Greener Museums
What is the Greener Museums Programme:
Becoming a greener museum walks hand in hand with delivery of a museum’s core objectives and increasing resilience. The Greener Museum programme of support can help to accelerate achievement of goals such as enhancing visitor experience, improving object conservation, improving environmental conditions and avoiding/saving costs. The benefits shown in diagram above, were experienced by museums on similar programmes run in Yorkshire and the North East.
This programme of support ran between 2016-18, and supported three museums to have a more sustainable future. See below for more information on the programme and gain inspiration from our case studies.
What does it involve?
Museums on the programme are assigned a Green Museums advisor with over 10 years experience of working on similar programmes of support. The advisor will visit your site to develop a deeper understanding of your museum. This includes meeting staff and volunteers, getting to know your key objectives and ways of working and undertaking a comprehensive review of the building/s and grounds. The key findings and recommendations arising from the review will be captured in a report that contains lots of practical advice and information required to appraise the opportunities and prioritise those you wish to implement.
Participants meet with other museums participating in this programme to share information, experiences and ideas and your advisor will remain in contact for the duration of the project to provide further guidance on implementation of the actions you have selected to take forward. Museums participate in a regional museums event where further sharing of ideas, practical advice and support will take place.
Case studies:
Please click on the title’s below to view a case study from each of the three participating museums between 2016-18. There are also recording available for each museum which provide highlights from the sharing event held at Crewsell Crags in October 2017.
National Justice Museum Case Study
How do you apply?
This programme is now closed. Contact Claire Browne for information on further support.
Greener Museums Supporting Information
What is required from Your Museum?
In summary, you will need:
- Management Commitment to ensure staff time is available to provide the necessary information and to implement, monitor and measure improvements.
- A Project Lead to coordinate and lead on all stages of the project. The role will involve working with your advisor to provide information, to co-ordinate and facilitate the site visit, to complete the action plan and oversee the implementation and monitoring of selected improvements.
- To encourage wider participation to share and implement best practice with staff and volunteers and ensure your Museum maximises the cost and carbon savings benefits.
- To collect data on resource use for a minimum of 12 months following implementation of improvement actions. This is required to evidence outcomes and is key to showing the impact and success of sustainability activity you are carrying out.
Who delivered the programme?
The MDEM Green Museum Programme Facilitators are Eco Affinity, led by consultant Kristina Lomas.
Eco Affinity is a not-for-profit sustainability consultancy located in Yorkshire. The company was founded in 2015 by Kristina Lomas who spent the previous 10 years employed as an environmental consultant for charitable and commercial enterprises, including Museum Development Yorkshire and the North East. The company’s mission is to assist the cultural, creative and community sectors to become more sustainable by working together to strengthen the interconnectedness between people, resources and the environment. Since the creation of Eco Affinity, Kristina has continued to work with museums and art galleries through direct contracts and as a specialist supplier on the Yorkshire Greener Museum programme. This work has included delivery of sustainability reports, workshops and training and identifying environmental opportunities and resource management solutions that strengthen and support delivery of the client’s core objectives.
