Museums and Sustainability
The
Museums Association (UK) has links and resources related to museums and
sustainability: www.museumsassociation.org/sustainability
The Canadian Museums Association has created ‘A Sustainable Development
Guide for Canada's Museums'. A comprehensive guide to integrating
sustainability into all areas of the museum, this guide is essential reading
for all museum staff, volunteers, board members, and interested
individuals. Follow the titled link below to download the guide and learn
more!
A
Sustainable Development Guide for Canadian Museums
The
above guide can be downloaded in sections.
Resources from the Museums and Sustainability Publication © 2011:
Canadian Museums Association – A Sustainable Development Guide for Canada’s Museums (2010) outlines what sustainable development is, why it is time for museums to implement sustainable development practices, and offers ideas about how to incorporate these practices into your museum. Includes sample policies, as well as links and resources.
http://www.museums.ca/Sustainable_Development/?n=30
Canadian Museums Association, Ottawa, Ontario, 613-567-0099 or 1-888-822-2907, info@museums.ca
Canadian Museums Association – Ethics Guidelines (1999) outlines a framework for applying values like honesty, fairness, respect, excellence and accountability to areas of museum practice such as governance, collections, accessibility and presentations, research, revenue generating activities, and relations with staff and volunteers.
http://www.museums.ca/Publications/Ethics/?n=15-293
Museums Association (UK) – Sustainability and Museums: Your chance to make a difference (2008). Talks about principles of economic, environmental, and social sustainability, and how museums can use those principles in their operations. Also includes questions that are useful for exploring how museums could become more sustainable.
http://www.museumsassociation.org/sustainability/sustainability-report
Museums Association (UK), London, United Kingdom, info@museumsassociation.org
Museums Australia – Museums and Sustainability: Guidelines for Policy and Practice in Museums and Galleries (2003) is a guide to best practices in sustainability. It discusses how to promote sustainability in museum operations, collections management, and education programs.
http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/site/whatwedo_policies.php
Museums Australia National Office, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory, ma@museumsaustralia.org.au
Museums Association of Saskatchewan: Standards for Saskatchewan Museums (2010) is the foundational document for museums in Saskatchewan. The Standards are voluntary guidelines offering relevant, practical information about best practices in all facets of museum operations.
Available from the MAS Office.
Community Engagement
The Learning Coalition - Building Responsive Museums (2008) offers discussion questions and activities designed to help museums with community involvement. It provides a step-by-step process for clarifying a museum’s desired relationship to its community, and developing an action plan for achieving that relationship.
Available from the MAS office
Downloadable from the MAS website: http://www.saskmuseums.org/online-resources
Community Planning: Sustainability
Sustainable Kingston (2010) is a community plan that offers a useful, easy-to-understand framework for thinking about sustainability. The framework describes four key components to sustainable communities – cultural vitality, economic health, environmental responsibility and social equity – and how each is important in sustainable community development.
http://www.sustainablekingston.ca/community-plan/four-pillars-of-sustainability
City of Kingston Environment and Sustainable Initiatives Department, Kingston, Ontario
Local Sustainability
Saskatchewan EcoNetwork (SEN) is a network of non-profit, non-governmental organizations concerned with environmental issues. It offers information on environmental issues and organizations, as well as resources for teachers and students.
www.econet.sk.ca
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 306-652-1275, sen@link.ca
Saskatchewan Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development is part of a global network of Regional Centres of Expertise developing knowledge and educational programs aimed at engaging people to transform their activities to make them more sustainable. Includes an inventory of Saskatchewan Education for Sustainable Development programs.
www.saskrce.ca
Roger Petry, RCE Saskatchewan Coordinator, University of Regina, 306-585-5295, Roger.Petry@uregina.ca
Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative and SaskAdapt
PARC is a partnership of the governments of Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba pursuing climate change research. Its aim is to find practical options for adapting to climate change. SaskAdapt is a PARC project to provide information on the effects of climate change in Saskatchewan and what might be done to adapt to them.
www.parc.ca and www.SaskAdapt.ca
Regina, Saskatchewan, 306-337-2300, sask@parc.ca
Pride of Saskatchewan: A Policy Where Culture, Commerce, and Community Meet (2010) provides an overview of the Saskatchewan Government’s vision for the cultural “industries.” Includes a summary of the government’s principles in promoting culture (including Sustainable Development), and of policy goals such as promoting creative expression, promoting shared stewardship, building understanding of and access to culture, strengthening communities and building strong organizations, and increasing the economic potential of the cultural sector.
www.tpcs.gov.sk.ca/cultural-policy
Global Sustainability
Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) (1983) is a seminal United Nations report about the importance of bringing human activities into harmony with global ecology. The report describes unfolding environmental crises, and explains how a prosperous, just, and secure future depends on human beings adopting environmentally sustainable ways of life.
www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm
UNESCO.org is a website that offers a variety of resources for understanding the importance of culture in economic, social, environmental, and community well-being, and details UNESCO programs for promoting and valuing culture in the development process.
http://portal.unesco.org/
Museums and Sustainability
Janes, Robert. (2009) Museums in a troubled world: Renewal, Irrelevance, or Collapse? This book suggests that museums have potential to be important social institutions, but that potential is not being realized. His examples show how a focus on values and community engagement will help museums become more responsible, sustainable, and successful.
Available from the MAS Resource Library
Sutter, G. C. (2005) Can We Live Sustainably? An Overview of The Human Factor Section of the Life Sciences Gallery. Royal Sask Museum. This article describes a group of exhibits on sustainability at the RSM’s Life Sciences Gallery. Useful both as an example of a complex and ambitious attempt to promote public awareness of sustainability and as a primer on humanity’s relationship to the earth.
http://www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/research/pdf/can_we_live_sustainably.pdf
Worts, Doug. (2006) “Fostering a Culture of Sustainability” Museums and Social Issues 1(2):151-72. This article looks at how museums can understand and assess cultural needs, and how re-examining values and practices would allow museums to help foster a culture of sustainability.
http://douglasworts.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/msi_0102_151-172.pdf
