Green Museum - History

History

Green museums are a relatively new phenomena. Discussions within museums circles about environmental sustainability began in the 1990s and have continued to grow in momentum to the present day. Currently, green museums are receiving a lot of attention from academia and the mass media. Some scholars believe that a focus on sustainability is a way for museums to be relevant in the 21st century (Brophy & Wylie, 2006). However, most conventional museums are not engaged in sustainable practices.

The green museum movement began in science and children’s museums. Science museums found that environmental advocacy and education fit easily within their missions and programming. Children’s museums saw that using green design in their inside environments created a healthy playground for their young visitors. Once sustainability became a topic of discussion in museum circles, zoos and aquariums realized that their existing missions and programming of species conservation was in essence sustainable education. Recently, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums revised its accreditation standards to include a requirement of environmental advocacy.

With the green museum movement beginning in Children's Museums, The Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, IL, became the first LEED-certified Children's Museum on October 3, 2005, when it received a Silver certification. The Brooklyn Children's Museum became the first LEED-certified green museum in New York City in 2008, using rapidly renewable and recycled features such as bamboo and recycled rubber flooring. The museum also uses photovoltaics to generate electricity. The Boston Children's Museum is also a good example of a green museum leader, after receiving a LEED Gold certification in 2007, as well as the Pittsburgh Children's Museum, which received a LEED Silver certification in 2004.

Science museums and zoos were quick to follow Children's Museums in the green movement. One of the first science museums to adopt green initiatives was the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain in Burlington Vermont, which was the first LEED certified building in Vermont. The Natural History Museum of Utah is another museum which has taken charge in the green museum movement. They are applying for a LEED Gold certification, and are expected to save over $22,000 in energy costs. At their Rio Tinto Center, the museum will have such integrated design features as an educational energy trail to tell the whole story of energy, as well as a renewable energy system.

Zoos and Botanical Gardens have also beecome leaders in the Green Museum field. The Denver Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, and Cincinnati Zoo all received Green Awards at the 2011 Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conference. 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. Architects partially built the structure into the terrain, with 14th feet of usable space below ground. 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. Phipps will also be opening the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, which will house a center for education, research, and administration. 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.

Art Museums are now also joining the movement. The Grand Rapids Art Museum became the world's first LEED certified art museum complex in 2008 when it received LEED Gold certification, which such innovative features as a heat recovery ventilator, CO2 sensors, and on site grey water reuse.

Now all types of museums of all sizes are becoming green. In the last decade, over 20 American museums have constructed a new green building or have renovated an existing building with sustainable features. Many others have developed green operations or programming. Some scholars believe that environmental sustainability will become a professional expectation for all museums in the future (Wylie & Brophy, 2008).

One specific example of a "Green Museum" is The Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio. In 2007, the institution redefined its mission statement to focus on inspiring and informing the public about conservation. As part of their new mission, the Toledo Zoo committed to green construction, which was shown in the parking lot renovation project. The main parking lot was redesigned in order to increase parking capacity and aid traffic flow, and the project incorporated green elements such as rain gardens and reusing concrete. The renovation also included a residential-sized wind-turbine and three solar panels to power the ticket booths at the park's entrance. The wind-turbine and solar panels generate 3600 kilowatt hours per year, which can be redirected into the zoo's main power grid when the booths are not in use and reduce the zoo's carbon footprint by 5600 pounds annually.

Another project at the Toledo Zoo is the Solar Walk. The Solar Walk opened in November 2010 and includes over 1400 solar panels that produce 104,000 kilowatt hours per year, the same amount of energy used by ten typical homes in Ohio. The Toledo Zoo and the Solar Walk's design team wanted the project to be a visual reminder to all zoo visitors and traffic from nearby highway of the zoo's commitment to conservation. 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. Also, The Toledo Zoo, in keeping with their mission statement, included informational panels on how the Solar Walk works and the amount of energy produced to date, so that visitors can be informed on the conservational value of the project. The Solar Walk will reduce the Zoo's carbon footprint by over 75 metric tons each year, which is equivalent to 15 medium-sized cars. The Toledo Zoo has further committed to incorporate green construction into its building plans through geothermal wells, environmentally friendly insulation and other renewable energy and green construction materials.