Climate2Preserv (C2P)
Energy reduction in Cultural Heritage Institutions is a hot topic. However, due to the diversity of the types of buildings, collections, and outdoor climates, taking sustainable decisions is easier said than done. Climate2Preserv is a project that aims at developing a protocol that helps cultural institutions explore different energy saving strategies considering their collections, building, systems and more. The project contributes to the
ongoing international efforts on preventive conservation and environmental sustainability.
BELSPO
Saving energy is a quadruple challenge for museums caused by their tasks in collection care, and their complex buildings, systems, and stakeholder communication. Solving the big energy savings puzzle benefits therefore from an approach that is interdisciplinary and supported by management. Ideally this challenge is faced by a person representing building and/or systems and one representing collections. They are responsible for informing and involving management and other stakeholders, internal and external when needed.
Because of these challenges, Climate2Preserv (C2P) is focused
on building bridges, creating interdisciplinary understanding and offering tools and templates to perform certain specific tasks.
Climate2Preserv proposes a method or protocol that is constructed around six basic concepts:
- It focuses on reducing global energy consumption, not (solely) on a reduction of CO2 emissions.
- It starts from an existing context. While some aspects of the protocol can certainly also be used to formulate requirements for a new built, it is not its principle aim.
- It focusses on keeping collection risk at the current level unless a reduction of (specific) risk is required.
- It strives at respecting an institutional mission but can give suggestions to change practices with a current big impact on energy consumption.
- It can give preference to maintaining robust and resilient indoor climate systems and practices, even if powered by fossil fuels. This thinking takes into account the energy cost of manufacturing system hardware and its impact on global energy consumption.
- It requires a motivated team with both a technical and collections background and support from management.
Essential reading
- In development -
CLIMATE2PRESERV HANDBOOK (draft)
The Climate2Preserv Handbook gives a comprehensive overview of the C2P protocol. It helps you to understand the situation within you institution, what your options are and how to set-up the required data collection.
CLIMATE DECLARATION
The latest trends within the field, based on scientific research on sustainability and indoor climate were summarized in the more general guideline Climate statement for heritage organizations. Coordinated in collaboration with the Dutch Heritage Agency.
ENERGY CRISIS
In the context of the energy crisis (2022-2023), a practical document was drawn up that suggests possible energy-saving measures in the short-and medium-term. (Only available in French and Dutch)
Practical tools
- In development -
CEAM (Climate and Energy Assessment for Museums) is a data-driven software with GUI for energy and climate analysis, including 6 modules for indoor climate assessment and energy savings predictions. The tool comes with a Quick Start User Manual and YouTube tutorials.
The poster 'Define Sustainable Indoor Climate for Cultural Heritage Preservation in an Existing Building' is a flow chart that serves as a guideline to define a indoor climate based on real collection risk in relation to budgetary means, capacity building envelope and more.
The C2P handbook further contains templates to help coordinate specific tasks related to energy saving projects: a measurement plan helps you keep track of your sensors and data, a testing template can be a guidelines for what to consider before and during performance testing, a facility plan and loan agreement integrating sustainable practice can be a step towards more sustainable loans.
Education and training
C2P Summer School
The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) organized an international Summer School with ICCROM and Academia Belgica (Rome). This two-week training took place in Brussels, July 1-12, 2024, welcoming 8 couples — each pairing a technical facilities expert with a conservation professional — to explore energy saving strategies.
Participants engaged in theoretical courses, explored tools, visited case studies, and completed exercises based on real data. The workshop simulated a fast-paced protocol walkthrough focusing on teamwork, documentation analysis, energy strategies, decision-making, and information sharing, concluding with institutional planning sessions.
Analysis of Temperature and Relative Humidity Data
The Getty conservation Institute’s Managing Collection Environments
Initiative (Los Angeles) and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
(Brussels) organized a 3-day (27-28 June + 4 July 2022) workshop
focusing on the analysis of temperature and relative humidity data. The
workshop was open to students, teachers, and all heritage professionals.
Services
Want to know more about the services we offer to help you make your institution more sustainable, do you need help with an energy savings project or climate analysis? You might find what you are looking for with sustainability and emergency response services, preventive conservation services or buildings and/or monument services.
Related Publications
Developing Conservation-Focused Curriculum to Advance Analysis of Temperature and Relative Humidity Data
In
'Springer Proceedings in Archeology and Heritage, Cham, Switzerland:
2025' and part of 'International Conference on Collection Care: New
Challenges in Preventive Conservation, Predictive Analysis and
Environmental Monitoring'. Editors: Ángel F. Perles-Ivars, Laura
Fuster-López and Emanuela Bosco. Authors: Vincent Beltran, Jeremy Linden
and Annelies Cosaert.
Enhance Performance and Reduce Engergy Use in Storage Areas: Two Belgian Case Studies
In
'Springer Proceedings in Archeology and Heritage, Cham, Switzerland:
2025' and part of 'International Conference on Collection Care: New
Challenges in Preventive Conservation, Predictive Analysis and
Environmental Monitoring'. Editors: Ángel F. Perles-Ivars, Laura
Fuster-López and Emanuela Bosco. Authors: Annelies Cosaert, Geert
Bauwens and Estelle De Bruyn.
Preserving for Eternity, Coding for Today: The Role of Pseudo-Developers in Cultural Heritage Institutions
In
'2025 (The 3rd) Symposium on Museum Environmental Science, Proceedings
of International Speakers, Beijing: National Museum of China, April
16-18'. Translators: Mingxin Ma and Yiming Li. Authors: Annelies Cosaert
and Bhavesh Shah.
Energy Savings for Collection Care Institutions: Climate System Choice and Collection Policy in Line with Museum Policy (in Dutch)
In
'Installaties vs. Monument: verleden, heden, toekomst’, 19 april
2024, Mauritskazerne Ede, Wetenschappelijk-Technische groep voor
Aanbevelingen inzake bouwrenovatie en monumentenzorg (WTA VL-NL).
Authors: Annelies Cosaert, Sebastien Thomas and Marcin Zygmunt.
Tools for the Analysis of Collection Environments: Lessons Learned and Future Development
In
'Research Report'. Edited by Annelies Cosaert and Vincent Laudato
Beltran. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation, 2022’. Authors: Annelies
Cosaert, Vincent Laudato
Beltran, Geert Bauwens, Melissa King, Rebecca Napolitano, Bhavesh Shah,
and Joelle Wickens.
Comparison of Temperature and Relative Humidity Analysis Tools to Address Practitioner Needs and Improve Decision-Making
In
‘Transcending Boundaries: Integrated Approaches to Conservation.
ICOM-CC 19th Triennial Conference Preprints, Beijing, 17–21 May 2021’. Authors: Annelies Cosaert and Vincent L. Beltran.
Climate2Preserv and Resilient Storage, Towards a Happy Marriage Between Energy Reduction and Adequate Collection Environments
In ‘Bulletin BRK-APROA 2021 Trim IV’. Authors: Annelies Cosaert and Estelle De Bruyn.
The Sustainable Storage Space, Methodology for the Management of Small Cultural Institutions (in French)
In
‘Païn, S. and Guillemard D., Conservation-restauration des biens
culturels (CRBC), Dossier Conservation préventive, 2020, vol. 36’.
Author: Estelle De Bruyn.
Affiliated Projects
REFRESH - Water Cycle for Resilient Heritage (2024-2027)
Lead by our Monuments and Monument Decoration Lab in collaboration with the Sustainability Unit, REFRESH explores how heritage sites can be resources for
climate mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development through
optimal management of the water cycle in and around them. REFRESH brings together research teams from Belgium, France, Italy and the UK and focuses on four emblematic sites: the Doge's Palace in Venice, the Louvre in Paris, the Gruuthuse Museum in Bruges and Blenheim Palace in England. The project analyses the water cycle on three levels: the nature around the buildings, the outer shell of the buildings, and the interior with the heritage objects preserved inside.
Resilient Storage (2020-2022)
Resilient Storage was a pilot project focusing on small to mid-size museum depots to help museums reduce their energy consumption while improving their collection environments. The focus lies on short term improvements with a relative low cost. The findings of Resilient Storage were integrated in the C2P project.
Partners Climate2Preserv
Climate2Preserv relied on the support of:
National partners: KU Leuven, University of Liège;
Case-study partners: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (incl. Wiertz Museum) and CINEMATEK, the Royal Belgian Film Archive;
International partners: International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, ICCROM
and Academia Belgica.
Partners Resilient Storage
Resilient Storage relied on the support of FARO. Vlaams Steunpunt voor Cultureel Erfgoed, Musées et Société en Wallonie, KU Leuven, Urban Brussels, Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Vlaamse Overheid, Belgian Comic Art Museum, FeliX Art & Eco Museum, ICOM Belgique Wallonie-Bruxelles and ICOM Belgium Flanders.
Funding body
The Fountain of the Three Graces: an Italian masterpiece discovered in Brussels
Discover this project