Sustainable Exhibitions Checklist

Consider the following areas of activity to weigh up the most sustainable and economically advantageous approach before, during and after touring an exhibition.

• Consider the different scenarios for your exhibition including partner venues, transport and design.
• Research is key at this stage to ensure that you work with the most sustainable businesses possible.
• Set out your aims for the exhibition from the outset. Whether it is touring in the same country or internationally, there are always ways to
  make the whole project more sustainable and have it fall in line with your aims. Consider your carbon footprint including lighting, staff time and environmental controls.
• Include sustainability conditions as part of tender documents. Talk directly with your contractors and suppliers about sustainable options.

• There are several options to choose from. Planned correctly, sustainable touring walks hand in hand with careful budgeting. If your funds are limited, sustainability is your friend. If you know where you want to save money, then you can start from this.
• Alternately, if you have a surplus of resources and materials and some of these are shared with your touring partner/s then you can agree on how to save costs, energy and materials from the outset.
• You may even consider approaching a tour partner that you know has resources available to share, which may mean that energy and transport costs as well as risk are kept to a minimum.
• Take stock of the resources you have available to you: this could include materials, resources, energy, staff time and volunteers.

• Plan the transport carefully with your chosen agent. Always ensure that they have a solid environmental policy and that you work closely with them to reduce the number of collections and drop-offs so as to make the distance covered as efficient as possible.
• Crates and packaging – re-use or rent where possible.
• Think about the weight and volume of loans. Avoid air freight and opt for road transport where possible; always check whether it is possible to use sustainably-sourced bio-fuel. Also don’t discount rail and sea freight.
• Make sure you work closely with other local museums so that you can collaborate on shipping if the opportunity should arise. This should be considered on a case by case basis.
• Consider touring exhibitions that make the most of your collection, should you have one. This is not only sustainable in that you already have your object on site, it also makes the most of the cultural and social value of your collection within your museum and your community. The line is then blurred between permanent and temporary exhibitions and you save on display, transport and packing costs.

• You may be required to travel for meetings. If your exhibition is touring internationally, or requires research abroad, this can be tricky. The main thing is to consider whether each trip is absolutely necessary.
• Skype and conference calls are often easier and cheaper, and it is more environmentally sustainable to meet via digital comms rather than in person.

• Keep couriering to a minimum.
• Not everything requires couriering and it is always worth negotiating with lenders. Often it becomes clear that the objects will be safe during transit and the exhibitions organiser/s will be on hand once they arrive to oversee offloading, unpacking and installation.
• However, there are cases where objects must be couriered if the objects are delicate, unstable or of financial or cultural significance. This is entirely acceptable but there are still ways to make the process more sustainable.
• Often lenders will allow other couriers to oversee their objects on their behalf so make sure you support this.
• The courier should be encouraged to use public transport to and from their accommodation and during the rest of their visit.

• Design efficiently and use existing stock.
• Object mounts and supports must be wellsuited to each object, but it is worth taking into consideration whether the materials are the most sustainable in terms of durability and adaptability.
• Consider sustainable lighting options such as LED.
• Have you discussed interpretation with your designer and other tour venues? You may find that you can share the costs of producing interpretation that can then be transferred between venues.
• Always plan your exhibition build with disassembly and/or reuse in mind.
• Where possible, design exhibitions with standard dimensions so that it is easier to reuse materials such as timber and plaster.

• This is a hot topic. Several museums have now opted to relax their environmental conditions, which has resulted in significant cost savings without jeopardising the collections/loans. This is a great way of making exhibitions more sustainable; the obstacle is that it must be agreed upon by all lenders. Passive environmental control is still worth considering as part of the planning of the exhibition and tour.

• Use lenders’ fittings and return after use. Take your time and label each work, any fittings, and make sure everything is kept together.
• Reuse your fittings (e.g. mirror plates) where possible.
• Make accurate packing notes and keep packing material for repacking the loans. If you make sure it is correctly labelled, stored correctly in sealed reusable bags in a safe, dry and dustfree environment, there is no reason not to reuse it. Packing notes save on time and any misunderstandings. Consider digital condition reports which removes endless sheets of paper and printing.
• Make sure everyone on board during the installation and de-installation at all venues is aware of your recycling and waste policies. This will ensure that everything is disposed of correctly and efficiently.

• Do you know how much waste you are producing for every exhibition? If you measure and identify it, you will be in a better position to find solutions to minimise it.
• Have you checked what you can and cannot recycle? Make sure you’re in the know.
• Build partnerships with organisations and museums in the local area. Chris Larner says ‘We generally maintain good links with surrounding galleries. In the past we have borrowed carpet from Whitechapel Gallery. Often I find that if the timings work well, galleries and museums are keen to dispense of material for free if they are trying to get rid of it.’
• Museum Freecycle is a great network where organisations can post their unwanted items for collection by other museums. As well as the obvious environmental benefits, this is also great for creating sustainable relationships with other museums and means that if you are looking for a particular item (e.g. a display case) then you may just find what you need for free on the network.
• Explore other reuse options, for example The Brixton Remakery are always keen to have materials such as MDF and paint and will collect
  for free.

• What have you learnt from this exhibition in terms of sustainability?
• Can any of the materials go towards future exhibitions?
• Is there anything that you would do differently next time so as to make it more sustainable? Learn from your experiences and progress will be
  made in each exhibition.