Why climatizing your institution or your storage matters when aspiring for more sustainable practices
As professionals charged with protecting art and artifact collections, we have to shepherd the flock away from the wolves. The threats resulting from the transportation of collections, as any insurer will tell you, far outnumber any other threat, yet we burden ourselves with that risk for the sake of access and education.
In other words, take the principle responsibility of reducing collection emissions off the already threatened collection itself. Do not add more risk by extending travel times by sea or compromising the quality of packing for the sake of less substantial greenhouse gas reductions. We need to track and hunt the biggest game: emissions from our buildings in the form of electricity used to climatize spaces powered by non-renewable energy sources.
Collections do not get smaller. The number of objects deemed valuable enough to safeguard only increases with the creation of new works of art, the discovery or more ancient relics, or the reinterpretations of past that lead us to value our world differently. Energy usage by buildings already outweighs other sources and will only grow.
What can we do to reduce energy use by our HVAC systems? I have organized a webinar on the topic with Greg Stephens, Professional Engineer (PE) and President of Mussett Nicholas Associates, an architecture firm specializing in spaces requiring specialized environments, to explain the full range of possibilities.
Join me on Friday, March 24, at 1pm EST
RSVP to my email jtr@jtrobinette.com to receive the Zoom link.
