The Art Museum of Estonia has established the objective of reducing the environmental impact of its activities in order to contribute to the social, environmental and cultural well-being of society. The Art Museum of Estonia is a pioneer and leader in museum sustainability in the Estonian museum sector, and believes that the entire cultural field plays an important role in ensuring sustainability and raising awareness in society.
The sustainability policy of the Art Museum of the Estonian is consistent with its statutes and development plan for 2022–2025. We have established the sustainability policy in accordance with the resolution adopted at the ICOM General Conference in 2019 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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A sustainability working group operates at the Art Museum of Estonia and the group’s main tasks include compiling an environmentally effective action plan based on the museum’s development plan, and managing its implementation in all of the branches of the Art Museum of Estonia.
For 2022–2023, the Kumu Art Museum will lead the sustainability journey in the AME.
Reducing the environmental impact
- we promote the resource efficiency of the buildings under the administration of the Art Museum of Estonia;
- we value and use the basic resources and tools needed in our work responsibly (e.g. electricity, water and paper), by avoiding over-consumption and by sorting waste;
- we are increasing the share of the circular economy in the activities of the museum;
- we follow the guidelines for sustainable events (in Estonian);
- we are implementing a periodically prepared and updated sustainability action plan and publish an annual report on the cost of resources and the implementation of activities on the museum’s website;
- we follow the guidelines for sustainable exhibitions (in Estonian);
- we are developing principles and a model for sustainable exhibitions, based on the example of an anthropocene-themed exhibition project planned for the Kumu Art Museum in 2023.
- we organise exhibitions, projects, and public and educational programmes related to environmental awareness topics that are aimed at the public;
- we promote cooperation with a wide range of local communities;
- we are improving the accessibility of our museums both physically (“Getting here” page in webpage menu) and virtually (read about virtual accessibility in Estonian).
Sustainable work culture
- we organise exhibitions, projects, and public and educational programmes related to environmental awareness topics that are aimed at the public;
- we promote cooperation with a wide range of local communities;
- we have compiled the Checklist for Sustainable Museum Staff (in Estonian);
- which is a guide to help all our employees make their daily activities more environmentally friendly;
- we contribute to raising the environmental awareness of employees by organising informative events and training related to sustainability issues;
- we cherish and support employees by encouraging professional development, learning and teaching.
