“When we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” Sea Change 1 —John Muir, “My First Summer in the Sierra,” 1911

Innovation transforms hen naturalist John Muir Water comprises 70 percent of the underground; when oil pipelines leak wrote “My First Summer in planet and 70 percent of our bodies. into our aquifers; and when chemicals the link between Wthe Sierra” many years ago, It is something we can’t live without. for processing coal poison our water he described the impact of his experi- Unfortunately, this connection with supplies—as we saw recently in West museums and water. ences in California’s Yosemite River water has become troubled. The Virginia. The ultimate consequence of Valley and Sierra Mountains. Decades planet is currently struggling with unfettered fossil fuel use is the blanket later the “Butterfly Effect”—hypothesiz- water overuse, contamination and the that carbon and other greenhouse BY SARAH SUTTON BROPHY ing that the flap of a butterfly’s wings climate change effects of drought, gases (GHGs) have thrown over the and ELIZABETH WYLIE in Brazil could set off a tornado in floods and other extreme weather planet. Temperatures are getting hotter Texas2—became popular, and contin- events. These water issues connect and water levels are rising. ues to underlie much current thinking to energy and what people thought In the November/December 2009 and a slew of books about systems, was limitless fossil fuel and unlimited issue of Museum, we wrote a futuristic networks, feedback cycles, tipping use without consequence. There are take on museums and energy availabil- points and linkages. The critical mes- serious consequences for water when ity 100 years from now. Lately we have sage remains the same: everything is fracking for natural gas extraction uses been considering this question: What connected to everything else. 4 to 6 million gallons of water per well about water and its link with museums? Humanity’s dependency on and leaves behind assorted chemicals water exemplifies this relationship.

34 / museum MARCH / APRIL 2014 MARCH / APRIL 2014 museum / 35 Our conclusion is that if museums are excellent examples of museums using that GHG blanket?). Denver Water monitor and look for more savings. Museums’ Green Accord, a non-legally without power for days and, in some here forever and the environmental tip- systems thinking to address water must move a lot of water to meet the The strong water conservation educa- binding, institution-wide commitment areas, weeks. In the storm’s wake, many ping point is now, museums had better issues while educating their visitors demand of 1.3 million residential tion program features water-smart to sustainable practice. The center leaders and policy makers began to be in the business of risk management. to be water-wise. After all, one person customers. Consider this: 50 percent garden techniques, and last year led is also supported by a civic agency, ask if this was a climate change wake- What is ahead and how can we plan replacing her water-thirsty grass lawn of Denver residential water is used for a summit of regional leaders to look much like Denver’s zoo and botanic up call. Words like “resilience” and for the challenges? How do we ensure with drought-resistant xeriscaping is landscaping, and 90 percent of Denver ahead at water issues for the year 2030. gardens. Increasingly, those who man- “adaptation” appeared in rebuilding access to clean water forever? just a drop in the bucket. If everyone lawns are non-native species like Back to John Muir and the intercon- age our utility infrastructure consider and policy statements, and restorative Museum leaders (trustees, directors in Denver did that? That’s what we’re Kentucky Blue Grass, which has a high nectedness of everything.…Colorado’s conservation the front line message design discussions recalled oyster beds and managers) and staff (everyone talking about! water requirement. water issues are entwined with those of as they work to balance demand and other natural systems that that had from curators to educators, to retail Humans can live one month with- That’s where the Denver Botanic the other western states, complicated with availability. To shift patterns of been killed, removed or paved over. and hospitality, and, of course, facility out food but only one week without Gardens come in with a big dose of by a labyrinth of water rights tangled behaviors around resource (over)use, In New York Harbor, the Statue of and site managers—well, everyone!) water. How long can your collections education and models of good conser- with climate change issues and they are turning to museums as good Liberty National Monument and Ellis must look ahead, plan for and make live without water? Staff at the Denver vation gardening and landscape prac- burgeoning population growth. On and trusted messengers. As you look Island received a direct hit, and the changes to mitigate the risks of climate Zoo and the Denver Botanic Gardens tices. The garden manages three sites January 17, 2014, California Governor at your institution’s risk management entire national park’s infrastructure— change. Fortunately many are doing plan not to find out and have taken with an annual attendance of 850,000. Jerry Brown declared a state of emer- strategies, partner with your local or electric, water, sewer, HVAC systems, just that with creativity, innovation, large and small steps to innovate, It is committed to water conservation gency due to an extended drought regional providers to attract incentives phone systems, security systems and urgency and confidence that climate conserve and educate. Both institu- as a core activity, meeting the ISO- and called on residents to reduce and support, and to educate the public. radio equipment—was destroyed. The awareness is mission fulfillment. Many tions are departments of the City of 14001 environmental management pro- water use by 20 percent. The following That’s using networks and linkages to statue and pedestal emerged virtually museum staff have already recognized Denver, where water is a big deal. In gram’s water-efficiency standards. In day, Roseville’s Utility Exploration make a difference. unscathed, but ancillary buildings or dealt with the threat of water scar- Colorado 80 percent of the population 2008 the garden overhauled its 1970s Center (UEC) posted this declaration What happens when there is too were heavily damaged, and walkways city and insecurity (too little, too dirty) lives on the Front Range (east of the irrigation system. The little-seen pipes, along with conservation tips on their much water from sea-level rise (SLR) and docks were lifted and twisted. and water surges (too much). They Rockies), while 80 percent of the water pumps and control systems that are Facebook page and website. The UEC or storm surges? Plenty! On October Ellis Island flooded, along with its have embraced adaptability through originates from the western slope, part of the real cost of living collections is an environmental learning center 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed the Immigration Museum’s basement. The science, conservation, and sustain- largely from rivers and streams fed by care were updated for efficiency, and and is one of 25 museums that have East Coast hard. One hundred seven- museum houses tens of thousands of able or restorative design. There are snow melt (also in decline—remember site managers continue to measure, signed the California Association of teen people were killed; millions were archival documents and artifacts that

The Denver Botanic Gardens model good conservation gardening and landscape practices through their educational programming (below left) and throughout their Hurricane Sandy flooded Ellis Island in October 2012, inundating the Immigration Museum and heavily grounds (below right and opposite). damaging the Ferry Building’s exhibit area (below).

36 / museum MARCH / APRIL 2014 MARCH / APRIL 2014 museum / 37 had been happily climate controlled as scenario planning and focuses on (with its history of various assaults and compliance. The Pérez Art Museum designed to gather and filter run-off design strategies for resilience: always, for 20 years. While the water didn’t four strategies: “1) Using [s]cience to fixes with unintended consequences), Miami (PAMM) opened in late 2013, while educating. always, always get the right plants in reach the upper floors and the collec- help parks manage climate change; and to the east by Biscayne Bay formed while its neighbor, the Patricia and Across a common connecting plaza, the right place. tions, the lack of power allowed mold 2) Adapting to an uncertain future; by Miami Beach, a thin barrier island. Phillip Frost Museum of Science, is still PAMM’s new 200,000-square-foot While it is unlikely Miami will to begin growing almost immediately. 3) Mitigating or reducing our carbon In all, billions of dollars of residential under construction. The architecture building (120,000 for interior programs restore the natural mangrove shore- The National Park Service Emergency footprint; and 4) Communicating to and commercial waterfront develop- and landscape of both museums have and 80,000 for exterior community line, the museum of the future can Response Team worked nonstop in un- the public and our employees about ment—and the people who use it—are­ been designed with water in mind. space) is adjacent to the water and participate when there are regional pleasant conditions to clean and pack climate change.”3 Science, mitigation, at risk. Miami-Dade County established Science and technology education is sits 21 feet above sea level (FEMA commitments to reversing decades the materials and hand-carry them adaptation and education are tools an Office of Sustainability in 2009 to the primary mission of the Frost. The projections recommend 14–15 feet) or centuries of development that down three flights of stairs. Six weeks that every museum can use to plan begin managing climate change issues wildly innovative building design by behind a newly reinforced sea wall. have adversely affected ecosystems. and six trailer loads later, all collections for and address risk on their site and and coordinate all activities in one unit. Grimshaw is entirely conceived as an The Herzog and DeMeuron design Sometimes that means removal, were at an off-site warehouse. The esti- in their communities. Museums are The office is collaborating with local exhibit of ecological and sustainability elevates the main building on stilts, rehabilitation and restoration to get mate for park damages was $77 million. already exceedingly good at that last museums and libraries on educational principles. It follows the museum’s with parking beneath to accommodate the right plants in the right place. The Last year, the museum reopened one—education. exhibits on climate change and sustain- Sustainability Platform, a useful flood risk. With a LEED Gold target, leadership at Blithewold Mansion, with systems replaced and elevated Miami is often cited as the most ability to advance effective communica- predesign document that outlines water-wise strategies are integral to Gardens & Arboretum, a historic estate above the FEMA floodplain following vulnerable coastal city in the country tion and turn science into action. the entire project’s triple bottom line the building design. The landscape for on the shores of Narragansett Bay in a commitment by the NPS to “rebuild because of threats of too much water In downtown Miami, on the edge metric: people, planet, prosperity. Water both Frost and Perez was designed by Bristol, Rhode Island, understands that in smart and sustainable ways.” To (SLR and surges), and of too little water of Biscayne Bay, a new eight-acre is a central educational and design ArquitectonicaGEO with water and its traditional museum role as educa- improve preparations for water risks (salt water infiltration into the aquifer museum complex is under develop- concept and plays an important role resiliency in mind: from plant materi- tor/conservator extends increasingly from climate change, NPS has charged beneath the porous limestone the city ment and supported by the county’s in the integrated systems that support als (anything exposed to storm surge to waterfront open space and shoreline a team of scientists to study 105 coastal is built on threatens the drinking water Building Better Communities General the 250,000-square-foot complex and is salt-tolerant) and irrigation (100 viability. Through a Comprehensive parks to calculate SLR and surge risks, supply). The city is hemmed in to the Obligation Bond Program (BBC-GOB). the 60,000-gallon aquarium at the percent from harvested rainwater and Master Planning (CMP) process, the and outline place-specific projections west by the largest subtropical wilder- This requires projects to comply with building core. Among many strate- HVAC condensation) to full perme- museum’s team created a waterfront for formulating park-specific approach- ness in the country and the largest legislation to promote green building gies, rainwater and gray water are ability of all paths, walkways and park- plan that included rehabilitation of the es. The NPS Climate Change Response mangrove ecosystem in the Western and design, and uses LEED Silver collected and reused, and a constructed ing areas. The projects demonstrate shoreline, which had been over-run Program uses data and other tools such Hemisphere, Everglades National Park minimum requirements to determine wet-land is the museum’s front yard, one of the most important landscape by invasive species. The plan calls

Architects designed the new Pérez Art Museum Miami, located on the edge of Biscayne Bay, to accommodate flood risk. Below left: Plans for Miami’s Frost Museum of Science include strategies for managing stormwater. Below right: In an effort to eliminate single-use water bottles onsite, the Detroit Zoological Society installed water bottle refilling stations.

38 / museum MARCH / APRIL 2014 MARCH / APRIL 2014 museum / 39 for replacing the quarter-mile barrier In 2013 the Detroit Zoological Society to accelerate change. The effort has areas. On 100 Acres the new Ruth Lilly building, is transformed into phar- Those museums that embrace envi- of poison ivy, loosestrife, bittersweet (DZS) began a three-year program to drawn extremely positive responses Visitors Pavilion by Marlon Blackwell maceutical-grade distilled water. The ronmental sustainability as integral and other invasives with salt-tolerant educate its guests about the impacts from the board and community, and sits lightly within the natural environ- water has any number of uses but is a to their mission seem to break free of shoreline plantings, then adding an of single-use water bottles and is nary a grumble among guests. ment. It is elevated just enough to necessity for supporting some varieties the albatross—a kind of trope for short- accessible marsh path. By reconnect- working to eliminate them onsite. In The Indianapolis Museum of Art allow floodwaters to pass beneath and of their orchid collection. Six satellite term thinking. Those who are free look ing the historic house and its designed response, sales for the year dropped (IMA) is the 10th largest museum in is permeable enough for rain to flow dishes for the process are replacing the ahead into the future, charting a course landscape with the natural waterfront, by 24 percent from 75,000 to 57,000 the country, with an encyclopedic col- through its large, elegant canopy and existing, energy-intensive traditional with innovation and creativity as hand- the CMP honors historic life ways at bottles, representing about $11,500 in lection of 54,000 objects representing deck. LEED certified, the building uti- distillation system. Turning wastewater maids to science, mitigation, adapta- the estate, reintroduces high habitat lost revenue. Though the zoo consid- all periods and material types. They lizes geothermal for heating and cool- into good water reduces Phipps’ use tion and education. More than a drop value, improves storm water manage- ers this a cost of doing business, also steward 52 acres of designed ing, and water-efficient fixtures draw of municipal potable and wastewater in the bucket, sustainable museums ment, educates visitors in sustainable losses are somewhat offset by income landscape and 100 acres of untamed well water. Creative messaging about resources and infrastructure. How did can make a difference.« property management and responsible from sales of logo-branded reusable woodlands, wetlands, a lake and mead- sustainability is evident at 100 Acres, they figure it out? Director Richard V. Sarah Sutton Brophy is principal, development in their communities, bottles, and by avoiding costs associ- ows adjacent to the White River. A for- where artists and designers demon- Piacentini heard about a system being Sustainable Museums, and Elizabeth and supports the regional commitment ated with the sale of disposal plastic mer gravel pit, the 100 Acres site was strate respect for the environment and created for use in developing countries Wylie is executive director, The Flannery to shore health. Blithewold Executive bottles. The DZS Green Team and naturally renewed and opened as an art can communicate ideas about nature where villages lack fresh water. He O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation Inc. They Director Karen Binder is in her second sustainability staff began by installing and nature park in 2010. Following a and the urgency of climate change in invited the designer to collaborate. are co-authors of The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice go-round on the Town of Bristol’s water bottle refilling stations in key 2005 expansion, the museum received ways that charts and graphs and data Now Phipps has a working prototype (Altamira Press 2nd ed., 2013). Comprehensive Planning Review interior and exterior test sites, and Energy Star certification and boasts a sometimes cannot. and the designer has tests demonstrat- Committee. This time, the planning is planning to install more this year. long and impressive list of sustainable Climate change awareness is mov- ing excellent results. Piacentini not ENDNOTES 1 Muir, John. “My First Summer in the process considered “the whole force Existing fountains had filling points practices across all areas, including ing rapidly, and some leading-edge only solved his museum’s conundrum, Sierra.” Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA, and impact of coastal climate change added; new stations are both drinking water conservation. Indiana has had museums have taken a seat at the head but facilitated a low-energy solution 1911. on Bristol Harbor,” and is adapting its fountains and bottle-filling stations. its fair share of water issues. The sum- of the table. Phipps Conservatory and for health and safety for vulnerable 2 The origins of this description of the concept vary widely but most cite: zoning rules accordingly. Four years Through point-of-sale education, staff mer of 2012 saw the worse drought in Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh has populations worldwide. This is how we Lorenz, Edward Norton. Untitled address earlier, climate change was not part of encourage guests to skip bottled-water 25 years; in 2013 the state was in low just taken its Epiphany System live. tackle the future. at the annual meeting of the American the committee discussion. purchases and use their own refillable drought condition. IMA horticulture It’s the first permanent installation Are we in some ways like Samuel Association for the Advancement of Science, December 29, 1979. Museums are finding that educat- bottles or buy the zoo’s BPA-free, staff is fortunate to have historic wells of its kind—anywhere. Onsite treated Taylor Coleridge’s famous Ancient 3 National Park Service, Climate Change ing visitors and helping them to un- recyclable, USA-made versions. The onsite for all irrigation for the designed sanitary wastewater from Phipps’ new Mariner, who was freed from the Response Strategy, September 2010, derstand environmental consequences staff will continue to tweak the edu- landscape and they work hard to Center for Sustainable Landscapes, a burden of the albatross around his http://www.nature.nps.gov/climat- echange/docs/NPS_CCRS.pdf (accessed and make better choices is a win-win. cational and promotional campaign continue to find water savings in all LEED Platinum and Zero Net Energy neck only after he honored nature? January 28, 2014).

Below left: The signature front entrance fountain at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), whose many sustainable practices include water conservation. Below left: The IMA’s 100 Acres includes a lake, woodlands, wetlands and meadows. Below right: Satellite dishes are part of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Below right: The LEED-certified Ruth Lilly Visitors Pavilion is located on the IMA’s 100 Acres site. Gardens’ Epiphany System, which transforms wastewater into pharmaceutical-grade distilled water.

40 / museum MARCH / APRIL 2014 MARCH / APRIL 2014 museum / 41