AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

Sustainability is proving to be a strong driver of new technologies, solutions and practices in museums. In this context sustainability is usually characterised as the saving of energy and consequent reduction in greenhouse emissions environmental sustainability. Some consideration is often given to resource use and reuse and to the financial consequences of changes made to improve sustainability.As conservators we are interested in the effect that such changes in technology or practice might have on the short- or long-term preservation of objects and on the balance between preservation of collections and their availability to visitors and researchers.In this presentation I will look at two ways in which museums have responded for the drive for greater environmental sustainability in the field of museum lighting.First, the exponential growth of lighting technologies that reduce energy consumption, principal among these being the massively increased use of LED lighting. What is the current state of LED technology, where might advances lead in the future and what alternatives are likely?Second, the greater use of daylight, which as a carbon-neutral source has been seen as another potential answer to the question of environmental sustainability in lighting. What are its advantages and drawbacks, does the implementation of daylighting save energy, and what new technologies might change the situation?In both the above cases, I will look at how a push towards greater sustainability might affect the preservation of objects and accessibility of collections, factors that have sometimes been termed people-centred measures of sustainability. In other words, to what extent do we upset the hard-won balance between preservation and access in the name of environmental sustainability?The solution, I will argue, is that our policies need to be driven by sustainability-based decision making, but that in so doing our definition of sustainability must go beyond that traditionally associated with environmental concerns to include considerations of people-centred sustainability that address the current and future perspectives of individuals, groups and societies.