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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
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| Apr 26 2012, 7:42 PM EDT | IPJones | 14 words added |
| Jan 28 2012, 9:50 AM EST | bMuse |
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Welcome to the Green Museums Wiki
4/26/2012 Crab Cove Visitor Center in Alameda, California designated a Bay Area Green Business
1/28/2012 New book review over under "Green Book Review" in the menu to the left: Handbook on Environmental Literacy: skills for a changing world.
1/26/2012 PILOT fees - Payments in Lieu of Taxes discussed here and here. This is critical information for museums - value your green practices - water savings, waste diversion, etc. and value it in self-defense for when your community asks about PILOT payments.
1/12/2012 Coming in May 2012 - Interested in a self-paced program in greening your museum as part of your certificate efforts? Consider Introduction to Environmental Sustainability in Museums through Northern States Conservation Center's online program. Telecommute to training - a bit greener than in person, right? Contact me, please, if you have questions.
4/7/2011 Green Museum online conference April 19, 2011 - and archived for a full year. Interested in hearing about green practice around the country? Looking for some inspiration, encouragement, and corroboration? Please join the Green Museum online conference on April 19th from the comfort of your own office. You can ‘attend’ as a green team group, or as an all-staff learning opportunity to get inspired.
We start off with Susan Marks who is the Senior Partnership Manager for the Major Seafood Buyer Program at Monterey Bay Aquarium telling us about the Seafood Watch program and what it has done for the Aquarium and about the partnership, among others, with Whole Foods. http://greenmuseumconference.com/
And remember, registrants can listen to the archived conference all year long for free.
1/24/2011 I'm putting a VERY COOL video in the Spoof Videos section. Mr. W. You'll enjoy it. It gets you thinking on multiple levels.
11/29/2010 Been doing lots of reading to keep up on my LEED credentialing. Most recently learned about raised pavement and how it can dramatically improve the health and long-life of trees in parking areas and along sidewalks. It's an engineered structural component of your site plan, but it looks like a good one. It allows for permeable surfaces, firetruck-proof spaces, all covered with a green overhead of leaves. Think about it as you lay out your entrance ways and parking areas.
11/6/2010 Last week I took my Green Museum students from GW to the National Museum of Natural History. They were ahead of the pack for greening two years ago when last I was there, and they have kept on keeping on. What I love was the discussion of 'we're scientists, so everything has to be researched, tested, refined and tested again'. It's a process that has served them exceedingly well. The fact that they have green team member on the administrative staff adds even more value. It's a class act, believe me.
8/2/2010 Marvelous program by Center for Conservation of Art and Historical Artifacts (Philly) sponsored by NEH and Hosted by The Folger Library. It was about stewardship of collections from a conservation care and T/RH conditions viewpoint. It was very well attended - 75+ folks - and chock full of good information. James Reilly, Michael Henry and Richard Kerschner dumped a great deal of information on us and managed to make it really, really good stuff. I mean how easy is it to talk about (or listen to people talk about) temperature, humidity, dew point and HVAC systems- in a dark room no less! This Plus/Minus Dilemma thing is important folks. Take time to understand it and make your own choices. See entry 7/12. Changing parameters for collections conditions may be a very feasible option for you - you owe it to yourself, your collections, and your institution to see if you can care for the collections and improve the bottom line....betcha you can.
7/15/2010 Windspires! Here's a video of the windspire at the Cincinnati Zoo Part of their package of renewable energy formats on display for visitors.
7/12/10 Sustainable Museums blog has links to discussion on the Plus/Minus Dilemma on the discussion about possible changes to worldwide collections conditions expectations for Temperature and RH control.
Good news to hear that the users of the Museum-L list put the blog at one of the must-reads for the museum field.
And - I just put an entry on the Green Museum Projects page on the Museum of Northern Arizona and it's 2009 McGraw Hill Greenest Building of the Year! Congratulations to all.
5/19/10 - The Trust for Architectural Easement's newsletter on cool roofs on historic buildings!
5/14/10 - Climate Change Exhibit Blog - NEW! The Museum Design discussion group on Linked In turned into this. Mark Walhimer, Director of Exhibit Projects at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, collected all the recommended links and created this blog. Nice resource.
5/13/10 Great review last week in Curator for The Green Museum. Thanks for all the nice comments that have followed. Cannot post the review since it's a membership publication, but it's recommended as an institutional resource belonging in your repertoire up there with ADA how-to's. Maybe some museum you know gets Curator! 5/12/10 NetZero historic buildings at The Trustees of Reservations in MA - Jim Younger does it again!
May 6, 2010 — The Trustees of Reservations, a regional land trust which operates more than 25,000 of open space available to the public, were awarded $300,000 in federal stimulus funds that will support green building upgrades for several of its properties.
Each project will take a slightly different approach and will serve as a valuable model for future green renovations of historic properties, according to The Trustees of Reservations.
The reservations to be upgraded are Appleton Farms in Ipswich and Hamilton, Bullitt Reservation in Conway and Ashfield, and the Lyman Estate in Waltham.
The grant monies will enable The Trustees of Reservations to conduct “Deep Energy Retrofits” for its original farmhouse on Appleton Farms in Ipswich (the oldest working farm in North America), making the house 55% more energy efficient than today’s building codes require, as well for the historic farmhouse – formerly the Ashfield Town Poor Farm -- located on the Bullitt as Reservation in Conway and Ashfield.
The renovated Bullitt farmhouse will combine electric heat pump technology, with plans to add solar power as funds are available, and super-insulation to increase energy efficiency while cutting energy consumption by more than 50%. In addition, 100% of the materials from the farmhouse deconstruction will be recycled or reused.
“We are excited that the Deep Energy Retrofits will allow our two farm property buildings to become 'net-zero’ energy users by producing as much energy as they consume,” says Jim Younger, The Trustees’ Director for Structural Resources.
He added, “In keeping with our commitment to sustainability and reducing our overall carbon footprint at all of our properties, the green Appleton and Bullitt renovations will be the third and fourth of hopefully many more planned green buildings owned and managed by The Trustees in the future.”
Younger has also helped The Trustees apply for funding to install a solar panel array at Appleton Farms, which will generate enough electricity for the entire farming operation.
Founded by open space visionary Charles Eliot in 1891, The Trustees manages 101 properties located on 26,000 acres in 73 communities throughout Massachusetts. All reservations are open for the public and range from working farms and historic homesteads.
5/11/10
Green roof at Milwaukee County Zoo!
5/10/10
Miami Science Center's Vertical Axis Wind Turbine! It's apparently the first in Miami-Dade County - a big place, admittedly. It's an exhibit, not an energy source for more than its own lights. Similarly, I've seen vertical wind axis turbines on outdoor lights at Minnesota Science Center. Makes perfect sense in those places...now let's see it spread to historic sites and history museums and art centers! Start with energizing the streetlights, and move on to bigger things.
5/7/10
"Paying" PILOT fees with green practice. I think this is a critical issue that museums must weight as part of their sustainability strategies: financial and environmental.
Green museums defined on Wikipedia.
SB
5/6/10
The Green Museum won an Honorable Mention in the The Green Book Festival 2010 in the category of Business Books. We were beaten out by “Green Careers for Dummies” by Carol McClelland. Hmm - wondering if there were only two entries? :-) Truth be told - I'm FAR, FAR more proud of the great review in Curator.
SB
4/30/09
The Seattle Art Museum's blog recommends The Green Museum as on of its Book-of-the-Month recommendations. It's very cool to see a museum recommending books on environmental sustainability to its staff, volunteers and audiences. Thanks, SAM. SB
4/29/30
If I could go to the Association of Children's Museums Conference, I'd attend this session with Lexington Design + Fabrication for sure: "One Person's Trash is Another Person's Treasure" Saturday, May 8th at 10:45 AM Going Green and saving money - every museum's dream come true! Find out how recycling, sustainability, reuse, and repurposing have a much bigger impact on your budget and your mission than you might imagine. Take part in re-looking at sustainable practices in new and exciting ways.
Will someone take notes for us all and post them?
SB
4/21/10
This is the first-step in how a museum's website should promote institutional green practices: Brooklyn Children's Museum has a nice list of plain-language descriptions of solar panels, water use, heating and cooling, and even cleaning practices.
The next step would be "how you can do this at home". Anyone doing that? Send me your link if you are!
And here's an example of green ingenuity. The volunteers at the Wabash & Erie Canal are into sustainable sourcing and historic preservation. It's almost cliche now to say the the greenest building is the one that's already built, but this is an example of building material reuse and true windfall sourcing that helps a small nonprofit do big things with little cost. Hats off to these guys.
SB
3/3/10
A couple weeks ago at the Small Museum Association Conference I met up with Derek Ferramosca. I'd met him there last year doing the same green thing only now better: Ecorite Imaging has some very good options for green exhibits and signage. He offers some PVC products but they're made using recycled PVC - that we can't get rid of anyway - and for large amounts of PVC he offers recycling ... now do you know anyone else doing that?! Take a look and see if it can help you.
2/12/10
Green Energy at Hancock Shaker Village. They keep on taking green steps that not enough other museums are taking. I completely understand that museums are risk-averse. But it can't continue - especially in the green arena.
There are lots of old green practices and lots of new ones. The only way to test the new ones is to test them. So it's time for museums to stop being so risk-averse and look into the arenas where they can appropriately lead the way and be the model institutions they should be. Green work is one of those areas. And some people are willing to take responsibility for moving museums forward - but not everyone wants to hear that. The recent radio spot by WBUR The Art of Going Green in The Museum began by emphasizing the riskiness of green even when some of the museums interviewed didn't talk about risk.
I was interviewed for that piece but got cut. As a writer I completely understand that not much from every interviewee makes it into a 4-minute radio spot, but clearly I was off topic when I pushed for museum-greening as responsibility to our communities, responsibility for long-term sustainability of institutions, and that someone in the museum field has got to figure out how to responsibly enter a new era for museums, energy and collections care.
Those three museums are making positive changes that can make a difference in the field.....I just wish that had been the slant of the article.
"While the WBUR broadcast is a good interview piece, and gives a flavor of the issues, it does not provide any real guidance. It also nicely side-steps the 900-pound gorilla at the table, so well illustrated by the rendering of the Shapiro Family Courtyard: excesses in building envelope design. Glass is more expensive than brick, and causes more energy use, not only in heating and cooling the building, but in causing light-level adaptation problems for visitors as they move from a bright daylit space to conservation-lit galleries. This either compromises the visitor experience of the galleries, or causes greater light levels (and greater energy use, and more damage to the collections) to account for the adaptation problem.
There are three main energy-use loads in most commercial buildings, including museums: outside air, lighting, and building envelope. These can all be modest and still provide a good environment. Unfortunately, little if any constraint is put on architects whose work is the primary variable in determining these loads. Being more efficient is one thing, like the new chiller at the MFA, but being more efficient does not discourage waste. Real energy conservation comes from demanding less." - Comment by William Lull 2/12/10
From Sarah B: Thanks William. I do not know the science of the glass enclosures, but I do subscribe to "less is often more" in building museums.
1/10/10
Check out this blog entry from the Cooper-Hewitt on green exhibit practices
11/3/09
Check out this blog: a research-in-progress blog by Rose Daly of Daly Conservation. She is working on energy consumption and collections management issues. Her bibliography is a gift to us all.
11/2/09
The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities had a conference last June on Energy and Historic Sites. Here is a link to my talk...it starts out with a quiz about green knowledge and green practice (8 minutes or so) then moves on to the presentation but since the camera is trained on me, you can't see the PowerPoint for it. I can send the .pdf if you let me know: sarah at bmuse.net Free Lecture Forum - PBS
For those of us who missed the Smithsonian Institution's Climate Change conference a month ago - here are some of the talks. Worth having one with your cup of coffee as you start each day this week.
10/28/09
Denver Zoo: Gasification machine and LEED habitat - inspiration!
10/20/09
I've just posted a terrific link on the collections page - see link at right. Please feel encouraged to add more to keep it company.
One of my George Washington University Green Museum students sent this great link to a NYT article on zero waste - Yellowstone is mentioned. Good to see the National Park Service involved - though not at all surprising.
10/19/09
I just spent a great few days at the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference in Nashville. Here are some good links they shared for helping historic homes and houses be more energy-efficient:
www.PreservationNation.org/weatherization Tips on weatherization for historic houses.
www.PreservationNation.org/issues/sustainability The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s main link for sustainability issues and historic places and spaces
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief03.htm "Conserving Energy in History Buildings".
9/30/09
The World Comes to the Phipps Conservatory to see its 'greenness'. The State Department's website has great photos and descriptions.
7/10/09
Braden Paynter passed on this link to UK company making Welsh wool insulation for a green building material ...and other green restoration and building materials. Have a look - it will remind you to think outside the box for great solutions.
7/6/09
Two minimalist environmental control projects where the system treatment was specific to the particular issues for the buildings and collections within, at very low operating costs:
Humidity-controlled ventilation:
“Practical Solutions for Carriage Storage: The Stony Brook Shed Project,” paper presented at the 2000 annual meeting of American Institute for Conservation, with Ms. Merri Ferrell, Curator of Carriages, Museums at Stony Brook; and with Jonathan Taggart, Taggart Conservation.
A sealed and filtered unoccupied building:
Environmental Improvements for the Pinkney House at the Kern County Museum,” paper presented at the annual meeting of American Institute for Conservation, June 1991; AASLH Meeting September 1992; MAAM/NEMA Joint Annual Meeting, November 1992.
(Broken links above fixed 2/12/10)
6/29/09
We get lots of questions about the tension between climate control and energy reduction in museums. the short answer is that each situation is different, so you need and engineer and a conservator/curator to help ou make decisions, but here, at least is some reading material to get you going:
From the Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter on Environmental Management you'll find some great articles.
From the conference proceedings of From Gray Areas to Green Areas: Developing Sustainable Practices in Preservation Environments you'll find lots more including Richard L. Kerschner's
Providing Safe and Practical Environments for Cultural Property in Historic Buildings...and Beyond
Check the list of .pdf's on the right-hand side.
And of course the National Park Service and Sharon Park are a GREAT resource: Preservation Brief 24: HVAC and Historic Buildings
6/19/09
Rethinking the Modern Zoo I got this from the FastCompany Daily Newsletter - link to Zoo with art installation's illustrating human impact and interference with the natural world. Very cool. Worth a peek and some thought about how this suggests a change in 'the way we've always done it'.
5/19/09
Hancock Shaker Village - in a tourism webisode promoting their green interpretation: http://www.berkshires.org/BerkshiresGreenandSustainableWebisode/tabid/745/Default.aspx
5/4/09
Great AAM conference. Not too many green sessions, but lots of green museum folks being busy about their good work. The committee of Philly Museums interested in greening museums put out a great wallet-promo on greening your museum. Let's hope the LA folks do as well. The Green PIC - AAM's Professional Interest Committee - picked up some momentum talking to the Accreditation Committee about the future of 'green' as part of accreditation.
5/05/09
Hmm - Green and museums are finding a place on Twitter. Start by following me @greenmuseum and then lookout for the other green museum folks who 'follow'. SB
3/30/09
Proceedings from some of the presentations at From Gray Areas to Green Areas: Sustainability Practices in Preservation Environments in Texas last fall....wish I could have gone!
3/19/2009
Ice Energy storage video - installation of tanks.
1/13/09
Jennifer Madden of Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, MA, won the ExhibiTricks blog free copy of The Green Museum
1/13/09
The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice described in the National Trust blog on greening your historic site......check it out so you can take good advantage of their links and resources...and then support an historic site near you!
Cheers, SB
1/8/09
I visited President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home, a National Monument, two days ago, and stopped by the Richard H. Smith Visitor Education Center to see its LEED Certified green-ness. It's a gorgeous building, lovingly restored and greened. It has complex-green and simple-green components that are all something any existing building projects can and should consider.
The green is so appropriate that it's almost 'stealth' green: working transoms and windows, CFL's in the ceiling [but they aren't on because the natural light is enough], a cool roof in the spots where it's not yet time to replace the old roof, original fixtures OR additional new ones that look the same but take CFL's!, and a lovely daylight in the center has translucent glazing that lets in and diffuses light from the attic dormer that looks out over the front of the building. Of course, it helps that they started in a gorgeous old building, but then isn't that one major reason why historic preservation is so green?
SB
12/29/08
National Trust and Preservation is Green - I missed the chance to go to GreenBuild in Boston, which means I missed this speech by Richard Moe, leader of the National Trust. For those of you who also missed it, here is text for you. It talks about working with USGBC and the Clinton Climate Initiative, AND about creating a GreenLab on the West Coast that tests green and historic preservation issues.
As I went with folks on an energy audit at an historic site two weeks ago, we discussed blown-in insulation. Folks didn't feel they knew enough about the types and their longevity and unintended consequences to allow it in a house with a preservation easement. Does anyone have any comments?
Cheers, SB
12/23/08
12/18/08
I just wanted to let everyone know that Sarah is teaching a three-part webinar for AASLH in January for staff at any level working at history museums or historic sites. It’s an overview of green in US museums, an introduction to green concepts and types of practices, and then an in-depth look at hardware (building and property components, both existing and new, that contribute to sustainability), and software (the programs and practices we use at sites and museums to be more green). There’s even a walk-through of an energy audit at an historic site. The webinar is fast, inexpensive way to learn how to get started with green practices without much, if any, cost. It’s a great way to start the New Year: learning for yourself, your museum, and your visitors. To learn more, go to www.aaslh.org/GoingGreen. Bob Beatty
12/9/08
More on Recycling: This article in the NYT Back at Junk Value, Recyclables are Piling Up, the topic is the crashing sale price of basic recyclables - paper, plastic, aluminum. My opinion - stay the course ...the market for these will right itself, and in the meantime, it still reduces the use of virgin resources and delays the trip to the landfill. The good news - less of the recyclable stuff is being shipped to China - now THAT's progress! SB
11/25/08
About Compostable Plastics: Many of us use 'GreenWare', 'Nature Works' other compostable plastics, but we don't have a way to compost them. There's an asterisk on the 'compostable' description on the GreenWare webpage that refers to 'suitable facilities'. Well, if you want to have or find a suitable facility, you have to know what it is: Everything You Wanted to Learn About Serious Composting. Keep in mind, your local zoo or major botanical garden may have its own suitable facility and you can ask about working with them for the common good.
The NatureWorks company has done some research for you by providing a list of suitable composting facilities for such plastics. around the country. If there isn't a place close-enough, talk with your municipality about spearheading such a program for the benefit of multiple institutions in your area. You never know - it may be on their 'to-do' list, and all they need is a nudge.
Go green and prosper, SB
11/4/08
I get a lot of questions about how to 'convince' someone who doesn't believe in global warming or believe that there's enough of an issue to be a problem...someone who thinks the green wave is a fad. Here are some ideas:
This Chart of C02 increases on flickr should give you some ammunition.
And
The great new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History gives us a great tool for explaining why a cool summer can happen during global warming : Weather vs. Climate
While you're at the AMNH's website, check this out too: Sustainable Practices Facts. They've been thinking green for 10 years already.
Cheers, SB
11/3/08
During a visit to Quebec I met the leader of the green team for Zoo Granby and he and his team have produced a great, great downloadable resource: Green Book/Green Zoo Granby. My copy is in French, (which I cherish) but the website has an English version (which I can actually read well!).
9/26/08 As I listen to Eco Elvis' Compost Hotel (www.ecoelvis.com) I am distracted yet again from traditional work and am addressing green museum issues. Compost Hotel talks about giving 'trash a second life'...and that reminds me of Second Life and its application for museums, and its encouragement of us museum folks to think outside our desks and into the future. Elizabeth and I are working on our next Museum article: Water, Energy and the Future of Collections Care. We're talking to a technology forecaster, authors, museum professionals, engineers, and dreamers to think about museums 100 years from now - that's three generations. It's an excellent mental exercise that adds new meaning to strategic planning. We're also going to participate in the SuperStruct game with AAM. You can join a facebook group for Superstruct if you like. But then of course...we should all be working.......
Cheers, SB
9/23/08 A short - very short - and Loud - very loud...but then heat wheels are loud, and this video is short since you have to get back to work! SB
4/26/2012 Crab Cove Visitor Center in Alameda, California designated a Bay Area Green Business
1/28/2012 New book review over under "Green Book Review" in the menu to the left: Handbook on Environmental Literacy: skills for a changing world.
1/26/2012 PILOT fees - Payments in Lieu of Taxes discussed here and here. This is critical information for museums - value your green practices - water savings, waste diversion, etc. and value it in self-defense for when your community asks about PILOT payments.
1/12/2012 Coming in May 2012 - Interested in a self-paced program in greening your museum as part of your certificate efforts? Consider Introduction to Environmental Sustainability in Museums through Northern States Conservation Center's online program. Telecommute to training - a bit greener than in person, right? Contact me, please, if you have questions.
4/7/2011 Green Museum online conference April 19, 2011 - and archived for a full year. Interested in hearing about green practice around the country? Looking for some inspiration, encouragement, and corroboration? Please join the Green Museum online conference on April 19th from the comfort of your own office. You can ‘attend’ as a green team group, or as an all-staff learning opportunity to get inspired.
We start off with Susan Marks who is the Senior Partnership Manager for the Major Seafood Buyer Program at Monterey Bay Aquarium telling us about the Seafood Watch program and what it has done for the Aquarium and about the partnership, among others, with Whole Foods. http://greenmuseumconference.com/
And remember, registrants can listen to the archived conference all year long for free.
1/24/2011 I'm putting a VERY COOL video in the Spoof Videos section. Mr. W. You'll enjoy it. It gets you thinking on multiple levels.
11/29/2010 Been doing lots of reading to keep up on my LEED credentialing. Most recently learned about raised pavement and how it can dramatically improve the health and long-life of trees in parking areas and along sidewalks. It's an engineered structural component of your site plan, but it looks like a good one. It allows for permeable surfaces, firetruck-proof spaces, all covered with a green overhead of leaves. Think about it as you lay out your entrance ways and parking areas.
11/6/2010 Last week I took my Green Museum students from GW to the National Museum of Natural History. They were ahead of the pack for greening two years ago when last I was there, and they have kept on keeping on. What I love was the discussion of 'we're scientists, so everything has to be researched, tested, refined and tested again'. It's a process that has served them exceedingly well. The fact that they have green team member on the administrative staff adds even more value. It's a class act, believe me.
8/2/2010 Marvelous program by Center for Conservation of Art and Historical Artifacts (Philly) sponsored by NEH and Hosted by The Folger Library. It was about stewardship of collections from a conservation care and T/RH conditions viewpoint. It was very well attended - 75+ folks - and chock full of good information. James Reilly, Michael Henry and Richard Kerschner dumped a great deal of information on us and managed to make it really, really good stuff. I mean how easy is it to talk about (or listen to people talk about) temperature, humidity, dew point and HVAC systems- in a dark room no less! This Plus/Minus Dilemma thing is important folks. Take time to understand it and make your own choices. See entry 7/12. Changing parameters for collections conditions may be a very feasible option for you - you owe it to yourself, your collections, and your institution to see if you can care for the collections and improve the bottom line....betcha you can.
7/15/2010 Windspires! Here's a video of the windspire at the Cincinnati Zoo Part of their package of renewable energy formats on display for visitors.
7/12/10 Sustainable Museums blog has links to discussion on the Plus/Minus Dilemma on the discussion about possible changes to worldwide collections conditions expectations for Temperature and RH control.
Good news to hear that the users of the Museum-L list put the blog at one of the must-reads for the museum field.
And - I just put an entry on the Green Museum Projects page on the Museum of Northern Arizona and it's 2009 McGraw Hill Greenest Building of the Year! Congratulations to all.
5/19/10 - The Trust for Architectural Easement's newsletter on cool roofs on historic buildings!
5/14/10 - Climate Change Exhibit Blog - NEW! The Museum Design discussion group on Linked In turned into this. Mark Walhimer, Director of Exhibit Projects at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, collected all the recommended links and created this blog. Nice resource.
5/13/10 Great review last week in Curator for The Green Museum. Thanks for all the nice comments that have followed. Cannot post the review since it's a membership publication, but it's recommended as an institutional resource belonging in your repertoire up there with ADA how-to's. Maybe some museum you know gets Curator! 5/12/10 NetZero historic buildings at The Trustees of Reservations in MA - Jim Younger does it again!
Trustees of Reservations Gets $300K in Federal Stimulus Funds: (from masssnonprofitnews):
Each project will take a slightly different approach and will serve as a valuable model for future green renovations of historic properties, according to The Trustees of Reservations.
The reservations to be upgraded are Appleton Farms in Ipswich and Hamilton, Bullitt Reservation in Conway and Ashfield, and the Lyman Estate in Waltham.
The grant monies will enable The Trustees of Reservations to conduct “Deep Energy Retrofits” for its original farmhouse on Appleton Farms in Ipswich (the oldest working farm in North America), making the house 55% more energy efficient than today’s building codes require, as well for the historic farmhouse – formerly the Ashfield Town Poor Farm -- located on the Bullitt as Reservation in Conway and Ashfield.
The renovated Bullitt farmhouse will combine electric heat pump technology, with plans to add solar power as funds are available, and super-insulation to increase energy efficiency while cutting energy consumption by more than 50%. In addition, 100% of the materials from the farmhouse deconstruction will be recycled or reused.
“We are excited that the Deep Energy Retrofits will allow our two farm property buildings to become 'net-zero’ energy users by producing as much energy as they consume,” says Jim Younger, The Trustees’ Director for Structural Resources.
He added, “In keeping with our commitment to sustainability and reducing our overall carbon footprint at all of our properties, the green Appleton and Bullitt renovations will be the third and fourth of hopefully many more planned green buildings owned and managed by The Trustees in the future.”
Younger has also helped The Trustees apply for funding to install a solar panel array at Appleton Farms, which will generate enough electricity for the entire farming operation.
Founded by open space visionary Charles Eliot in 1891, The Trustees manages 101 properties located on 26,000 acres in 73 communities throughout Massachusetts. All reservations are open for the public and range from working farms and historic homesteads.
5/11/10
Green roof at Milwaukee County Zoo!
5/10/10
Miami Science Center's Vertical Axis Wind Turbine! It's apparently the first in Miami-Dade County - a big place, admittedly. It's an exhibit, not an energy source for more than its own lights. Similarly, I've seen vertical wind axis turbines on outdoor lights at Minnesota Science Center. Makes perfect sense in those places...now let's see it spread to historic sites and history museums and art centers! Start with energizing the streetlights, and move on to bigger things.
5/7/10
"Paying" PILOT fees with green practice. I think this is a critical issue that museums must weight as part of their sustainability strategies: financial and environmental.
Green museums defined on Wikipedia.
SB
5/6/10
The Green Museum won an Honorable Mention in the The Green Book Festival 2010 in the category of Business Books. We were beaten out by “Green Careers for Dummies” by Carol McClelland. Hmm - wondering if there were only two entries? :-) Truth be told - I'm FAR, FAR more proud of the great review in Curator.
SB
4/30/09
The Seattle Art Museum's blog recommends The Green Museum as on of its Book-of-the-Month recommendations. It's very cool to see a museum recommending books on environmental sustainability to its staff, volunteers and audiences. Thanks, SAM. SB
4/29/30
If I could go to the Association of Children's Museums Conference, I'd attend this session with Lexington Design + Fabrication for sure: "One Person's Trash is Another Person's Treasure" Saturday, May 8th at 10:45 AM Going Green and saving money - every museum's dream come true! Find out how recycling, sustainability, reuse, and repurposing have a much bigger impact on your budget and your mission than you might imagine. Take part in re-looking at sustainable practices in new and exciting ways.
Will someone take notes for us all and post them?
SB
4/21/10
This is the first-step in how a museum's website should promote institutional green practices: Brooklyn Children's Museum has a nice list of plain-language descriptions of solar panels, water use, heating and cooling, and even cleaning practices.
The next step would be "how you can do this at home". Anyone doing that? Send me your link if you are!
And here's an example of green ingenuity. The volunteers at the Wabash & Erie Canal are into sustainable sourcing and historic preservation. It's almost cliche now to say the the greenest building is the one that's already built, but this is an example of building material reuse and true windfall sourcing that helps a small nonprofit do big things with little cost. Hats off to these guys.
SB
3/3/10
A couple weeks ago at the Small Museum Association Conference I met up with Derek Ferramosca. I'd met him there last year doing the same green thing only now better: Ecorite Imaging has some very good options for green exhibits and signage. He offers some PVC products but they're made using recycled PVC - that we can't get rid of anyway - and for large amounts of PVC he offers recycling ... now do you know anyone else doing that?! Take a look and see if it can help you.
2/12/10
Green Energy at Hancock Shaker Village. They keep on taking green steps that not enough other museums are taking. I completely understand that museums are risk-averse. But it can't continue - especially in the green arena.
There are lots of old green practices and lots of new ones. The only way to test the new ones is to test them. So it's time for museums to stop being so risk-averse and look into the arenas where they can appropriately lead the way and be the model institutions they should be. Green work is one of those areas. And some people are willing to take responsibility for moving museums forward - but not everyone wants to hear that. The recent radio spot by WBUR The Art of Going Green in The Museum began by emphasizing the riskiness of green even when some of the museums interviewed didn't talk about risk.
I was interviewed for that piece but got cut. As a writer I completely understand that not much from every interviewee makes it into a 4-minute radio spot, but clearly I was off topic when I pushed for museum-greening as responsibility to our communities, responsibility for long-term sustainability of institutions, and that someone in the museum field has got to figure out how to responsibly enter a new era for museums, energy and collections care.
Those three museums are making positive changes that can make a difference in the field.....I just wish that had been the slant of the article.
"While the WBUR broadcast is a good interview piece, and gives a flavor of the issues, it does not provide any real guidance. It also nicely side-steps the 900-pound gorilla at the table, so well illustrated by the rendering of the Shapiro Family Courtyard: excesses in building envelope design. Glass is more expensive than brick, and causes more energy use, not only in heating and cooling the building, but in causing light-level adaptation problems for visitors as they move from a bright daylit space to conservation-lit galleries. This either compromises the visitor experience of the galleries, or causes greater light levels (and greater energy use, and more damage to the collections) to account for the adaptation problem.
There are three main energy-use loads in most commercial buildings, including museums: outside air, lighting, and building envelope. These can all be modest and still provide a good environment. Unfortunately, little if any constraint is put on architects whose work is the primary variable in determining these loads. Being more efficient is one thing, like the new chiller at the MFA, but being more efficient does not discourage waste. Real energy conservation comes from demanding less." - Comment by William Lull 2/12/10
From Sarah B: Thanks William. I do not know the science of the glass enclosures, but I do subscribe to "less is often more" in building museums.
1/10/10
Check out this blog entry from the Cooper-Hewitt on green exhibit practices
11/3/09
Check out this blog: a research-in-progress blog by Rose Daly of Daly Conservation. She is working on energy consumption and collections management issues. Her bibliography is a gift to us all.
11/2/09
The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities had a conference last June on Energy and Historic Sites. Here is a link to my talk...it starts out with a quiz about green knowledge and green practice (8 minutes or so) then moves on to the presentation but since the camera is trained on me, you can't see the PowerPoint for it. I can send the .pdf if you let me know: sarah at bmuse.net Free Lecture Forum - PBS
For those of us who missed the Smithsonian Institution's Climate Change conference a month ago - here are some of the talks. Worth having one with your cup of coffee as you start each day this week.
10/28/09
Denver Zoo: Gasification machine and LEED habitat - inspiration!
10/20/09
I've just posted a terrific link on the collections page - see link at right. Please feel encouraged to add more to keep it company.
One of my George Washington University Green Museum students sent this great link to a NYT article on zero waste - Yellowstone is mentioned. Good to see the National Park Service involved - though not at all surprising.
10/19/09
I just spent a great few days at the National Trust for Historic Preservation conference in Nashville. Here are some good links they shared for helping historic homes and houses be more energy-efficient:
www.PreservationNation.org/weatherization Tips on weatherization for historic houses.
www.PreservationNation.org/issues/sustainability The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s main link for sustainability issues and historic places and spaces
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/brief03.htm "Conserving Energy in History Buildings".
9/30/09
The World Comes to the Phipps Conservatory to see its 'greenness'. The State Department's website has great photos and descriptions.
7/10/09
Braden Paynter passed on this link to UK company making Welsh wool insulation for a green building material ...and other green restoration and building materials. Have a look - it will remind you to think outside the box for great solutions.
7/6/09
Two minimalist environmental control projects where the system treatment was specific to the particular issues for the buildings and collections within, at very low operating costs:
Humidity-controlled ventilation:
“Practical Solutions for Carriage Storage: The Stony Brook Shed Project,” paper presented at the 2000 annual meeting of American Institute for Conservation, with Ms. Merri Ferrell, Curator of Carriages, Museums at Stony Brook; and with Jonathan Taggart, Taggart Conservation.
A sealed and filtered unoccupied building:
Environmental Improvements for the Pinkney House at the Kern County Museum,” paper presented at the annual meeting of American Institute for Conservation, June 1991; AASLH Meeting September 1992; MAAM/NEMA Joint Annual Meeting, November 1992.
(Broken links above fixed 2/12/10)
6/29/09
We get lots of questions about the tension between climate control and energy reduction in museums. the short answer is that each situation is different, so you need and engineer and a conservator/curator to help ou make decisions, but here, at least is some reading material to get you going:
From the Getty Conservation Institute Newsletter on Environmental Management you'll find some great articles.
From the conference proceedings of From Gray Areas to Green Areas: Developing Sustainable Practices in Preservation Environments you'll find lots more including Richard L. Kerschner's
Providing Safe and Practical Environments for Cultural Property in Historic Buildings...and Beyond
Check the list of .pdf's on the right-hand side.
And of course the National Park Service and Sharon Park are a GREAT resource: Preservation Brief 24: HVAC and Historic Buildings
6/19/09
Rethinking the Modern Zoo I got this from the FastCompany Daily Newsletter - link to Zoo with art installation's illustrating human impact and interference with the natural world. Very cool. Worth a peek and some thought about how this suggests a change in 'the way we've always done it'.
5/19/09
Hancock Shaker Village - in a tourism webisode promoting their green interpretation: http://www.berkshires.org/BerkshiresGreenandSustainableWebisode/tabid/745/Default.aspx
5/4/09
Great AAM conference. Not too many green sessions, but lots of green museum folks being busy about their good work. The committee of Philly Museums interested in greening museums put out a great wallet-promo on greening your museum. Let's hope the LA folks do as well. The Green PIC - AAM's Professional Interest Committee - picked up some momentum talking to the Accreditation Committee about the future of 'green' as part of accreditation.
5/05/09
Hmm - Green and museums are finding a place on Twitter. Start by following me @greenmuseum and then lookout for the other green museum folks who 'follow'. SB
3/30/09
Proceedings from some of the presentations at From Gray Areas to Green Areas: Sustainability Practices in Preservation Environments in Texas last fall....wish I could have gone!
3/19/2009
Ice Energy storage video - installation of tanks.
1/13/09
Jennifer Madden of Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, MA, won the ExhibiTricks blog free copy of The Green Museum
1/13/09
The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice described in the National Trust blog on greening your historic site......check it out so you can take good advantage of their links and resources...and then support an historic site near you!
Cheers, SB
1/8/09
I visited President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home, a National Monument, two days ago, and stopped by the Richard H. Smith Visitor Education Center to see its LEED Certified green-ness. It's a gorgeous building, lovingly restored and greened. It has complex-green and simple-green components that are all something any existing building projects can and should consider.
The green is so appropriate that it's almost 'stealth' green: working transoms and windows, CFL's in the ceiling [but they aren't on because the natural light is enough], a cool roof in the spots where it's not yet time to replace the old roof, original fixtures OR additional new ones that look the same but take CFL's!, and a lovely daylight in the center has translucent glazing that lets in and diffuses light from the attic dormer that looks out over the front of the building. Of course, it helps that they started in a gorgeous old building, but then isn't that one major reason why historic preservation is so green?
SB
12/29/08
National Trust and Preservation is Green - I missed the chance to go to GreenBuild in Boston, which means I missed this speech by Richard Moe, leader of the National Trust. For those of you who also missed it, here is text for you. It talks about working with USGBC and the Clinton Climate Initiative, AND about creating a GreenLab on the West Coast that tests green and historic preservation issues.
As I went with folks on an energy audit at an historic site two weeks ago, we discussed blown-in insulation. Folks didn't feel they knew enough about the types and their longevity and unintended consequences to allow it in a house with a preservation easement. Does anyone have any comments?
Cheers, SB
12/23/08
12/18/08
I just wanted to let everyone know that Sarah is teaching a three-part webinar for AASLH in January for staff at any level working at history museums or historic sites. It’s an overview of green in US museums, an introduction to green concepts and types of practices, and then an in-depth look at hardware (building and property components, both existing and new, that contribute to sustainability), and software (the programs and practices we use at sites and museums to be more green). There’s even a walk-through of an energy audit at an historic site. The webinar is fast, inexpensive way to learn how to get started with green practices without much, if any, cost. It’s a great way to start the New Year: learning for yourself, your museum, and your visitors. To learn more, go to www.aaslh.org/GoingGreen. Bob Beatty
12/9/08
More on Recycling: This article in the NYT Back at Junk Value, Recyclables are Piling Up, the topic is the crashing sale price of basic recyclables - paper, plastic, aluminum. My opinion - stay the course ...the market for these will right itself, and in the meantime, it still reduces the use of virgin resources and delays the trip to the landfill. The good news - less of the recyclable stuff is being shipped to China - now THAT's progress! SB
11/25/08
About Compostable Plastics: Many of us use 'GreenWare', 'Nature Works' other compostable plastics, but we don't have a way to compost them. There's an asterisk on the 'compostable' description on the GreenWare webpage that refers to 'suitable facilities'. Well, if you want to have or find a suitable facility, you have to know what it is: Everything You Wanted to Learn About Serious Composting. Keep in mind, your local zoo or major botanical garden may have its own suitable facility and you can ask about working with them for the common good.
The NatureWorks company has done some research for you by providing a list of suitable composting facilities for such plastics. around the country. If there isn't a place close-enough, talk with your municipality about spearheading such a program for the benefit of multiple institutions in your area. You never know - it may be on their 'to-do' list, and all they need is a nudge.
Go green and prosper, SB
11/4/08
I get a lot of questions about how to 'convince' someone who doesn't believe in global warming or believe that there's enough of an issue to be a problem...someone who thinks the green wave is a fad. Here are some ideas:
This Chart of C02 increases on flickr should give you some ammunition.
And
The great new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History gives us a great tool for explaining why a cool summer can happen during global warming : Weather vs. Climate
While you're at the AMNH's website, check this out too: Sustainable Practices Facts. They've been thinking green for 10 years already.
Cheers, SB
11/3/08
During a visit to Quebec I met the leader of the green team for Zoo Granby and he and his team have produced a great, great downloadable resource: Green Book/Green Zoo Granby. My copy is in French, (which I cherish) but the website has an English version (which I can actually read well!).
9/26/08 As I listen to Eco Elvis' Compost Hotel (www.ecoelvis.com) I am distracted yet again from traditional work and am addressing green museum issues. Compost Hotel talks about giving 'trash a second life'...and that reminds me of Second Life and its application for museums, and its encouragement of us museum folks to think outside our desks and into the future. Elizabeth and I are working on our next Museum article: Water, Energy and the Future of Collections Care. We're talking to a technology forecaster, authors, museum professionals, engineers, and dreamers to think about museums 100 years from now - that's three generations. It's an excellent mental exercise that adds new meaning to strategic planning. We're also going to participate in the SuperStruct game with AAM. You can join a facebook group for Superstruct if you like. But then of course...we should all be working.......
Cheers, SB
9/23/08 A short - very short - and Loud - very loud...but then heat wheels are loud, and this video is short since you have to get back to work! SB
