The National Museum of Ireland is committed to being a leader in the cultural sector in promoting sustainability, biodiversity and addressing climate change.
Our Strategic Plan 2023 - 2028 'Increasing Accessibility, Enaging Community' has three lenses through which we are prioritising and addressing our work and programmes over the next five years.
The three lenses are 'Community'; 'Planet'; and 'Shared Knowledge'.
The 'Planet' and 'Shared Knowledge’ lenses align directly with a number of objectives in the Climate Action Plan 2024 and the fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan.
These lenses reflect our ambition to increase opportunities for greater community action, engagement, research and citizen science relating to climate change.
Statement of commitment
The National Museum of Ireland has a responsibility to lead as advocates in promoting sustainability, biodiversity and addressing climate change. Through the development of our new strategy, the National Museum will -
Enable greater access to our natural history collections to assist scientific research, recognising this collection’s potential as the first biobank
Approach our capital development programmes and operations from the perspective of sustainable practices, aligning our work to the requirements and road maps of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act (2021)
Promote biodiversity by investing in our public realms and grounds
Utilise our collections and programmes to engage the public on the challenges of climate change and how we can live more sustainably. Through this work we will advocate for communities most vulnerable to climate change.
Some progress so far...
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Development of a Climate Action Roadmap
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Appointment of an Energy Conservation and Environmental Control Officer
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Establishing a Climate and Sustainability Champion; an Energy Performance officer; and a 'Green Team' composed of senior management and cross departmental representatives
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Energy saving initiatives to deliver a 31.8% reduction in the use of natural gas from January 2023 to June 2024
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Reduction of 12.3% in the use of electrical energy from January 2023 to June 2024
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Overall carbon reduction (against baseline) of 25% (633 tonnes tCO2)
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Engaging audiences with public programming that encourages discussion and action on the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss
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Climate action training for management and staff
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Committment to enabling ongoing access to the natural history collections to assist scientific research and to increase engagement with this important ‘baseline’ collection
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Significant committment to renewable energy detailed in the Natural History Museum’s capital development programme and building upgrade works that are currently underway
Get in touch
If you would like to get in touch, please email greenteam@museum.ie.