Based on the success of URGE Collective’s environmental audit on the Design Museum’s Waste Age exhibition (October 2021 to February 2022)  the team were further commissioned to develop learnings into a proactive guide to support designers and the museum to reduce the environmental impact of the exhibitions they commission and create.

“The Design Museum is committed to reducing its environmental impact and achieving Net Zero targets whilst supporting the design and cultural sectors to respond to the climate crisis.” – Justin McGuirk, the Design Museum

URGE worked with the museum to establish a sustainability working group that includes members from internal curatorial, design, facilities and production teams who are responsible for understanding and implementing sustainable systems and processes to support the museum to reduce the environmental impact of its exhibitions.

The guide is informed by research as to what other museums and institutions  in the cultural sector are doing in response to the climate crisis. Content is informed the Design Museum’s exhibition design and delivery process, in line with the RIBA work stages, and investigates the key areas where the museum can have the most impact: programme, procurement, design methods and proposed structures, materials used, construction and deconstruction, transportation of objects, devices and displays, buildings and energy use for lighting, heating and cooling; administrative processes; emails and other digital communications, production and operations and waste generation.

The guide also contains content on when and who is responsible to implement sustainability inventions, as well as how to commission designers and procure contractors and suppliers. It is punctuated with two decision trees: one for the curatorial team about object selection and transportation and a second for the production team about construction material choices.

The Impact Model, created to audit Waste Age’s life cycle stages and to highlight the technical source of impacts, has been further developed to be used in conjunction with the guide. It enables the production teams responsible for exhibition delivery to autonomously assess the impact of each exhibition moving forward.

The link has been copied!