Collective carbon benchmark system for cultural sector

The Carbon Inventory Project is launched as a collective action to offer a carbon and energy benchmark tool for the US cultural sector. The project is inviting organisations to sign up until 30 April.

The initiative will help museums map their carbon impact and calculate the energy footprint of their organisation. In addition to improving operations for the environment, museums can identify actions for saving money and funding opportunities by understanding how energy is used in their facilities. Individual data input by museums will be anonymized into a single public number that will announce on the first annual Carbon Day on 16 June 2023.

The Carbon Inventory Project (CIP) is a joint initiative of the New England Museum Association, New Buildings Institute, and Environment & Culture Partners. In an article the American Alliance of Museums writes “Benchmarking energy use is the starting point from which we can compare, understand, and reduce our annual energy use and associated carbon emissions. Measuring and understanding energy use in our buildings is a high-return and low-risk effort for individual organizations, and sector-wide it has the potential for powerful collective climate action and environmental leadership.”