Our climate action manifesto

Introduction

At Museum of the Home, our mission is to reveal and rethink the ways we live, in order to live better together. As the only Museum of the Home, we are ideally placed to spark debate around how we live and the impact of climate change on a local, national and international scale.

We are in a global climate emergency irreversibly impacting populations and ecosystems, our homes, and how we live on Earth. We recognise the significant role that museums can play in engaging, educating, and motivating audiences to confront this.

Our responsibility

Museum of the Home believes we have a responsibility to reduce our own environmental impact and mitigate against the climate crisis through our public programming, community engagement, organisation and estate operations.

We acknowledge home, security, and migration as exacerbated by climate change, and disproportionately impacting those from the Global South; we bring this understanding of climate justice and intersectionality to our decision making.

The Climate Action Group, comprising representatives across the Museum and Leadership, have created this manifesto as a statement of intent and to set out measurable objectives that hold us accountable. The manifesto is informed by the Museum’s strategic plan, our Vision in Action, and commits to act in the following areas:

Programming & Learning

Through our issues-based programming, galleries and exhibitions, we will provide platforms to raise awareness of the climate crisis and how everyone can play their part to enact change. Our learning programme refers to our work with families, schools and young people. The organisation will:

Creative Programming & Collections

• Embed climate action into programme development and content: with measurable goals for each project, we will introduce climate centred programming focusing on how homes and the ways we live are being impacted by the climate crisis.
• Grow programming and partnerships exploring migration, identity, sustainability and colonial legacies.
• Host workshops, talks and events with activists and campaigners to look at major causes of climate change. We will explore global issues at a local scale to help empower people to take action.
• Create interpretation of our galleries and collections through a climate-conscious lens.
• Ensure accountability to sustainable resource procurement through artist briefs and policies shared with partners and workshop facilitators.

Learning

• Centre interspecies connections in our garden and climate focused workshops and projects, encouraging participants of all ages to see themselves as part of an ecosystem and in a reciprocal relationship with the earth.
• Promote outdoor connection to nature and sustainable practices through co-designed, child-friendly green spaces for local children.
• Work with local organisations and Hackney Council to connect into green public realm initiatives taking place across Hoxton.
• Ensure creative materials used across the programme are chosen from sustainable sources and suppliers or based on material re-usability.

Organisation

Through our ways of working internally and with partners, the organisation will:

• Explore and develop nature positive governance.
• Invest in green skills of our colleagues, including access to Carbon Literacy training.

Commercial Hires

• Continue to work with event partners and preferred suppliers for commercial hires who align with Museum values and policies, and adhere to our statement for supplier sustainability, diversity and inclusion.
• Encourage event partners to embed climate active approaches to events in their application for tender.
• Signpost waste disposal and correct recycling to minimise waste on site and during events.

Retail

• Review retail range and suppliers to replace high-emission products with more sustainable alternatives.
• Review retail practices and supplier value chains to reduce environmental impact, ensuring waste is reduced, reused or recycled.
• Influence and educate visitors to make more climate-conscious choices within existing purchasing habits.

Estate

Through our estate and daily operations, the organisation will:

• Review commissioned carbon reduction report and roadmap to move towards carbon neutrality by 2040.
• Carry out research on biodiversity in our gardens alongside our Gardening team’s continued work on planting, composting, mulching and reseeding.
• Reduce onsite and offsite collections storage to facilitate object acquisitions, better meet our climate action goals, and support our sector-leading transparency in discussion of the disposals process.
• Lead on Museum future plan, using our spaces to grow audiences and increase efficiency and environmental sustainability.