Sustainability Resources

This page collects links to resources aimed at ecological resilience and carbon-zero goals for collections care and preventive conservation. These resources may be sourced from conversation in the forum's Sustainability space, the List, the Sustainability Committee, or directly from you. Please help us grow the list with your own suggestions, and share your experiences with any of these resources in the forum.

This page will focus on information/strategy-based nonprofits and environmental charities for now. Any commercial products or services designed to lower the carbon footprint of your operations can be posted in the forum's Promotional space.


Sustainable Practices, AIC Wiki
The AIC Wiki is sponsored by the American Institute for Conservation with content created by the various AIC Specialty Groups, Networks and Committees. Several of the Specialty Groups had "AIC Conservation Catalogs," compendia of working knowledge on materials and techniques used to preserve and treat works of art and historic artifacts. The Sustainable Practices page is maintained by members of the American Institute for Conservation's Sustainability Committee.

PACCIN note: There is a treasure trove in information easily accessible from the landing page for this section of the AIC wiki, including articles on a large number of subtopics, videos, a newsletter, an archive of webinars, and a forum. You can also head to their Resource Bank for a collection of broader information sources.


Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage (STiCH)
One of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century is climate change. Sustainability Tools in Cultural Heritage (STiCH) is a life cycle assessment (LCA) Carbon Calculator and Library of Case Studies and Information Sheets developed to help cultural heritage professionals make educated, sustainable choices to lower the environmental impact of their work.

PACCIN note: This link goes directly to STiCH's carbon calculator for à la carte material lookups, but there are articles here as well.


Partners for Arts Climate Targets (PACT)
PACT is an international coalition of organizations within the visual arts engaged in collaborative efforts to accelerate the sector’s broad adoption of collective climate action.

PACCIN note: Their landing page displays descriptions of several partner organizations in the network along with links to their sites.


Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC)
Gallery Climate Coalition is an international community of arts organisations working to reduce our sector’s environmental impacts. GCC’s primary goal is to facilitate a reduction of the sector’s CO2e emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030, as well as promoting zero waste. We develop and share best practice, provide leadership on sector specific environmental issues, and work to leverage the collective power of our membership to achieve systemic changes. As a registered charity, we do not operate for profit and all our tools and resources are provide free of charge. As a result GCC relies on voluntary donations to maintain operations.

PACCIN note: This organization is one of the partners in PACT, but we linked them directly here for their user-friendly carbon calculator designed with the art world in mind.


Barder
Resource sharing for the arts. Post material to offload. Source material for less. And in doing so, reduce waste, recover valuable space, lower operating costs, foster industry connections, and invest in a circular economy. All donations made to BARDER are tax-deductible. BARDER is fiscally sponsored by Art into Acres, an artist-founded, 501c3 non-profit, environmental and art initiative based in California, USA focusing on large-scale land conservation for climate, Indigenous peoples, and biodiversity support.


One Tree Planted
We want to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Together we can restore forests, create habitat for biodiversity, and make a positive social impact around the world. We plant one tree with every dollar donated.

PACCIN note: This broadly recognized organization focused on reforestation provides an accessible but meaningful step on the path to carbon-zero goals.

MuseoCycle
MuseoCycle is a network of museum professionals engaged in material reuse. Our goal is to reduce waste and promote a circular economy within the field of cultural heritage preservation. Join the MuseoCycle Network on BARDER.art.

Ki Culture
Ki Culture is an international nonprofit working to unite culture and sustainability. We use “culture” as an all inclusive term - from visual arts to heritage to performing arts and all stakeholders who have a role to play. We use the word sustainability in a wide sense of the word- encompassing all three pillars (environmental, social, and economic) - redesigning systems and rethinking how and what we do to find win - win - win solutions: better for the people, better for the culture, and better for the planet.


What have we missed? Please share your knowledge of environmental nonprofits and charities in the Sustainability forum space! Resources directly related to challenges faced by your colleagues the PACCIN community are especially welcome.