CLEED

Sustainability Consultancy for Cultural Institutions

Jun
9

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#AAM2016 Follow Up & @PICGreen SEA Awards

Category: Conferences, Events, News, Sustainability Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

aamexpoHere is a recap of the PIC Green Events at AAM 2016 Conference and Expo. First, all the events and sessions were an overwhelming success! So, it shows there is a definite growing interest to learn how to make your institution more sustainable.
We had the following sessions:
1. Energy Efficient Cold Storage
2. Future Choices – Best Practices for Profession
3. Environmental Sustainability – Power, Influence and Responsibility
4. Stages of Sustainability
5. Sustainability Sins

picOur winners for the SEA (Sustainability Excellence Awards) for the following categories: Facilities, Programs and Exhibits were as follows:

usbotanicAnd the field trip to the US Botanic Garden was educational and bursting with sustainable initiatives, we even received our very own instruction manual for teaching. Check out the Sustainable SITES Initiative!

The Expo had a few highlights, but I have to mention the Virtual Reality Booth by SimWave Consulting in Canada. If you are an interactive museum, then you are going to want to keep an eye on their technology.

And a huge thank you to the Natural History Museum for letting us use their booth and partnering up in many ways moving forward!

Until next year in St. Louis…..keep up the green momentum!

 

 

Apr
27

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Come Join @PICGREEN at AAM’s Annual Conference in DC

Category: Conferences, Events, Green Museum, News, Sustainability Leave a Comment

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Join PIC Green at AAM’s 2016 Annual Meeting and MuseumExpo in Washington, DC!
Search the conference schedule with keywords ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ to find relevant sessions. Below are PIC-Green events we hope you will attend.

Mexican Cultural Institute
Reception with Latino, Indigenous Peoples, Asian Pacific American,
DIVCOM, LGBTQ & PIC Green
Thursday, May 26, 2016, 6-8 p.m. at Mexican Cultural Institute
Registration Required ($40)

Creativity and innovation grow out of collaborations strengthened by diverse perspectives. This reception brings together members of the Latino, Indigenous Peoples and Museums, Asian Pacific American networks, as well as the Diversity (DIVCOM), LGBTQ, and PIC Green committees. Join this diverse group of museum professionals for participatory activities, engaging discussions, as well as food, drinks, and live music. All are welcome; you do not need to be a member of one of these professional networks to participate.

PIC Green Informal Meet-Up Happy Hour
Friday, May 27 @6pm-8pm
Momofuku CCDC
Registration not Required

Meet PIC-Green’s leadership, mingle with other members, and get involved!

Sustainability Excellence Awards 2016
PIC Green Breakfast: Sustainability Excellence Awards
Friday, May 27, 2016, 7:30-8:30 a.m. at Marriott Marquis
Registration Required ($35)

Break bread with PIC Green! At this breakfast, we will recognize this year’s winners of AAM’s Sustainability Excellence Award. Come to learn about and be inspired by the good work being done to further sustainability efforts throughout our field. Everyone is welcome!

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United States Botanic Garden
PIC Green Field Trip: Sustainable Museum Tour at the U.S. Botanic Gardens
Saturday, May 28, 2016, 1:00-3:00 p.m. at United States Botanic Garden
Registration Required ($25)

Learn how this organization aligns their mission with environmental, economic and social stewardship in their facilities and operations. The tour includes the newly renovated Bartholdi Park, the SITES program and the Garden’s continually expand sustainable practices.

Hope to see you there!

Dec
27

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Clean Energy Industry To Be Transformed

Category: News, Renewable Energy, Solar Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

solar-and-wind-energy 1

Good news for the clean energy industry, as U.S. lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for solar and wind for another five years. This will give much needed boost to the industry and change the course of how the US deploys energy.

The extension adds an extra 20 gigawatts of solar power— this is more than every panel ever installed in the U.S. prior to 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). This deal is huge it is likely to change the landscape of US renewable energy for the future.

The wind credit will contribute another 19 gigawatts over five years. Combined, the extensions will spur more than $73 billion of investment and supply enough electricity to power 8 million U.S. homes, according to BNEF.

“This is massive,” said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF. In the short term, the deal will speed up the shift from fossil fuels more than the global climate deal struck this month in Paris and more than Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan that regulates coal plants, Zindler said.
This is solid boost for the solar and wind industries, the cost of installing has dropped more than 90% since the original tax credits were put in place. Now the industry has 5 consecutive years to hopefully make both solar and wind the cheapest energy in most US states, surpassing natural gas and coal. This is a very positive step in the right direction, it will give us a clear indication of how the markets will react, maybe this is the push we need to make renewables the number one energy source for the US. A good way to start 2016!

Nov
2

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NYCCGC Grant Recipient for Stormwater Feasibility Study

Category: Gardening, News, Stormwater Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

community-gardening

Finally NYC is starting to use the inherent resources we already have, like the , to propose solutions to potential future flooding. Since 1996, the NYCCGC has promoted the preservation, creation, and empowerment of community gardens through education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.

NYCCGC just announced they are the recipient of Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery funding from the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery (GOSR) to undertake a feasibility study for stormwater capture best practices within the community gardens of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Gardens Rising, the name of the study, will focus on the forty-seven community gardens in Lower Manhattan and combine a green infrastructure study and Master Plan to increase the permeability and stormwater capture in the area.

According to NYCCGC “the Master Plan will examine the feasibility, costs, benefits and impacts of proposed stormwater capture locations and methods to increase permeability and green space in the neighborhood gardens to better absorb stormwater and runoff.” Important to note, the majority of the gardens reside within an area that was severely flooded and impacted during Superstorm Sandy.

This is a major step forward not only for community gardens, but also for a sustainable NYC as a whole. As NYCCGC notes, these garden are finally being recognized as a vital environmental asset. It puts community gardens at the center of the greening movement in New York City.

NYCCGC states that they “envision this as seed money to attract more greening programs and grants into our community. They want “Gardens Rising to be interwoven with permaculture, solar energy, rat abatement policies, composting practices, citizen science, and other ideas and practices that will evolve with this process.”

Wouldn’t it be great is to see NYC using all their resources, museums, parks, public buildings, etc to create a master city wide disaster plan! And this grant is a step in the right direction, I know I look forward to hearing more about Gardens Rising.

Oct
9

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Green Mountain Energy Helps Philadelphia Zoo Be More Sustainable

Category: Energy Efficiency, Green Buildings, Green Museum, News, Renewable Energy, Solar, Sustainability, Zoos Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

philly

This is super exciting news to me, I know a bit nerdy! I’ve been a customer for about 8 years and thoroughly support everything they do, so finding out that they were able to partner up with the Philadelphia Zoo on solar golf carts…very cool.

The donates to many projects that “enhance the quality of life through long-term, sustainable solutions that focus on people and the planet.” Recently, the Philadelphia Zoo was the proud recipient of $100,000 to be dedicated to increasing it’s already existing sustainability initiatives. The money was chosen to fund solar golf carts, which will immensely help zoo employees to get around the 42-acre park in much less time and more efficiently. Each solar-powered golf cart can generate enough clean energy to drive more than 1,600 miles annually. That’s a lot of miles around the park!

As the nation’s first zoo, Philadelphia is doing a tremendous job creating and implementing . “With more than 1.35 million visitors annually, they aim to educate their community, model sustainable practices and provide their visitors with tools for taking action to live greener in their own lives, empowered to make a difference.” Presently the Zoo is working toward strategies to lessen their environmental footprint in five key areas:
1) improve energy efficiency
2) reduce, and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
3) consistently conserve, and increasingly collect and reuse water
4) Use current best practices to manage stormwater on site and
5) conserve resources and avoid the use of hazardous materials through waste diversion and green purchasing.

This is very commendable, as we all know thoughtful zoos require an enormous amount of people’s energy and mechanical energy to run. It’s more than important to keep the animals healthy, it’s an utmost necessity!

Also if you’re in Philadelphia any time soon, right now they also have a unique exhibit called , which is “an array of artist installations, some larger than life, each one telling stories of endangered animals through the use of recycled, reduced, reused, repurposed and renewed materials.”

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