This guide offers museums (everywhere, small, large and every kind) an opportunity to contribute to the United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). These SDGs are the most ambitious worldwide programme ever, tackling a wide range of social and ecological challenges guiding the world to a sustainable future in 2030.

Climate impact through use is barely a fifth of an item’s impact: the rest is hidden. Most of the impact is in manufacture and transport (sometimes from the across the world) and has already happened before we buy the product. By taking this hidden impact into account, we can make our sustainability more effective. Read Babette Porcelijn’s inspiring book on hidden impact (also available in PDF): her tips and tricks are easily adapted for venues.

The Flemish website Cultuurzaam offers a toolkit for a sustainable culture, youth and media sector. The completed questionnaire provides an eco-snapshot of the way an organization operates, irrespective of products or creative processes. The checklist was developed by Kunstenpunt and Ecolife, with the support of the Flemish government.

The Green Toolbox is an English-language publication offering tips to make the workplace and organisation more sustainable. It’s an extensive tool that examines how organisations operate, buildings, publications, merchandise, food, waste etc. It contains tips to reduce paper and water use, to save energy, and for example, more sustainable merchandise.

The city of Aarhus in Denmark was Europe’s cultural capital in 2017. There they developed a model to help local cultural venues reduce their environmental footprint. It’s a generic model which can be applied anywhere, focusing on four essential facets: catering, day-to-day operations and mobility, architecture and building management, and communications and behaviour.

This approach encompasses the whole lifecycle of a project or product, such as an exhibition. The Ecodesign Strategy Wheel offers a handy checklist to stimulate design and solution improvements in key phases of a product’s lifecycle providing useful opportunities to make projects more sustainable in creative ways. With a downloadable worksheet!

With the green labor agreement, employer and employee are taking steps together to become more sustainable.

Corporate sponsorship in the art world is under a magnifying glass in times of climate change. Activists are demanding a split between the Rijksmuseum and ING, Eye Filmmuseum recently said goodbye to KLM. Can the art sector do without funding from "polluting" sponsors? And will it?

Earth Day is a reminder of the importance of environmental conservation and sustainability and encourages us to come together and take action for a healthier planet and a better future.

A little polarization is part and parcel of a democracy. But, warns philosopher and polarization expert Bart Brandsma, if that us-versus-them thinking gets out of hand, it becomes toxic and eventually leads to violence. His message to anyone dealing with polarization: speak out on behalf of the silent middle - and don't judge too quickly. View all episodes

The exhibition WATERLIGHT portrays a virtual flood, which shows the vulnerability of UNESCO World Heritage Site Slot Loevestein and draws attention to rising sea levels due to climate change.

Platform Climate and Heritage is hosting a meeting on April 4 where they will discuss the risks of climate change to museum collections and the role museums can play in raising awareness of climate change through presentations and activism.

In this four-part podcast, FARO seeks answers to the (complex) question of how museums can make a difference in the fight against climate change.

Renske Jonkman looks at how the Netherlands is taking action against the sea again in 2024 and which villages are at risk of drowning in the future.

The Museum Funding Guide helps museums find relevant grants and loans and provides an overview of current and upcoming funding opportunities in the areas of sustainability and digitization.

Staff from Documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH will explore various concepts and strategies that can be applied to promote a more environmentally friendly art world in this open lecture.

In the six-part podcast, philosopher Bart Brandsma explains what polarization is, what it takes for it to occur and what roles you can assume as a scientist.

Tega Brain, Julian Oliver & Bengt Sjölén together developed a work where a supercomputer is deployed to solve the world's ecological crises, with uncomfortable results.

The Rijksakademie offers a research program for young artists to develop as technical specialists and further their skills in craft, material and technique.

Artist and alumnus of the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten Floris Schönfeld learns from nature during his residency at ARTIS and explores the communication between everything living in the park.

This sector-wide study by Act Green, published in September 2023, examines the role of cultural organizations and their audiences in addressing the climate crisis.

Albert is an organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in the TV and film industry, to reduce the impact of production on the environment and to create content that supports a vision for a sustainable future.

The Green Menu Map provides insight into the sustainable opportunities, energy conservation regulations and current subsidies of historic buildings, monuments or protected city or village sites.

The CSR self-assessment tool provides insight into how an organization's tenders score in terms of socially responsible procurement.

The online tool "My State of Sustainability" explores how to apply sustainability in your museum, stage, theater or concert hall to accelerate the transition to a sustainable cultural sector.

Commissioned by the Department of Public Works, Bureau 8080 developed a free online tool with eight modules focused on waste prevention and waste separation at cultural institutions.

With the Digital Etiquette tool developed by E-missions, any organization can discuss, define and apply the online code of conduct to make its own organization's digital work style greener, thus contributing to its sustainability strategy.

This online tool allows you to estimate the carbon footprint of your own website.

Green Key is a sustainability label for the hospitality industry in the Netherlands, aiming to promote sustainability in the tourism and leisure industry and reduce its impact on the environment.

BREEAM-NL In-Use is the integrated certification method for making existing commercial and residential buildings more sustainable, providing insight into the current sustainable state of a property and the potential for improvement.

Julie's Bicycle's free carbon calculator helps organizations record, measure and understand the impact of their venue, office, tour, project, event or festival.

Using an online tool, The Environmental Barometer helps companies map their carbon footprint.

An interview with the NY Times Magazine discusses Andreas Malm's new book; "Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown," which examines the pursuit of fossil fuel profits and the enormously dangerous new justifications for that pursuit.

Data scientist Alex de Vries investigates the climate damage of artificial intelligence (AI)

NWO presents a new theme for arts research that will offer new perspectives on climate justice, developed by artists and/or designers in collaboration with various stakeholders, the cultural sector, their audiences and other scientific disciplines.

In a letter to the editor, Thomas Lamers addresses the new outgoing Secretary of State for Culture, Fleur Gräper, with a message of commitment to climate in future arts policy.

The Green Museums Summit, a virtual conference organized by MuseumNext, will take place Feb. 26-27, 2-24.

The MuseumNext website features the "Planet" dossier, with articles, interviews and other resources on making the sector more sustainable.

The growth of soccer seems impossible to reconcile with goals to reduce emissions. In this article, find out what soccer clubs are doing to still become more sustainable

In the theater sector, the Theatre Green Book was developed, which focuses on sustainability of productions, the building and the operational side.

To be or not to be: the Dutch Association of Performing Arts is sounding the alarm with a statement on sustainability. This accompanying website page is a growing list of concise, concrete suggestions for putting climate into your actions in various areas of work.

NEMO (Network of European Museum Organizations) created an interactive map to which each museum can add its own sustainability efforts. Be sure to add your own contribution!

NEMO (Network of European Museum Organizations) regularly organizes webinars on sustainability within museums.

In 2022, the Network of European Museum Organizations released the report "Museums in the Climate Crisis," following a survey on the sustainability transition among European museums.

The Network of European Museum Organizations (NEMO) released the report "Museums, Climate and Politics, Taking Political Action in the Sustainable Transition" in 2023.

From November 10-12, 2023, the NEMO European Museum Conference took place in Lathi, Finland, with the theme "And Action... Museums in the Climate Crisis.

The ACTION as Culture knowledge platform features recent studies, such as that of the Boekman Foundation on Sustainability in the Cultural Sector, and numerous examples of sustainable initiatives, projects and innovations, which serve as inspiration to get started yourself.

On Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, during National Climate Week, the Rijksmuseum hosted a meet-up around the theme: making museum buildings sustainable.

Thijs Weststeijn (48), professor of art history, warns that many churches, temples and entire cities (Venice, Hoi An) are already almost beyond saving. Ideas he also has: "For example, tear down the Palace on Dam Square and rebuild it in Apeldoorn.

Which future-proof materials did the Stedelijk show in It’s Our F***ing Backyard? Use the interactive survey to find out all about this – and perhaps even to contribute to a future exhibition

During her stay at VILLA VILLA, a sustainable artist residency programme focused on cultural exchange and contemporary sustainability, Alice Bonnot explored how far artists have come in applying greater sustainability in their practice and the challenges they face.

In After Us the Deluge Kadir van Lohuizen guides through his investigation into rising sea levels, supported by diagrams and maps. His amazing photography is accompanied by academic and journalistic essays.

How do artists draw inspiration from our planet and how we look after it? Read more about this in Hans Ulbrich Obrist and Kostas Stasinopoulos’s book 140 Artists’ Ideas for Planet Earth.

Voedingscentrum comments on the carbon footprint of the food we eat: by eating more sustainably we can improve the world’s environmental capacity, and by making more sustainable choices we can make our available resources last longer.

Trees for All plants trees in the Netherlands and abroad to improve the climate, biodiversity and a healthy environment. To date they have planted over 6.8 million trees and bushes and have compensated almost 500,000 tons of CO2. Use this website to compensate for the negative impact of a flight or car ride, or a company’s total CO2 emission. The website also has a handy calculator to calculate carbon emission.

Calculate the impact of a journey on the environment on the EcoPassenger website. Discover the CO2 emission for any trajectory in Europe and compare the difference for the same distance between two locations by plane, car or train.

Banks invest their client’s savings. But what actually happens to that money? Use this indicator to see how sustainable a bank, insurer or pension fund really is.

Complete this questionnaire to gain a better perspective on which items to focus on and where to make improvements to achieve sustainability in an organisation’s cultural infrastructure.

Greenpeace regularly publishes a list of energy providers with a survey of how green their energy is. Consumentenbond, Natuur & Milieu and WISE have carried out surveys of every company selling energy to consumers in the Netherlands in 2021/2022. The greenest energy suppliers provide energy that is as clean as it gets, generated by wind turbines and solar panels. Moreover, they work proactively to convert to clean and sustainable energy.

Looking for a way to chart CO2 and eco-impact? Look no further than the Milieubarometer: a user-friendly online monitoring instrument.

Scope 3 Evaluator is a free, web-based tool produced by Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Quantis enabling companies to measure, report and reduce emissions as part of their value chain.

This CO2 calculator shows the level of an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions as well as electricity use, heating, business transport and flights. An annual calculation of this data provides an immediate survey of savings made, while the website also helps set limits to the organisations CO2 footprint.

Groene Grachten provides free advice and guidance for cultural ANBIs (public benefit organisations) as part of a North Holland provincial assistance programme which helps museums and other organisations reach their sustainability goals with an energy scan or by assisting applications for licenses and subsidies.

A BREEAM-NL certificate is tied to assessment guidelines that define the category requirements for a sustainable building or terrain. These credits are searchable online. The assessment guidelines also set out the proofs required per credit. The more credits acquired, the higher the BREEAM-NL score for a project.

How can we create a safe, stable world in which we’ll be able to wish each other a happy 2050 with sincerity? That’s the question that an intrigued Babette Porcelijn investigated. The happy 2050 scenario is the result; a complete plan for achieving a safe planet, an inspired crew, honest policies, eco-positive production without hidden impacts, a healthy economy and equal opportunities for well-being for everyone.

In 2021, the Amsterdam Regional Metropolis (MRA) appointed Haarlem to head the Sustainability and Culture portfolio and compiled and launched the Green Menu for Museums and Performing Arts together with North Holland and De Groene Grachten: a survey/platform of all the options (and lots of inspiration and regulation) to make museums (and podiums) sustainable.

Sustainability also plays a role in preserving a museum collection: how to maintain a stable temperature and humidity level in a space where energy consumption is limited? Knowledge institutions such as the Cultural Heritage Agency and TU Eindhoven study ways to prevent museum objects deteriorating and to extend their lifespan using less technology and saving energy. They developed the Climate Control in 9 Stages model. Check their Museums and Sustainability video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLd2aHSValo

The savings planner charts an organisation’s sustainability activities by compiling a digital dashboard that provides an insight into the savings made by applying sustainable options. The savings planner indicates which actions and measures are required, and assembles a survey of energy consumption and energy savings (electricity, gas and CO2). The National Maritime Museum uses this tool.

Green Key is the international endorsement for sustainable businesses in the recreation and leisure sector and market. Companies with a Green Key endorsement do everything possible to save the environment, without it encroaching on the comfort and quality experienced by their guests. Check the website for inspiration: https://www.greenkey.nl/watisgreenkey

A BREEAM-NL certificate is tied to assessment guidelines that define the category requirements for a sustainable building or terrain. These credits are searchable online. The assessment guidelines also set out the proofs required per credit. The more credits acquired, the higher the BREEAM-NL score for a project.

How can we create a safe, stable world in which we’ll be able to wish each other a happy 2050 with sincerity? That’s the question that an intrigued Babette Porcelijn investigated. The happy 2050 scenario is the result; a complete plan for achieving a safe planet, an inspired crew, honest policies, eco-positive production without hidden impacts, a healthy economy and equal opportunities for well-being for everyone.

Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face in our time. Many people recognise that climate change is caused by the way we live, and that action is required to combat climate change. But are people prepared to do their bit? Are they prepared to reduce their use of fossil fuels, and to eat fewer meat and dairy products? And what kind of policies stimulate sustainable behaviour effectively? The Environmental Psychology expertise group, including Thijs Bouman, Lise Jans, Goda Perlaviciute, Linda Steg and Ellen van der Werff envestigate these issues.

In Waarom een fundamenteel probleem van klimaatverandering psychologisch is social psychologists Cameron Brick, Frenk van Harreveld and Maria Zwicker argue that emotional appeals and stories are needed to change individual behaviour with respect to the climate. 

In Een beter milieu begint niet bij jezelf (2020) author Jaap Tielbeke tackles the myths of the current climate debate. ‘We are obsessed by having to change our own behaviour patterns and by innovative technology, yet the real change should be at a political level. It’s not about buying a Tesla, but about investing in public transport. And not about converting to veganism, but about abolishing intensive livestock farming. If the situation is serious enough then we’re prepared to take radical measures, as the corona pandemic showed. Improving The Environment Doesn’t Start Here shows why we need to approach economic upheaval with the same urgency.’

More is not always better. In this TED talk British economist Kate Raworth proposes a revolutionary new way of economic thinking: Doughnut Economics. Nature is no longer the blind spot in the system. In Doughnut Economics, nature and people are at the heart. 

Various museums have generated extra income by selling digital versions of artworks. DEN drew up a survey of recent developments in this article. 

De belangrijkste cijfers over de datacenter sector (Key statistics on the data centre sector)
The datacentre sector leads the way in sustainable innovation, both in energy efficiency in datacentres and in sustainable power supply and aims to actively continue contributing.

Van Pasvorm tot Polygon is an exhibition initiated by Utrecht fashion collective Studio PMS and recently launched online. It’s an impressive show in which historical costumes are brought to life with enchanting animations, augmented reality and other digital techniques. In this blog, curator Ninke Bloemberg offers concrete examples of the collaboration of the physical and digital design world and the way these worlds benefit each other. 

Museum van de Geest highlights the effect corona has had on healthcare. A growing collection of stories and photos bundled together in an interactive online exhibition using the Slices platform (Slices.co / https://slices.co/solutions/museums), conveys the despair, fear and resilience of carers and clients. The interactive website shows the pandemic through the eyes of the homeless, refugees, domestic violence victims and psychological patients.

This interactive documentary was developed in 2016, Jheronimus Bosch Year. It takes the user on an audio-visual journey in a web environment in which sound, music, video and pictures contribute to an enhanced narrative. Details which are hard to find with the naked eye on the triptych are revealed in the digital image. Users are able to delve deeper than ever into Bosch’s masterpiece.

In this exhibition, international artists reflected on today’s climate issues in relation to the power imbalance in the world, past and present. The art exhibits showed how combatting climate change requires a fairer social and political organisation of society.

Earth Matters was a presentation of experiments – from fashion to design – contributing to more sustainable production processes, small and large. The show was compiled by Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano.

In a Dutch newspaper article, Meta Knol describes the untenability of ‘a system in which Dutch museums compete with huge, over-expensive crowd pleasers that require more and more funding and visitors, and whose success is invariably measured in terms of turnover and attendance. Meanwhile, few seem to have considered where this expansion of visitor numbers stops. It’s a symptom of one of the intractable evils of our time: addiction to growth.’

New Heroes developed the Nature Building Project to offer an interactive and experiential way to get people of all ages, backgrounds, education levels and worlds to think and act in building a greener world for everyone. The Nature Building Project consists of workshops, lectures, exhibitions, research sessions, videos, stories, central meetings and various beautiful, interactive installations called the Natural Building Kits.

For those having trouble checking the environmental impact of the materials in a design, this Fiction Factory tool helps generate sustainable and circular designs by labelling materials based on eco-cost and circularity.

MuseumGoed focuses on sharing and reusing exhibition materials in the museum sector. MuseumGoed effectively coordinates supply and demand of these materials and ensures that the exhibition sector uses available resources more efficiently.

Opera Amsterdam, Buurman Rotterdam, Museumgoed joined together to create a 7-loops system to guide exhibition makers in applying circular production principles. Het Versnellingshuis | Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat selected this project as a Moonshot Project to create a countrywide value chain.