Pathways to Action 2 – What is the route to a low carbon future for small to medium sized museums?

Second Pathways to Action event – a series of climate conversations.

In this final discussion we take a look at the practical steps museums can take to make their businesses more sustainable. Roger Curtis from Historic Environment Scotland and Caitlin Southwick from Ki Futures join us to address issues of building and organisational sustainability. They will both make detailed presentations before we open the floor to a wider discussion around the challenges we face in being more sustainable.

Roger Curtis is a Chartered Building Surveyor with a background in construction work on historic and traditional buildings. He has RICS building conservation accreditation and has been with Historic Environment Scotland since 2006 and is responsible for managing the Technical Research Unit, its programme and its published outputs; his team interacts widely through outreach work with industry, building professionals and trades.

Work strands include trials and demonstration work relating to energy efficiency in older buildings, climate change adaptation, the use and specification of traditional materials and emergency repair. His team also sponsors projects on traditional buildings with community and other groups to demonstrate all aspects of repair and upgrade.

Roger will discuss options for energy reduction in traditional facilities and ideas for approaches to ventilation and space management. He will outline recent HES work, refer to various case studies’ and outline support and advice that museums can access through HES.

Caitlin Southwick is the Founder and Executive Director of Ki Culture and Sustainability in Conservation (SiC). She holds a Professional Doctorate in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage from the University of Amsterdam. Before founding Ki Culture, Caitlin worked in the conservation field for eight years in museums and sites around the world, including the Vatican Museums, The Getty Conservation Institute, The Uffizi Gallery, and Easter Island. She is the Secretary of the Working Group on Sustainability for the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and a former Professional Member of the American Institute of Conservation (AIC) Sustainability Committee.

Caitlin will be introducing us to the Ki Futures project and discussing how we can implement sustainability in the cultural sector, harnessing the unique opportunity to connect people to a sustainable future through culture. . Ki Futures is the first program of its kind, empowering cultural professionals to achieve sustainability. It is a global training and coaching network which provides all of the support and resources needed for cultural professionals and institutions to achieve sustainability success. The program provides tailored solutions and expertise and connects sustainability actors across the globe to streamline sharing best practices, citizen science, co-creation and peer-to-peer learning. No matter how big or small your institution or practice is – we all want to be sustainable, and Ki Futures makes it possible.

This event has been supported by the #COP26Conversations fund developed in partnership by Museums Galleries Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and Scottish Libraries Information Council.