Much like building a house, you can't build a truly sustainable museum on a shaky foundation.
In order for sustainability to really become embedded in every day practice and support not only the environmental sustainability but also the financial and social sustainability of your organisation in the future, you must spend the time to put the structures in place which allow for what I call "sustainable sustainability”.
A truly transformational sustainability program will be implemented in many of the same ways as an organisational change program. And like organisational change programs, may fail for the same reasons. Many organisations embark on sustainability programs with the hopes that all problems can be solved through technological innovation. Others charge ahead without proper strategies, leadership or staff buy-in. Research offers some grim statistics on the success rates of organisational change:
• A study found a 64 per cent failure rate among new technological innovations introduced into municipal public service programs (Yin, 1978, p. vi).
• Change initiatives crucial to organisational success fail 70 per cent of the time (Miller, 2002, p. 360).
• Major corporate investments in technology are not used as intended or abandoned within six months 80 per cent of the time (Gartner Group in Miller, 2002, p. 360).
• Of 100 companies that attempted to make fundamental changes in the way they did business, only a few were very successful (Kotter, 1995, p. 59).
The most important things to do early on are ensure proper leadership, staff-wide buy-in and a rigorous sustainability strategy. Doing so can mean opening up the door to other opportunities down the line, or taking advantage of opportunities right now. At Greener Museums, part of the work we do with our clients is teach museums how to ensure that sustainability gets a proper foundation.
As part of our Greener Museums Sustainability Leadership and Development Programme, of which this year's cohort is about halfway through, we teach all of the participants how to do this. And even just halfway through, they are having great success.
Jeff Cowton from the Wordsworth Trust says: "The biggest benefit of our participation so far is that eco-awareness is now an issue that is filtered through the entire workforce, due to having a group of people steering the Greener Museums course who can make decisions and disseminate the information."
Pierrette Squires from the Bolton Museums and Archives says: "Including the savings due to not installing air conditioning in Archives (I don't know that I'd have had the confidence to push for this without being on this course) we had approximately £50,000 in capital savings plus at a guess at least £10,000 annual energy savings on running costs." Pierrette and Jeff's participation in the programme have been funded by Renaissance North West.
I encourage you to really think about the foundation you are giving to your sustainability journey. Is it strong, or is it shaky?
We will be running the Greener Museums Sustainability Leadership and Development Programme again in 2011. If you're curious now, you can set up a sustainability strategy session and find out just how strong your foundation is. You can do this by setting up an appointment. If you can't find a time that suits you, contact us at support@greenermuseums.org and we will try to find you a time that works.
About Rachel Madan:
Rachel Madan is the Director of Greener Museums, a company dedicated to helping museums of all kinds and sizes, all over the world, to help accelerate progress towards sustainability. Rachel has over a decade of experience as a sustainability consultant working with NGOs, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and major UK companies such as Marks and Spencer and Clifford Chance. Rachel has been quoted in Museums ID Magazine, Museums Journal and Museums Practice. She is about to publish a book with Museums Etc on Sustainability in Museums. You can sign up for our free report on the State of Sustainable Museums at www.greenermuseums.org
