How sustainable museums are reducing their carbon footprint

27th February 2025

A museum’s mission is to preserve the past and educate the public about its importance, but every organisation has a responsibility to protect the future as well.

Every arts and heritage institution has an impact on the environment. Energy is required to power and heat buildings and transporting exhibitions and artefacts also has a cost to the environment.

In this article we’re going to take a look at the key areas where museums can reduce their carbon footprint, and some examples of museums that are doing a great job of this already.

Key areas where museums can make a difference

Arts and heritage institutions have an opportunity, and responsibility, to do what they can to make a difference in educating the public on the importance of sustainability, as well as reducing their own carbon footprint.

Reducing impact of traveling exhibitions

One of the main contributors to a museum’s carbon footprint comes from ‘travelling’ exhibitions, including the environmental impact of crafting and shipping the exhibition.

This is an issue that’s been discussed by the Gallery Climate Coalition, which acknowledges that the cultural benefits of travelling exhibits incurs an ‘environmental cost’.

The GCC recommends that exhibition design and production should involve the use of reusable modular components and recycled (or recyclable) materials wherever possible, ensuring tours can be operated with zero waste and zero landfill. This modular approach also allows components to be packed into smaller spaces and at lighter weights, reducing the CO2 emissions involved in transporting them.

Additionally, museums can extend the length of time exhibits are on display, reducing the amount of time those tours are on the road.

Investment in energy efficiency improvements

Just like any business or institution, museums can make energy efficiency improvements by modernising HVAC systems (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), installing energy efficient windows and utilising renewable energy generation.

Although this represents one of the more expensive ways for a museum to reduce its carbon footprint, these improvements will yield a positive return over time by cutting energy bills—particularly important for larger institutions having to deal with high overhead costs.

A good example of this is the Jeongok Prehistory Museum in South Korea. Located on a hillside in Yeoncheon County in the north of the country, the museum combines its natural surroundings—a hillside providing natural insulation—with cutting-edge sustainability technology, including natural insulation, advanced temperature regulation systems and energy-efficient lighting.

Reducing plastic and paper usage

Think about how much paper-based promotional and educational materials your institution produces each year. Could this be eliminated in favour of digital alternatives? For example, can leaflets accompanying exhibitions be accessed by a visitor’s smartphone instead?

A museum’s gift shop is also an area that might be generating plastic and paper waste. Replace plastic bags with paper or reusable materials bags, and eliminate plastic packaging from souvenirs wherever possible.

You can also consider implementing a broader zero-waste policy across the museum, reducing waste through recycling and composting to reduce as much landfill waste as possible.

Visitor engagement and community impact

Arts and heritage institutions have the power to inspire change through visitor engagement and by working with local communities and stakeholders. This might involve exhibits or workshops focused on the environment and sustainability, or educational initiatives that extend beyond the museum’s walls and engage people internationally.

A good example of this in action is Manchester Museum’s ‘Top Floor Hub’, a community-centric space for environmental action and social justice. The space is available to social enterprises, charities, activists, researchers and artists working across a range of important areas—including climate action.

Examples of museums leading in sustainability

The Field Museum, Chicago, USA

For a museum to be successful with their sustainability efforts they need buy-in from across the organisation. A great example of an institution that’s been doing this for years is The Field Museum in Chicago.

The museum first established their ‘Green Team’, also known as ‘A Greener Field’, back in 1989, and today this initiative brings together more than 40 members of staff from across the organisation every month to develop their sustainability credentials. These initiatives include bike-sharing programs, recycling and composting endeavors, as well as one of their most prolific projects, the staff-maintained Edible Treasures Garden.

The Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

We mentioned above how museums can cut their carbon footprint by investing in sustainability technology, and The Prado Museum is a great example of this in action.

The institution implemented a brand new LED lighting system that delivers a 75% energy saving annually, reducing the museum’s CO2 emissions by 320 tonnes each year.

The Museum of Tomorrow, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Rio de Janeiro’s Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) was opened in 2015 with sustainability at the forefront of its design. The museum has solar panels that move with the sun to maximise energy production, a HVAC system that uses water from the nearby Guanabara Bay, and collects rainwater to reuse too, all of which saves around 9.6 million liters of water and 2,400 megawatt-hours of electricity every year.

The museum’s exhibitions are also focused on sustainability and the environment.

Natural History Museum, London, UK

The Natural History Musem has pledged to become the world’s first museum to set a science-based carbon reduction target. In 2020 the institution joined many others around the world to have declared a climate and ecological emergency. The Natural History Museum has also had a number of events focused on climate change, biodiversity and sustainability.

The benefits of embracing sustainability

There are a number of benefits for arts and heritage institutions that embrace sustainability policies and embed them into all of their processes and operations.

Reducing waste

Whether it’s materials used for creating exhibits, marketing and educational collateral, or simply plastic packaging for products in the gift shop, it’s easy for museums to generate their fair share of waste.

Reducing this waste is important for reducing your institution’s environmental impact, but it can also save money. Convert leaflets to digital formats accessible online wherever possible, and eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging from the gift shop.

The Fine Arts Museum in Lille, France, is an example of an institution doing what it can to reduce waste by working on sustainability and collections management. They choose environmentally-friendly materials and promote the reuse of scenographies as part of their commitment to a global approach of eco-responsibility.

Minimise overhead costs

Arts and heritage institutions often have large building footprints. Heating and cooling those buildings, as well as operating customer facilities, yields a high yearly cost.

Although the upfront cost of modernising windows, HVAC systems and other processes can be high, the amount of money saved over the long term more than makes up for it, while dramatically reducing your carbon footprint.

In Finland, the Climate Promise is a joint project involving 13 professionally maintained museums in the southwest of the country. This promise features specific actions that improve a museum’s environmental agency and make permanent changes to their operational models, with participating museums being required to execute at least one action item by the end of the project.

Improve community engagement

Your visitors care about sustainability, and this issue is only getting more critical as extreme weather events get more prevalent and climate records are broken. This is evidenced by the various protests and acts of civil disobedience targeting arts and heritage institutions carried out by groups like Just Stop Oil.

By embracing sustainability, whether that’s through improvements to your own processes and operations, or by promoting exhibitions and content that educates the public about climate change, you can put your institution at the forefront of the conversation.

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