In September 2018, the world convened in San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit to talk about climate change and what we’ll do about it. (At least, the climate geeks did.) But cultural institutions were there, too. Why? Because the current and future impacts of a changing climate are going to affect us all, and it’s going to take everyone to manage it.

First of all, everyone has to participate because the job is monumental, and the best work takes place through teams of multi-disciplinary actors working cooperatively on multiple fronts. This creates the scale that has the substantial and necessary impact to make change on a level that matches the need. If cultural institutions do their internal work first, and then develop coordinated, collaborative efforts to make environmentally sustainable behaviors and practices a priority in their communities, the difference would matter. It is time to leverage our capacity to create and scale that change.

THAT is why cultural institutions were at the Climate Summit. The cultural institutions in particular are signatories of We Are Still In, now a formal sector of the We Are Still In (WASI) coalition – the world’s largest gathering of “sub-national actors” committed to the goals of the Paris Agreement. We are aligning the significant abilities, resources, and influence of our sector, with the work and resources of other sectors, to address challenges and opportunities associated with environmental sustainability and a changing climate – for the benefit of us all. The mission is so much more than reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs); it is how to use education, research, and communication to mobilize collaborative and collective action, from every sector, to pursue an “inclusive agenda” for significant environmental impact. These impacts are research-based commitments to benefit the planet through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Paris Agreement. Institutions choose their own paths, according to their own missions, to tackle important causes in their community and on behalf of the planet’s populations.    

WASI is made up of 23 organizations including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ceres, Climate Nexus, Environmental Defense Fund, Rocky Mountain Institute, Second Nature, Sierra Club, Sustainable Museums, The Climate Group, We Mean Business, and World Wildlife Fund. The Secretariat, made up of World Wildlife Fund, Ceres, and Climate Nexus, manages the day-to-day operations. The Leadership Team, made up of point people from each sector, coordinates the participation of the more than 3,000 signatories from higher education, faith organizations, health care, business and investors, state and tribes, and cities and counties.

Sarah Sutton is the Sector Leader for Cultural Institutions for WASI, and Stephanie Shapiro and Emily Johnsen are part of the team of AAM volunteers who are expanding the cultural institutions network and spreading the word. Our field now has a knowledge and power pipeline that runs from our sector to six others already doing this work and looking for partners to help and to have help them. At this writing, 40 cultural institutions have already signed on to WASI, including the Abbe Museum, the Brick Store Museum, and Strawbery Banke Museum from the NEMA region. Associations are also signing on including the American Association for State and Local History, NEMA, the South-East Museums Conference, and the Museums Association of Arizona. Click here to see them all.

How great is the museum field’s impact? Greater than you may realize: the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) tells us there are about 35,000 museums and historic sites in the United States, contributing $50 billion in USD to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), including $6 billion USD to trade, transportation, and utilities (2017).

• Americans visit those 35,000 museums in person at a rate of 850 million times in a year, and another 524 million times online (more in-person visits than attendance at all major league sports and theme parks combined).

• Americans trust those museums more than any media, even National Public Radio, and more than politicians and even academia (AAM 2013).  

• If the museum sector were a state, then it would rank just behind Albany in economic impact.

• If the museum sector tracked its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), then it could no longer ignore its direct impact on climate change.  

In that public trust, and in our economic and carbon footprints, we find our responsibility and public authority to significantly impact climate change. Through WASI, cultural institutions:

• Raise their profiles locally and nationally,
• Access better tools and information for institutional advancement,
• Gain peer mentors to advance this work more effectively, and
• Demonstrate their awareness of this critical issue and willingness to address it on behalf of their communities.

It is complex work to develop mitigation and adaptation responses that protect sites and museums and their resources, and to respond to new regulations. On their own, site staff would find it difficult to discover and implement responses to the wide array of new challenges while also fulfilling day-to-day responsibilities. Only through cooperative efforts can any one person or any one sector adequately deal with the multi-faceted challenges.

Our peers in other sectors have knowledge and resources that we do not have. Cultural institutions have subject matter expertise, trust as an information resource, public engagement bandwidth, and communication skills that other sectors do not have. The Cultural Institutions sector strengthens WASI by leveraging sites’ resources and participation in community-based and other cooperative initiatives. WASI strengthens the Cultural Institutions’ sector by highlighting sites’ and museums’ economic value, knowledge resources, and public engagement capacity for environmental and climate response through mission-based activities. WASI also strengthens individual cultural institutions by providing a platform for sharing resources and expertise to advance environmental sustainability and climate responses, and by providing an entrée into multi-sector cooperative initiatives.

We hope you will consider participating and using WASI as a gateway to projects ranging from community energy production to cooperative green infrastructure development and funding, and including joint research projects with schools and universities, or product development with investors and businesses. You can start by attending an introductory call on October 24. The AAM Events page will have the Zoom information. And you can always contact us through environmentandclimate@aam-us.org or sarah@sustainablemuseums.net.

*Sections of this appeared in a recent newsletter of the California Association of Museums