Museums Going Green

[Carri L. Manchester]

I'm a little slow on replying to a thread from a few days ago, but it's such a worthwhile topic.  I happen to work at a state run museum that has made a major commitment to going green at a high level... we as an agency use green cleaning supplies, recycle, use compact flourescents and are even starting to replace vehicles with hybrids.   That said, there are some things we're doing that don't require any financial commitment at all.  I've replaced my entire paper-based group booking procedure with emailed pdfs.  You can download a free program to convert documents via a pdf printer driver.  Now each group produces only one sheet of paper for the backup binder... just in case.   We've set our printers to print front and back as default. When we produce flyers, we're trying to make the best use of space, i.e. does this really need to be a full page, or can it be a 1/2 page printed front and back.   My email signature at work contains a little nature graphic that says, "Please consider the environment before printing this email."  (I stole this from a colleague.)  Hopefully it makes people take a moment to think.   We've also been looking at quite a few companies that produce recycled, organic and/or Fair Trade goods to carry in our Museum Shop.   And finally, there's our programming.  As a historic site, sense of place programming is only natural, and we're using it to try to create a sense of community pride that will give people, especially students, reason to love and protect their place and future.  We're taking "green" programming into consideration for all our future programs.  There are little opportunities everywhere, even on our tours, to make the point.   I'd love to hear more about what others are doing to increase our sustainability.   Carri Manchester Olana State Historic Site Hudson, NY