Happy Earth Day

No, we didn't forget about Earth Day. We were just trying to track down some information, so here it is.

What are we, at the museum, doing in the Green world?

First and foremost, the major expansion and renovation project that we call Phase II and that will result in new gallery and storage spaces plus much, much more (the reason, also, that we don't have our own gallery space at the moment and are pursuing all this GMOA on the Move programming) will be LEED certified at the silver level at very least. We're shooting for gold, but we're very confident of silver. What does that mean? LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a green building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit trade organization that promotes sustainability in how buildings are designed, built and operated. Different levels of certification come from receiving points in categories like "sustainable sites," "water efficiency," "materials and resources," "energy and atmosphere" and the like. So what are some specifics? We'll have an efficient site plan that includes stormwater management and strong water efficiency measures, for one thing, and we plan to recycle all construction waste that results. We'll have further details for you once construction begins in earnest, but know that the LEED certification is important to us.

What else are we doing? We're including a sculpture garden as part of Phase II that will encourage time spent outdoors and we're moving toward an entirely paperless system in our public relations department. Please let us know if you have any great tips for continuing to be better about this kind of thing and use our resources wisely.