OPINION: Sustainable Exhibitions - How?
SUSTAINABILITY is a unique topic when it comes to exhibition design, simply because of the nature of an exhibition. As buildings are designed to stay, it proves easier to assess their overall impact on the environment. But permanent exhibition spaces may be gone in 10 - 15 years. Temporary exhibitions have even greater impacts.
As cost consultants to the cultural industries, Greenway Associates are part of the exhibition supply chain. We have an intimate understanding of the pressures that exist on exhibition clients, designers, contractors and others. We think that all members of the supply chain have a role in understanding and spotlighting sustainability. By raising awareness, cross-collaborating and continuing to share resources, we can all do our part in making the changes needed on the journey to net zero.
In this article, we put the spotlight on this important topic, and share various perspectives, articles and interviews with industry experts.
A JOINT APPROACH
Sustainable design is an overarching subject across the cultural industries right now. But what is becoming even clearer, is that a joint approach must be taken. To really understand the whole picture, we must see the exhibition not just as a construction project, but holistically, as an event that utilises energy, food, water, travel and production.
Jared Mensah is one of the Directors here at Greenway Associates and has worked behind the scenes on permanent and temporary exhibitions for almost 20 years. Jared explained why such an approach is needed.
“Buildings and construction are kept to account by schemes such as BREEAM & quantified with tools like REVIT. But for exhibitions, there is no enforced standard. Industry specific tools are only being developed as we speak. So the appetite for achieving net zero and mapping out the journey towards it, is coming directly from all those involved in the supply chain. It’s very exciting to be part of.”
Casson Mann is a design practice that we have worked with for many years. They recently won Permanent Exhibition of the Year for the Second World War and Holocaust Galleries at the Imperial War Museum, a project we collaborated on for 5 years. We spoke with Craig Riley, Exhibition Designer and Director at Casson Mann about how their practice approaches sustainability.
Craig Riley | Exhibition Designer & Director at Casson Mann
“Conversations with our collaborators on various projects have widened our understanding of sustainability – for instance, recognising the economic, social, and environmental factors that make up ‘sustainability’. Overall, we prefer to think of this principle as ‘responsibility’ – acting responsibly when we create exhibitions and museums.
We are not sustainability specialists, but for us, designing responsibly involves balancing the need to create beautiful spaces which capture the imaginations of visitors, with the need to minimise environmental impacts. We want to keep pushing for improvements in our practice and acknowledge our successes, without greenwashing.”
DESIGN PRINCIPLES & PRIORITIES
An immense amount of sustainability research, analysis and tracking must go into the fundamental elements of any exhibition - a huge ask for any designer to incorporate into their systems. How are designers doing this? Craig adds, “Environmental considerations run through our approach when we choose materials, assess power consumption, weigh up whether to retain existing design elements (like glass cases or plinths), update designs, and procure subcontractors.”
Pippa Nissen, of Nissen Richards
Nissen Richards is another design practice that we have worked with on exhibitions at The British Museum and IWM. Director Pippa Nissen recently elaborated on how her practice is incorporating changes to build elements, in order to minimise environmental impact.
“Build systems that are self-supporting and able to be reconfigured, without new-build elements, are fast becoming standard, as are systems that enable lighting and digital cables to be tidied away, together with surfaces and junctions that can be made good. Surfaces will now be ignited through new paint surfaces, for example, together with graphic or digital layers.”
Sophie Thomas, is the founding member of URGE, a creative industries collective dedicated to change. Sophie discussed her recent learnings at a NLA forum, and highlighted some key priorities which were:
Creating an impact model for the various stages of the exhibition
Carrying out a life cycle analysis for the materials used (including reuse of existing materials and sourcing local materials where possible)
The venue’s existing energy supply
Having an accurate view of ‘low impact’ construction materials (for example, timber may be considered more ‘sustainable’ than aluminium frames, but the high use of screws and the difficulty monitoring their quantity, may reduce any perceived impact)
Designing structures that can be deconstructed and reused
Above all, Sophie pointed out that the number one priority is “including all of the above in the designer briefs.”
CLIENT EXPECTATIONS & CONSUMER DEMAND
Like all industries, ours is one that responds to client demand. Craig concurs, “Three exhibitions in a row might all require display cases and walls, but clients can tend to want each to appear as a unique blockbuster show!”
So how can client expectations and consumer demand be shaped? As far as shaping demand from clients goes, Craig answers,
“We’ve found that it is crucial to have ‘champions’ of green design, who explicitly promote environmental considerations from the start of the project and at every design stage. On an encouraging note, we are finding that clients are increasingly assessing environmental approaches at PQQ stage and at more detailed design stages. In the last few months, for instance, we have been asked to ‘submit a statement outlining your approach to sustainability’ , ‘summarise the specific areas in which you feel you can help minimise the environmental impact of this project, considering the museum’s net zero targets’ and ‘evidence that you have an environmental management policy and arrangements for ensuring that its procedures are effective in reducing significant impacts to the environment’. These kinds of questions are given increasing weight when it comes to assessing our submissions, and clients seem more committed to these considerations from the very start of the project.”
As far as shaping consumer demand goes, the answer is still not quite clear, but will surely revolve around awareness and understanding. If you have thoughts on this aspect, please do share them with us!
TOOLS
We think that the right tools can be used to manage expectations from clients and stakeholders, and possibly even to shape demand from the consumer. Many of these tools are in their development stages right now. Some are aiming to be tools for industry wide use and others are venue specific.
If you haven’t heard of Isla yet, they are the industry body who are helping to accelerate the event industry’s transition to a sustainable future. Proseed by Isla, is the event industry’s first best practice online framework. It helps users ask the right questions from the supply chain, clients and stakeholders, and gives guidance on what actions to take to be more sustainable. Trace (also by Isla) is a carbon calculator for all organiser who want to create sustainable events, and yes, that includes exhibitions! Trace captures carbon and waste information from single events, and helps organisers to visualise this for post event reporting. Who doesn’t love a good calculator!
COST
As cost consultants, we have a tendency to only consider the materials and processes required to bring a project to completion. Really great consultants will go to great lengths to help balance sustainability aims and budget constraints. But can we do more? Jared from Greenway Associates thinks we can.
“There is often an inflection point between cost and sustainability. Usually that point is put under pressure on site, when programme, sustainability and fees meet head on. Is there space, is there demand for cost consultants who measure both cost and carbon? We think there is, particularly for some clients.”
It’s a question we would love more feedback on, so please feel free to share your views with us directly.
TAKEDOWN & REUSE
Responsible take down is part of the remit for all designers now. 12 years ago, we assisted Casson Mann in their design for the Atmosphere Gallery at the Science Museum in London - an exhibition about climate science. The exhibition has survived well, but the subject has moved on and it will be replaced. Casson Mann felt compelled to play a role, involving themselves in the take-down process which resulted in the original designers collaborating with the new designers on take down and reuse. Craig also mentioned many other components that they have been able to re-home in different ways, such as donating a star-cloth backdrop to a theatre group, and a wooden model whale (from the Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum) to a local school. We can only imagine how thrilled the kids must have been!
We were also impressed to learn that Nissen Richards has been working with clients who are planning forthcoming exhibitions in pairs, and as groups to save on build and minimise environmental impacts.
CONTRACTORS
Credit must also be given to the many responsible contractors out there, who assist in choosing materials, who provide invaluable guidance on handling materials and who managing sites responsibly. For instance, understanding how a contractor uses software to cut materials from plywood sheets, can simultaneously aid design and ensure that material waste is minimised. Once again, collaboration between designer, client and contractor is key, and allows for all parties involved to develop their sustainability approaches further.
AV / DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
With rising energy costs, and rising pressure to balance the use of digital, it is an area that cannot be overlooked. As cost consultants, we have become adept at forecasting costs for the AV elements in most exhibitions. But are these assumptions already on the move? Pippa Nissen believes that there are two trends when it comes to digital. First, “a move to a more physical and tangible experience, as we recover from a couple of years being at home in our own digital spaces”, and second, in stark contrast, “a thirst for creative and individual ways to collect and curate our own experience, that inevitably points to a digital solution”.
In addition to AV elements, the digital footprint of an exhibition can contribute a significant percentage of the overall environmental impact. According to the Waste Age modelling data from the Design Museum, the exhibition (10,000 visitors) used 11,000 emails and 11GB of data, equalling approximately 1 ton of CO2e.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK TOGETHER?
If there is one the one thing you can take from this article, it is that collaboration is key. We would genuinely love to hear more feedback on the topics we’ve touched on above. We also feel as a practice, that the traditional cost consultant role can be widened to assist in the calculation of carbon. Afterall, cost is not just money. Producing carbon has a cost that effects all of our lives in one way or another, and we all have a responsibility to work towards improvement.
If you’re a client or designer and would like to collaborate with us, on an exhibition whereby the cost consultant works out the cost and the carbon, please get in touch with us.