#Decarb4Good
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum is participating The Carbon Inventory Project (CIP) and Net Zero Buildings Week. The Carbon Inventory Project is a joint initiative of the New England Museum Association, New Buildings Institute, and Environment & Culture Partners.
Photo Credit: Bailey Tillman
Making A Commitment
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum recognizes the impact our inspiring 30,000 square foot facility, purpose built in 2006 on the banks of Upper Mississippi River, has on climate change.
While MMAM is committed to stewarding Sustainability, Equity and Hospitality in everything we do to make the Museum more welcoming, accessible and accountable to the communities, both natural and social, we operate from, we also face the same unique challenges the 35,000 other museums in the U.S. do - caring for our collections and the artworks in our care. We fine tune our temperatures, adjust humidity levels, use lighting to ensure these cultural icons and creative objects, and build buildings to house these objects for generations to enjoy. In short, we share an industry that’s energy dependent.
To that end, MMAM is proud to be working with a cohort of Museums from across the country on the Carbon Inventory Project endorsed by the American Alliance of Museums - a collaborative effort led by Environment and Culture Partners, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, New Buildings Institute, and the New England Museum Association to establish a carbon benchmark for the U.S. Cultural Sector.
Together, the Carbon Inventory Project will allow museums and cultural institutions to make better energy and carbon management decisions in an effort to (1) save money, (2) decrease their carbon footprint and (3) prepare for future building projects that align with todays’ growing clean energy sector. It’s a win-win-win scenario for all those involved.
Join us in marking the first Carbon Day (June 16) to celebrate this first reporting milestone to build sector-wide capacity and commitment to calculating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from energy use.
Accounting For Our Impact
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum is working with a growing cohort of museums and cultural centers across the county to collectively measure our carbon footprint. We recognize that understanding our own energy use first is the best way to collectively make decisions about how to move forward toward climate action.
MMAM is proud to say it is releasing 66,182 fewer lbs of CO2 into the air on average every year (equivalent to taking 4.6 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles off the road for one year or planting 35.9 acres of forests in one year) thanks in large part to the decarbonization efforts being made by our primary energy provider, Xcel Energy and through partnerships with the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative to support a full conversion to LED across our seven acre campus and 30,000 square foot facility.
The first step? Participating in the ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® program, MMAM is able to measure its energy use, and sources, month to month. Based on this benchmark data, the Museum is able to (a) identify the energy performance of its building, (b) invest strategically in energy efficiency upgrades and (c)monitor effectiveness of energy improvements.
The second step? Sharing this data with the Carbon Inventory Project so we can build sector-wide capacity and commitment to calculating and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from our energy use. With this critical industry specific baseline in place, MMAM can join the 35,000 museums across the U.S. to begin making smart decisions for how we’re going to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions and benchmark our efforts, month to month, and get MMAM on a path towards being carbon free by 2030.
The third step? Sharing these steps with others, encouraging more museums to participate in our efforts to establish industry standards and benchmarks, and collectively finding smart solutions as a field so we can have greater impact as we face the biggest existential crises facing museums - climate change.
Culture Shift
MMAM recognizes the unique impact Museums have on the communities we operate from, both social and natural, and advocates for industry-wide standards to keep ourselves accountable to building a carbon free future.
For MMAM, this work is critical to our mission - creating meaningful art experiences that explore our relationship with water. Water is at the center of the current climate crises. Climate change is exacerbating both water scarcity and water-related hazards (such as floods and droughts), as rising temperatures disrupt precipitation patterns and the entire cycle of our water-driven planet.
In 2006, a group of committed community members with a vision of creating a nationally recognized center for arts and culture in Southeast Minnesota selected a reclaimed industrial site on seven acres on the Upper Mississippi River. They put a plan together to create a purpose built museum on the shores of the River by restoring more than 4 acres of land with native riparian and prairie plants. Fast forward eighteen years later, and the Museum’s meticulously cared for gardens not only reflect the natural beauty of the Driftless region, they are just one arrow in our quiver to tackle climate change.
Today’s gardens act as a natural climate solution, actively sequestering carbon from the environment, reducing harmful greenhouse gasses, and improving water quality by anchoring the soil, preventing wind and water erosion. The plants we select, the habitats we restore, and perhaps the most important, creating a unique outdoor visitor experience that increases engagement with and awareness of the gardens are just a few ways MMAM is investing into climate action.
The others? A complete facility conversion to LED lighting, operating our facility with the highest efficiency equipment, investing into carbon free energy sources, establishing green protocols throughout our operations, installing EV charging stations and providing opportunities for our visitors to invest into carbon offsets, and installing a rooftop solar array with an integrated rainwater catchment system.
These efforts are informed and shaped with and alongside our partners like New Buildings Institute and the Environment and Culture Partners, and participating in projects like the Carbon Inventory Project.
About the Minnesota Marine Art Museum
Founded in 2014, the Minnesota Museum of Marine Art (MMAM) is a nonprofit public art museum that engages visitors in meaningful experiences that explore the ongoing and historic human relationship with water.
MMAM operates from Mni Sota Makoce (Land Where the Waters Reflect The Clouds), the traditional homeland of the Dakota people. Residing here since time immemorial, Dakota still call Mni Sota Makoce home, with four federally recognized Dakota nations and many more Dakota people residing in what is now the state of Minnesota. Due to continued legacies of colonization, genocide and forced removal, generations of Dakota people remain disenfranchised from their traditional homeland. Presently, Mni Sota Makoce has become a refuge and home for many Indigenous nations and peoples, including seven federally recognized Ojibwe nations. We humbly encourage our audiences to reflect upon the historical legacies held in the lands they occupy.
MMAM is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to make the communities, natural and cultural, we operate from better off than we found them. The museum’s six-acre campus was a large sand pile on the bank of the Mississippi River in Winona’s busy commercial port. Now it is home to a six-gallery museum education center, and a five-acre prairie garden restoration--its 7th Gallery. This outdoor gallery is not only a garden of natural beauty but the base of MMAM’s sustainability goals. The land has transformed to become a biodiverse ecosystem that sequesters carbon and improves climate sustainability. From the roots of the plants to the roof of the museum, MMAM is working to achieve Net Zero by 2030 by maintaining a carbon sink and decreasing carbon emissions with efficient HVAC systems, installing LED lighting, and more.