Workshops I

In Workshop Session I on 20 November, you can choose one of five workshops for hands-on inspiration on how museums can take action for the climate and a sustainable future.

Please note that the workshops run in parallel and that pre-registration is required. Kindly be advised that you also need to be registered to the main conference programme. Get in touch with office@ne-mo.org if you have any questions.

The NEMO European Museum Conference 2023 offers workshop opportunities on Monday 20 November and on Tuesday 21 November. Below follows information about the workshops on Monday 20 November.

1. Small Museums, Big Impact – The tools and skills for climate change action

  • Sandro Debono (Museum Thinker, Consultant & Academic)
  • Monday 20 November at 16:00
  • Room: Haapa

This workshop is specifically intended for museum people working in small to medium-size museums and tailor-made to address their specific circumstances. Following an introduction to the topic, participants will then be using collective intelligence methodologies to identify actions and opportunities. At the end of this workshop, participants shall acquire a better understanding of the broad range of possible climate-change actions and choose the ones that are doable and applicable for their particular circumstances. Participants are also encouraged to present their museum as a case study for discussion.

2. From knowledge to action. Important steps to implementing a professional sustainability management

  • Tabea Leukhardt (Consultant)
  • Please note that this is an advanced level workshop that has been developed for people who already are familiar with the basics of sustainability practices, as presented in a NEMO Webinar by Tabea Leukhardt. Please only book if these practises are familiar to you.
  • Monday 20 November at 16:00
  • Room: Koivu

Culture has always been an initiator of change. But as in all other industries, too much climate-damaging CO2 is produced, planetary limits are being exhausted. The cultural sector should also (and in parts already does) develop a new understanding of responsibility:  Where are our strongest negative impacts as concerns environmental and social aspects? How can we measure and manage these in order to reduce our footprint and at best create a positive impact (handprint)? The workshop leads from hands-on knowledge and methods to implementation. Together we will develop a roadmap for strategic sustainability management in your individual organisation.

3. Co-creating a sustainable future

This workshop will explain how museums can use the new method Living Labs as a collaborative space for co-creating, testing and refining ideas and solutions for a sustainable future. The Living Lab "innovation zones" unite cultural heritage institutions, researchers, industry, communities, and government for real-life problem-solving. With guidance from the Hunt Museum and the Centrum Cyfrowe Foundation, participants will use new methodology and tailored business canvases to create and analyse their own museum’s climate action and sustainability solutions based on participatory models, including financing strategies. Join to learn how to set that up a Living Lab, who and what to integrate, which formats to incorporate and what kind of outcomes to expect.

The new methodology is developed by the project RECHARGE - Resilient European Cultural Heritage As Resource for Growth and Engagement. The Hunt Museum participated in the project and set up a Living Lab focused on aligning corporate social responsibility with the museum's Climate and Sustainability theme for 2023.

4. Step into Action: Create your Sustainability Action Plan in an hour

Many museums and museum departments struggle with the idea of creating a Sustainability Action Plan. They think that they are difficult to write and time consuming to prepare. As a consequence, even though museums state that they would like to have a Sustainability Action Plan, they don’t. The Sustainability Action Planning workshop will demonstrate that creating an action plan is simple and quick. The workshop will guide you through the process of producing a Sustainability Action Plan from ideas generation to finished plan. It will use museum case studies to show that by using creative problem-solving techniques a Sustainability Action Plan can be created in an hour and be implemented immediately.

This simple, repeatable, effective and inclusive technique to create any plan can be used by anybody, anywhere, at any time. By the end of the session you will have all the knowledge, tools and skills to be able to take back to your museum to create a Sustainability Action Plan for your museum and museum department.

5. Pitching for a green museum sector

  • Miisa Pulkkinen (Finnish Museums Association) and Tijana Mićanović (Green Art Incubator)
  • This workshop is only open to staff of national museum umbrella organisations
  • Monday 20 November at 16:00
  • Room: Pihlaja

The workshop, that is exclusively dedicated to staff of national museum organisations, will discuss green, sustainable initiatives that are happening at museum sector level in different European countries, including challenges and strategies to bring the sector forward. Participants can expect 5 project pitches from 5 European countries that all showcase how national museum organisations can contribute to making the sector more sustainable.

Questions such as how umbrella organisations can best communicate challenges in the green transition of museums to policy makers, ensure funding and inform and activate the sector will be debated. We will hear presentations of already existing initiatives in different countries and put them in context with the results of NEMO’s research on national climate policies relating to museums.