Last week I attended the New England Museum Association 2024 Conference in Newport, Rhode Island. About 800 museum professionals attended over the three days of sessions, vendor displays, professional affiliation group meetings, and receptions. The weather was sunny and sixties, surprisingly warm for the first week of November. Without the crowds of summer, it made Newport much more pleasant.

The conference offered numerous sessions on sustainability, and I’m attending as many as possible in preparation for my upcoming course, “Creating Sustainable Museums,” at George Washington University this spring.

In the session “Climate Emergency and Sustainability Taskforce at RISD,” several staff members from the Rhode Island School of Design Museum shared insights on their in-house sustainability efforts. What began as informal conversations among a few staff members evolved into a formal task force that resulted in the “Take Care” exhibition. Staff from all areas of the museum—not only curators and educators—selected objects from the collection and created interpretive labels addressing sustainability themes. In addition to this curatorial approach, the museum implemented practical sustainable practices, including standardizing frame sizes, reusing exhibition cases, turning off cameras in virtual meetings, and eliminating admission stickers and vinyl lettering.

In a session led by staff from Cambridge 7, we examined various carbon calculators for evaluating exhibition materials. The presenters highlighted that while the carbon footprint from operational energy (carbon emissions from building systems like electricity and gas) is expected to decrease as these systems transition to alternative energy sources, embodied energy (the carbon required for manufacturing, constructing, and transporting materials) warrants greater focus. When designing exhibitions, it’s increasingly important to consider the carbon footprint of materials alongside the usual criteria of cost, durability, off-gassing, and lifecycle. During the session, we used STiCH and EC3 calculators to assess the carbon content of materials like plywood, MDF, cardboard, and acrylic. While not all materials commonly used in museum exhibitions and educational programs are currently included in these tools, it’s likely they will be over time.

The final session on sustainability featured a case study of Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts. This 100-acre site, encompassing 17 buildings, adopted an ambitious sustainability plan aiming for net-zero operations across all areas. So far, they’ve significantly reduced the use of carbon-based fuels by switching to electricity as much as possible, feature artworks that use recycled materials, installed an exhibition on sustainability (“Creating Cape Cod”), and are working with the Cape Cod Commission on sea level rise. Their new welcome center, currently under construction, is advancing sustainability by adopting the stretch energy code requirements of the Massachusetts Building Code, rather than pursuing a green rating system like LEED or Green Globes.

There is plenty of sustainability work happening in museums in New England. If your museum or historic site would like to take a step forward, consider reusing exhibition materials at Barder.art; using more sustainable materials at MossInc.com; or adopt a materials pledge at MindfulMaterials.com. If you have other suggestions, please share it in the comments below.