Green museum
[21] The Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens was given a LEED silver certification for its new Welcome Center, which "is designed to evoke the geometry of the historic glass houses behind it."
It has 11,000 square feet of lobby, ticketing, gift shop, and cafe space with a 34 ft high glass dome that is insulated to control glare and heat.
It was determined that by doing this, Phipps would save 40-50% of annual energy costs compared with an entirely above ground structure, and demonstrated that sustainable design could be created in ways that were still sympathetic to historic settings.
It is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and is planned to exceed the LEED platinum certification, and achieve the Living Building Challenge.
[26] As part of its mission, the Toledo Zoo committed to green construction, which was shown in the parking lot renovation project.
The renovation also included a residential-sized wind turbine and three solar panels to power the ticket booths at the park's entrance.
In order to accomplish the project, the Toledo Zoo turned to a local companies, and used funds from private contributions and an energy grant from ODOD to cover the $14,750,000 price.
"In its 2004 expansion project the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh used only adhesives, sealants, paints, carpets, and composite wood that are certified formaldehyde free with near-zero off-gassing.
"[30] Before the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra became mainstream, a small number of museums had already begun promoting sustainable decision making through exhibits.
Based on the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, the OMSI Green Exhibition Certification guide simplified and adapted the LEED system to cater to the specific needs of the museum sector, especially in view of the limited financial and human resources found in many museums.
After evaluation, they are awarded 0-4 points: Through the project, Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Decision Making in Informal Education, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), OMSI also developed Exhibit Social Environmental and Economic Development (Exhibit SEED) in collaboration with multidisciplinary professionals across the United States.
Some museums choose to make sustainability a central part of their identity, writing their commitment to being green in their mission statements.
Sustainability can be seen as relating to three aspects included in most museum missions: field of research, purpose of public service, and the mandate for education.
[37] As informal education centers that serve the public, museums are in a position to teach about sustainability to a large audience in meaningful ways.
Ecophobia is David Sobel's theory that if you introduce abstract and difficult environmental issues to children at too early of an age, and without the proper background knowledge, they will retreat from nature.
Aligning their missions and programs with sustainability principles ... will recalibrate their own daily practices as well as awaken their community to the array of choices perhaps otherwise invisible to them" (183).
[43] Museums, as a trusted part of the informal education system, are able to address the economic, cultural, and social dimensions of sustainability.
The goal, stated or unstated, is to educate patrons about the effect they have on their environment, the ecological, economic, and cultural risks taken when they ignore their impact on the world, and introduce ways that they can reduce their carbon footprint.
One way museums can conserve resources is to incorporate energy saving practices into their daily operations, altering the facilities they already inhabit rather than building anew.
Other museums that manipulate their facilities location include the Morgan Library, as identified by Brophy and Wylie, whose storage is "carved out of Manhattan bedrock.
It also reduces the carbon footprint of construction; materials purchased from local suppliers do not need to be delivered on a tractor-trailer, on an airplane, or on a ship, all of which consume fuel, time and money.
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego purchased paint, office furnishings, windows and doors from local vendors.
For example, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum designed a rooftop that won the 2003 Chicago Green Roof Award.
The living portion of the roof reduces the volume of storm water runoff and solar panels generate electricity used by the museum below.
There are multiple rating systems and interactive tools online and there is a growing consultancy field aimed at helping museums audit, develop baselines, and benchmark their performance.
However, lighting can irreversibly change the appearance of objects such as paintings, textiles, leather, photographs, books and paper, or mounted specimens.
[54] The challenge to the lighting designer is to achieve a balance between creating interesting and desirable spaces, maintaining visual comfort and health of the visitor, while adhering to energy conservation goals.
[61] For example, the California Academy of Sciences, which is housed in a LEED Platinum building designed by Renzo Piano, utilizes a natural ventilation system that could expose its collections to airborne flora and fauna, fluctuations in temperature and humidity, and strong daylight.
In order to combat these factors, Jonathan Katz, CEO of Cinnabar, Inc., the firm that was hired by the California Academy of Sciences to design exhibits for the main floor of its new Natural History building, devised a “kit of parts” system where specimen display cases themselves could be configured to control temperature, humidity, and light.
[65] The following list was composed based on findings from Silence's paper: Recycling Energy Consumption Waste Improved Sustainability through Products and Procedures Education
