CLEED

Sustainability Consultancy for Cultural Institutions

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Part II: Basic Methods to Improve Indoor Air Quality for Museums

Continuing on from the previous post, here is Part II:

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Next and probably the most important is installing or retrofitting your HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system. Having a properly functioning and efficient HVAC system is the most effective strategy to reducing dust, particulate and gaseous pollutants. Many damaging pollutants are handled through the use of a layered filtration system (air filters and activated charcoal filters) within the air handling systems at a museum. In exhibit cases and storage units, select materials that will not emit harmful contaminants. Good housekeeping practices, like placing entryway mats will decrease dust and allergens and always use HEPA filters in vacuum cleaners to limit particulate re-distribution. Moisture problems are another common source of indoor air pollution as they can lead to indoor mold growth. Mold can also emit VOCs and particulates, compromising indoor air quality and leading to negative health effects.  Since it is impossible to eliminate mold spores, the best way to reduce the impact of mold on indoor air quality is to prevent or promptly repair the moisture problems that enable mold growth. Purchasing a high-grade dehumidifier will solve this problem. So for HVAC systems take the time to learn about what your institution needs, talk to your Facilities manager and invest in a superior ventilation system as it creates healthier indoor air, uses less energy, and saves the museum money. All in all it can make a tremendously positive impact for the collections, staff and visitors.

Lastly, using green cleaning products will drastically lessen the amount toxic chemicals that are brought into a space. Choosing less hazardous products that have positive environmental attributes (e.g., biodegradability, low toxicity, low VOC content, low life cycle energy use) and taking steps to reduce exposure can minimize harmful impacts to collections, building occupants, visitors, plus improve indoor air quality. The best way to start to change over to green cleaning is take the following steps:

1) Plan for your green cleaning program – list every place in the museum that will be affected

2) Select certified products – do your homework and investigate all the ingredients in the chosen product, make       sure they are genuinely safe

3) Introduce green equipment and supplies

4) Adopt a green cleaning protocol with specific procedures listed

5) Lastly share the responsibility

A key aspect for any museum to adopt green standards is to share the knowledge and responsibilities among the staff. The more people are involved, the easier it will be to convince those skeptical of all the benefits from taking the above actions.

Indoor air quality is important to health, productivity and learning. And since a museum’s prime focus is a learning instrument, it is vital that we take appropriate conservation measures to ensure longevity for the collections and people.

Below are some additional resources to learn more about how to improve your indoor air quality and ultimately, green your museum.

Indoor Air Quality Association

Center for Environmental Health

PIC Green – AAM Sustainable Committee

Green Museum Accord

American Institute for Conservation

Green Guard

Cooper Hewitt Green Exhibition Design

Children’s Museum Pittsburgh

Brooklyn Children’s Museum

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10 Resources for Greening Your Museum

Whenever I look at blogs or websites for specific information I find that lists are always very helpful. So here is a list of resources to help any museum or cultural institution, large or small, make more sustainable decisions. Each point starts with the overall category the resource would fall under, for example, Energy Efficiency for Energy Star Portfolio Manager.

1. Overall Green Practices: PIC Green,  AAM’s sustainability committee. You have to be a member of AAM to join and there are several committees ranging from development to projects that you can be a part of, if  you are looking to join, contact us here. The major project PIC Green is working is the Sustainable Operations Tool Kit. It is a developing resource which focuses on solutions for greening day-to-day museum operations.

2. Overall Green Practices: Green Museum Accord is an institution-wide pledge to be environmentally responsible which is a partnership between CAM (California Association of Museums) and AAM (specifically PIC Green).

3. Conservation: AIC (American Institute of Conservators) has a committee for sustainable conservation practices.

4. Online Seminars: IPI (Image Permanence Institute) give information webinars on Sustainable Preservation Practices. The next one is on September 4th: Sustainable Preservation Practices, register here. I highly recommend this one, their information is cutting edge and they are one of the only sources providing data and analyzing it.

5. Sustainable Landscapes: Sustainable Sites Initiative, interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden. They create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.

6. Energy Efficiency: Energy Star Portfolio Manager, the EPA created ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®, an online tool you can use to measure and track energy and water consumption, as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Use it to benchmark the performance of one building or a whole portfolio of buildings, all in a secure online environment.

7. Sustainable Exhibits: Exhibit SEED, a website for exhibit and museum professionals to find resources for developing, designing, and building more sustainable exhibits.

8. Energy Efficiency: Minnesota Historical Society Blog. The Minnesota Historical Society has done an enormous amount of work commissioning their present buildings to keep all their building running efficiently. They show you how to turn the information you gather into hard earned savings!

9. Overall Green Pracitces: Sustainable Museums, AAM PIC Green’s Blog, to publish a white paper on findings from the last Sustainability Summit. Stay tuned for a link to the upcoming white paper.

10. Historic Building Green Practices: 10 Ways to Green Your Historic Home, Preservation Nation Blog, News from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

So, here’s a start to all kinds of green museum resources to get you started. Stay tuned for a comprehensive list of case studies from museums and cultural institutions that have taken steps to becoming more sustainable. And here’s to celebrating 96 years for the National Parks, Happy Birthday!

Yosemite-Falls

 

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Highlights from the Summit on Sustainability at AAM 2013

Last month in Baltimore I attended what I think has been the most important Summit on Sustainability thus far for museums. Spearheaded by PIC Green, AAM’s sustainability committee and moderated by Sarah Brophy, the summit was broken up into 3 parts, see my earlier post. Each section had about 5-6 presenters focusing on but not limited to: practices, tools, case studies and personal experience.

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The first section had 6 speakers that covered a wide range of topics. A couple highlighted some building certification/rating systems, like Green Globes and the Living Building Challenge and showed how they can act as a guide to make your building more environmentally sound. Andrea Schnitzer, the National Program Manager at Energy Star spoke about their Portfolio Manager, which is an interactive energy management tool that allows you to track and assess energy and water consumption across your entire portfolio of buildings in a secure online environment. We also heard from Kari Jensen from OMSI explaining the process of how Exhibit Seed came into existence. It is a beta site of sustainable practices used to create exhibits. Definitely worth checking out as it is just as important to green your exhibits as it is your building. Lastly and my favorite was Holly Shimizu, Executive Director for the United States Botanic Gardens. She spoke about Sustainable Sites, an interdisciplinary effort by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to create voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices. In other words, Sustainable Sites promotes green spaces and shows how important it is work in accordance with the land and surrounding eco-systems.

The second part focused on what we have accomplished and several case studies were presented. The highlights were PIC Green’s own Shengyin Xu from the Minnesota Historical Society talked about her role as the Sustainability Specialist for their 26 sites. One of their biggest challenges was finding energy saving solutions for 26 different historic sites. Susan Glassman from the Wagner Free Institute spoke about her instituions journey with LEED. And Holly Shimizu, Executive Director for the United States Botanic Garden, spoke about how having  a truly green building is when you have green outdoor space as well. The USBG helped develop SITES(tm) The Sustainable Sites Initiative(tm), which is an interdisciplinary partnership led by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to transform land development and management practices with the nation’s first voluntary rating system for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices.   aquarium-from-water-taxi600

The third part, moderated by Laura Roberts was an analysis of how we can move forward with the tools that we presently possess. Some common limitations mentioned were how to accurately measure metrics and how to create positive behavioral change thus reinforcing core values within the industry. There are many leaders in similar industries to follow, like colleges and universities. When looking at that industry it seems that they are a few steps ahead. But we have all the tools in place as Wendy Jessup from Wendy Jessup & Associates and AIC stated that we are need to work together since we have common goals for museums to become more sustainable.

Three things that were refreshing and that I learned:

1. Almost all women panel, who are smart, engaged and motivated!

2. Conference positions PIC Green to be the leader and portal for Sustainability for museums and lays groundwork for partnerships with other organization like AIC, who also has a committee for sustainable conservation practices.

3. Highlighted the major gaps where we need to focus: education (behavioral change), long range planning and funding.

Here is a list of some resources to help assist your museum to become more sustainable.

1. PIC Green,  AAM’s sustainability committee. You have to be a member of AAM to join and there are several committees ranging from development to projects that you can be a part of, if  you are looking to join, contact us here. The major project PIC Green is working is the Sustainable Operations Tool Kit. It is a developing resource which focuses on solutions for greening day-to-day museum operations.

2. Green Museum Accord is an institution-wide pledge to be environmentally responsible which is a partnership between CAM (California Association of Museums) and AAM (specifically PIC Green).

3. AIC (American Institute of Conservators) has a committee for sustainable conservation practices.

4. IPI (Image Permanence Institute) give information webinars on Sustainable Preservation Practices. The next one is on July 10th: Investigate your HVAC System & Identify Potential Energy Savings, register here.