Sustainability in Museums: A Call to Action

Participants of the roundtable. © Anna Maria Kryvtsova, MUSEUM BOOSTER

On 26 February 2025, Museum Booster, in collaboration with the Angelina Usanova Foundation, hosted the Roundtable on Sustainability in Museums at Centre Pompidou.

Bringing together 35 museum leaders and sustainability experts, the event focused on how cultural institutions can reduce their environmental footprint while maintaining their educational and artistic missions.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Museums as changemakers—beyond exhibitions, they must model sustainability in practice.
✅ Imagination as a tool—museums can serve as "pop-up tomorrows," places where visitors experience sustainable futures.
✅ Concrete actions—integrating energy-efficient systems, green procurement, and circular economy principles into museum operations.
✅ Collaboration beyond the museum sector—building alliances with scientists, urban developers, and policymakers.
✅ Museums as resilience hubs—offering safe spaces for climate emergencies, fostering dialogue, and shaping community-driven action.

Highlights from the Discussions:

🌿 Serlachius Museums (Finland) shared their ISO 14001-certified sustainability strategy, integrating geoenergy, solar power, and green transport solutions.
🌍 Centre Pompidou outlined its sustainability roadmap, aligning with broader climate policies and embedding eco-design into exhibitions.
💡 A visionary ‘What If?’ session led by Rob Hopkins, where participants reimagined museums as climate action pioneers, resilience hubs, and even as a "Ministry of Imagination."

This roundtable reinforced a simple but urgent truth: Museums must move beyond rhetoric. In an era of rapid climate change, they can be powerful agents of transformation—not just reflecting the world, but reshaping it.