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Climate2Preserv

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.

Opdrachtgever

Belspo

Period
2021-2025

Climate2Preserv

Museums face difficult choices as they respond to conflicting mandates to lower operating costs and energy consumption, and to preserve collections. Driven originally by loans policies that imposed strict environmental guidelines – unfortunately extended to preservation practices – cultural institutions often invest in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems with high associated operating costs and energy consumption. Today, new developments in preventive conservation, take into account both the preventive conservation and environmental sustainability objectives of cultural institutions, advocating for loosening these environmental guidelines. Indeed, risk analysis often points out that incorrect temperature and relative humidity (two out of ten agents of deterioration representing the full risk spectrum in preventive conservation) generally do not represent the biggest risk. But these revised guidelines are only slowly taken up by the heritage field.

Despite the existence of many tools for improving the preventive conservation and environmental sustainability conditions of collections facilities, to this day there has been no study that provides a comprehensive roadmap for sustainable storage and exhibition spaces. Being a popular topic today, environmental sustainability has been addressed by the different disciplines engaged in this project (preventive conservation, architecture, engineering, etc.) But not translated into a multidisciplinary practice and a common language within a heritage context.

The various partners will bring their expertise for the improvement of collections management with an emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and the involvement of stakeholders. The C2P toolbox offers the necessary tools to engage in an environmental optimization process: the C2P protocol (a step-by-step guide), assessment tools for measuring (potential) impacts of mitigation strategies, and communication tools to facilitate collaborative work. All this to help the user design and implement immediate indoor climate optimization measures or prepare the groundwork for a long-term improvement trajectory for his/her collections infrastructures.

Education

FUTURE PROJECTS

Climate2Preserv Summer School

As part of this project the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) is organizing an international Summer School in partnership with The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

This course 'Climate2Preserv: Saving energy considering collections, buildings, and systems' allows 20 participants in total. Every institution will send two participants, one person with a technical background and some experience in facilities, and one person with a background in conservation or collection care.

There is a possibility to create inter-institutional teams or to team up with consultants or engineering firm. The only requirement is that participants to the workshop are familiar with the institutional building, its systems, and its collections.

During the workshop, these teams will simulate a fast-paced walk trough of the protocol that focusses on teamwork, gathering and understanding documentation, exploring energy saving strategies and decision-making and sharing information. Participants will do this trough a mixture of theoretical courses, exploring tools, visiting existing case-studies and completing exercises based on an actual case-study data. At the end of the course, they get the time to plan their future steps in within their own institutions.


PAST PROJECTS

Analysis of Temperature and Relative Humidity Data Workshop

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 (people working with all types of movable and immovable heritage, and people working with collections and facilities).

This workshop was part of the Resilient Storage Project.


Affiliated and Previous Projects

Resilient Storage (2020-2022)

Resilient Storage was a pilot project focusing on small to mid-size museum depots. As C2P helps 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.

Publications

For many heritage institutions, it is a challenge to comply with the energy transition within the borders of their existing practices. Although various institutions propose energy saving measures, heritage institutions cannot always apply them due to the need for collection care. After all, different collection items have a 'preferred climate'. Controlling this climate ensures that collection items can be preserved for future generations. That is why some Belgian and Dutch bodies have drawn up a number of documents tailored to cultural heritage institutions.

Energy Crisis

In the context of the energy crisis (2022-...), a practical document was drawn up that suggests possible energy-saving measures in the short- and medium-term. (Only available in French and Dutch)

Guidelines

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.

Research

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 (written while author was still at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles), Vincent Laudato Beltran, Geert Bauwens, Melissa King, Rebecca Napolitano, Bhavesh Shah, and Joelle Wickens

The collection environment, including temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH), is an important consideration in formulating management strategies that can have a long-term effect on collections and institutions. To meet specific needs, sensor manufacturers and select heritage institutions have developed a variety of tools to analyze environmental data. This publication explores the perspectives of collection care professionals, educators, engineers, and computer scientists on data analysis, and presents overviews of data analysis and visualization techniques, and existing T and RH analysis tools. It also examines the benefit of integration with related datasets; the importance of effective dissemination, education, and collaboration; and future tool development.

While most users rely on a single tool, expanding access to a suite of tools with complementary approaches offers a more holistic view of the data and improves communication with stakeholders. Further, the continued evolution of these tools and the creation of new tools should be a collaborative effort between tool developers and staff managing museum environments to ensure that tools are intuitive and easy to use, widely accessible, and supported by effective didactic material.

Climate2Preserv and Resilient Storage, towards a happy marriage between energy reduction and adequate collection environments
In ‘Bulletin BRK-APROA 2021 TrimIV’

Authors: Cosaert Annelies and Estelle De Bruyn

Climate guidelines for museums, archives and libraries have a long history and have evolved over time to adapt to a changing world. With climate set-points being strict for a long time, today's ‘greener’ guidelines force us to reconsider energy use, while maintaining good standards for collection care.

This article presents two projects from the Sustainability Unit of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of partners: Climate2Preserv and Resilient Storage. These projects aim at the integration of sustainable short -and long term solutions while improving a collection climate within a wide range of cultural institutions.

Resilient Storage: Enabling Heritage Institutions to Effectively Manage High-performance Storage Areas
In ‘Museum International, Volume 73, 2021 - Issue 1-2: Museum Collection Storage. Guest Editors: Yaël Kreplak and François Mairesse’

Authors: Bauwens Geert and Estelle De Bruyn.

Heritage institutions find themselves increasingly compelled to lower costs related to energy use, without disowning their primary task of optimally preserving the collections they are entrusted with. Now, more than ever, resilience, autonomy and cost-effectiveness are key to managing heritage sustainably. With over 1,000 museums in Belgium, the energy savings that its institutions may obtain by optimising their indoor climate management represents an important opportunity to alleviate strain on institutional budgets, and to help reach the ambitious energy-saving goals Belgium and the EU have set for themselves. Heritage institutions must be proactive in implementing such strategies, choosing from among a long list of measures to optimise their climate systems and indoor environments. This can be an overwhelming task. Indeed, museums and heritage institutions often lack in-house expertise to tackle these issues, which is why clear, practical and intuitive protocols, tools and concrete examples are required. As a case study and presentation of research-in-progress, this article describes Resilient Storage, a Belgian project that aims to validate a protocol to optimise the functioning of climate systems in museum storage areas. Developed by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) and KU Leuven, Resilient Storage assembles an interdisciplinary team of public representatives, museum staff and experts in energy performance and conservation. It aims to help stakeholders optimise storage area management, simultaneously reducing its carbon footprint and optimising its preservation conditions. Resilient Storage aims to unearth synergies among these stakeholders, promote collaboration, develop a common language and transmit expertise to Belgian's small and medium-sized museums.

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: Cosaert Annelies (written while author was still at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles) and Vincent L. Beltran

The conservation field has produced various preventive conservation tools to support the organization and interpretation of data and contribute to sound decision-making. This paper examines selected tools for the analysis and visualization of air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) data to refine its interpretation and allow flexibility in collection management. In addition to comparing the functionalities of T and RH tools, interviews were conducted with practitioners to learn about their use. The survey of tools and practitioners identified key application themes: alignment with environmental standards and guidelines, assessments of collection risk, increased sustainability of environmental management practice, and the promotion of effective communication within an interdisciplinary team. Also highlighted were potential gaps, including a need for more flexibility in the numerical and visual display, and an inability to integrate environmental data with complementary datasets.

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: Cosaert Annelies (written while author was still at the Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles) and Vincent L. Beltran

The conservation field has produced various preventive conservation tools to support the organization and interpretation of data and contribute to sound decision-making. This paper examines selected tools for the analysis and visualization of air temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) data to refine its interpretation and allow flexibility in collection management. In addition to comparing the functionalities of T and RH tools, interviews were conducted with practitioners to learn about their use. The survey of tools and practitioners identified key application themes: alignment with environmental standards and guidelines, assessments of collection risk, increased sustainability of environmental management practice, and the promotion of effective communication within an interdisciplinary team. Also highlighted were potential gaps, including a need for more flexibility in the numerical and visual display, and an inability to integrate environmental data with complementary datasets.

The sustainable storage space, methodology for the management of small cultural institutions (Fr)
In ‘Païn, S. and Guillemard D., Conservation-restauration des biens culturels (CRBC), Dossier Conservation préventive, 2020, vol. 36’

Author: De Bruyn Estelle

Thanks to an international survey on the condition of storage areas and a survey carried out among small-scale Belgian cultural institutions, we have defined their characteristics and their needs in terms of conservation practices. Our aim was to help heritage professionals to assess their storage problems and solve them in a sustainable way by implementing eco-responsible practices. We are proposing a template for improving management of storage areas of small scale institutions, combining preventive conservation and cutting edge, sustainable improvement methods, such as the RE-ORG method. These methods have been selected based on their relevance, price, case-study availability and practical use in the context of small-scale cultural institutions. We have created the website “Sustainable Storage”.

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