode addresses a Ki Culture program any institution can join to carefully tailor a more sustainable HVAC approach to their collection. 

• The Sustainability Committee's Ask an Expert: Kelly Krish. Kelly has worked extensively at institutions across the country and in Europe to use energy saving strategies not only to help reach sustainability goals, but also to actually better preserve cultural heritage than traditional methods. In this episode, she shares takeaways from IPI's research and her experience in implementing these strategies including best practices for HVACs, microclimates, air flow, lighting, passive storage (and more)! 

• Check out the workshop organized by Justine Wuebold, one of our committee members, entitled Applying Sustainability Principles Cross-Departmentally at Collecting Institutions at the upcoming AIC Annual Meeting, which will feature Kelly and other experts. 

• The Image Permanence Institute has done extensive research on energy saving strategies. We point you to their website which includes a handbook dedicated to this topic. A series of webinars from IPI discussing this issue can be found here.

• Sustainability in Cultural Heritage Preservation & Conservation Resource Bank on Zotero

• Many of the above resources can also be found on our wiki. 

• Environment & Culture Partners's project Culture Over Carbon

• Gallery Climate Coalition has a great Carbon Calculator so you could calculate the emissions from your institution

• A recent New York Times article also discussed the many organizations and institutions applying new environmental parameters that lower their emissions while preserving the works in their collections

• Grist Article: As Climate Change Threatens Cultural Treasures, Museums Get Creative to Conserve Both Energy and Artifacts.

• Finally, though I am sure you are familiar with this project, FAIC's Climate Resilience Resources for Cultural Heritage (particularly the Hazard Risk Map) allows you to use real data to project the hazards your institution may face and develop a strategy for resilience. This tool is critical in understanding why it is so important to take steps today to reduce energy consumption and prioritize sustainability as a tool to protect cultural heritage in the present and for generations to come.