Sustainability

At the heart of our Strategic plan are values centered around courage, equity, service, trust, and Sustainability.

Many of these focus areas have been part of the PMA brand for years. Begin­ning with Your Muse­um, Reimag­ined in 2016, the muse­um ded­i­cat­ed itself toward look­ing at every­thing we do through the lens of diver­si­ty, equi­ty, acces­si­bil­i­ty, and inclu­siv­i­ty (DEAI).

As we’ve made progress and con­tin­ued on this path, we’ve dis­cov­ered that a true com­mit­ment to these val­ues, how­ev­er, must also con­tain a ded­i­ca­tion to Sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is both a byprod­uct and a dri­ving force behind our DEAI com­mit­ments, and we know that we can­not be suc­cess­ful with any of them if we do not ful­ly incor­po­rate Sus­tain­abil­i­ty into all of them.

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty work is DEAI work, and we have already tak­en behind-the-scenes action to make our cam­pus and oper­a­tions more envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious. This has includ­ed mak­ing green improve­ments on our cam­pus and in our sup­ply chain, accom­plish­ing things such as min­i­miz­ing sol­id waste gen­er­a­tion, imple­ment­ing paper­less pro­ce­dures and mem­ber­ship cards, pro­tect­ing pol­li­na­tors, and invest­ing in clean ener­gy. Addi­tion­al­ly, we’ve ensured Sus­tain­abil­i­ty is embed­ded in our cul­ture, hir­ing the museum’s first-ever Direc­tor of Cam­pus Sus­tain­abil­i­ty and estab­lish­ing a Sus­tain­abil­i­ty employ­ee resource group.

Yet this is only the beginning.

We are striv­ing to become a leader in Sus­tain­abil­i­ty with­in the art muse­um field itself, set­ting an exam­ple for how muse­ums can cre­ate paths toward a green­er and more equi­table future. Our region is acute­ly at risk due to cli­mate change. Maine’s seas are warm­ing faster than 99% of the entire ocean while ris­ing sea lev­els threat­en our icon­ic coast. And for a state that depends on fish­eries, forests, and tourism as eco­nom­ic cor­ner­stones, the time for action is now.

Celeste Roberge’s Rising Cairn in the PMA’s Shaw Family Sculpture Park.
Celeste Roberge’s Ris­ing Cairn in the PMA’s Shaw Fam­i­ly Sculp­ture Park.
Light Waves IV, 2019, computer-generated video on LED wall, 96 x 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Ryan Lee Gallery © Clifford Ross
Light Waves IV, 2019, com­put­er-gen­er­at­ed video on LED wall, 96 x 48 inch­es. Cour­tesy of the artist and Ryan Lee Gallery © Clif­ford Ross

We know that we have a role to play in engag­ing the pub­lic and acti­vat­ing our com­mu­ni­ties around glob­al cli­mate action. We believe in the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of art, and our com­mit­ment will be on view this year, across exhi­bi­tions such as Clif­ford Ross: Sight­lines and The North Atlantic Tri­en­ni­al, in our pro­grams and at our events. Clif­ford Ross: Sight­lines con­veys the riv­et­ing pow­er of land­scapes with a majesty that is a sharp con­tra­dic­tion of their inher­ent fragili­ty in the face of human-caused cli­mate change. Each expe­ri­ence of Ross’ art­works recon­nects us with the awestruck won­der at our nat­ur­al world that we must hold dear.

It is art’s unique abil­i­ty to dis­till com­plex ideas, con­vey urgency, and con­nect emo­tion­al­ly that is behind our newest cli­mate change ini­tia­tive: The Tidal Shift Award. This region­al art prize is the result of the PMA’s belief that our youth can inspire change, pro­vide direc­tion, and con­tribute solu­tions to our cli­mate cri­sis through art. Togeth­er with The Cli­mate Ini­tia­tive, we are thrilled to dis­cov­er what New England’s next gen­er­a­tion of thinkers, prob­lem solvers, and artists have to say about where we go from here.

Over­all, we’re incred­i­bly excit­ed and inspired to see how true ded­i­ca­tion to one idea evolves and builds into deep­er, impact­ful ded­i­ca­tion for more. We have come a long way from ini­tial­ly improv­ing access to the col­lec­tion through Your Muse­um, Reimag­ined to invest­ing in DEAI to the devel­op­ment of Art for All and most recent­ly, our Sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts. It’s all con­nect­ed, and a result of what can hap­pen when insti­tu­tions are sup­port­ed by and reflect their vibrant and engaged communities.

Sustainability on our campus

The PMA is com­mit­ted to sus­tain­abil­i­ty and pri­or­i­tiz­ing thought­ful stew­ard­ship of the Earth’s resources in all we do.

Invest­ed in solar fields

  • Par­tic­i­pa­tion allows us to at pro­cure clean solar ener­gy with­out hav­ing to install our own solar pan­els on-site
  • Pro­mot­ing solar devel­op­ment, which in the long term will allow oth­er cus­tomers to ben­e­fit from our involvement
  • Poten­tial to use the solar ener­gy & RECs to make spe­cif­ic build­ings carbon-neutral

Imple­men­ta­tion of paper­less pro­ce­dures, paper­less pay­roll sys­tem, and dig­i­tal mem­ber­ship cards

  • Paper­less pur­chas­ing process: PMA has invest­ed in a ful­ly paper­less pro­cure-to-pay sys­tem, allow­ing for align­ment of orga­ni­za­tion­al spend­ing with our val­ues and busi­ness objec­tives while pro­vid­ing mean­ing­ful insights into spending.
  • By uti­liz­ing dig­i­tal mem­ber­ship cards, PMA has already reduced its paper use in the mem­ber­ship pro­gram by over 100 pounds per year.

Min­i­mize sol­id waste gen­er­a­tion through reduc­tion, recy­cling, reuse, or composting

  • Com­post­ing in the PMA Café and at events
  • Installing water bot­tle foun­tains, recy­cling of staff bot­tles and cans through Clynk
  • Remov­ing Keurig sin­gle use machines

Build­ings and Grounds: Pol­li­na­tor pro­tec­tion, waste diver­sion, and pol­lu­tion prevention

  • Elim­i­nat­ing the use of haz­ardous chemicals

Edu­ca­tion part­ner­ships with King Mid­dle School, GMRI, Cas­co Bay High School, and more

  • Cli­mate jus­tice is extreme­ly impor­tant to today’s youth

Improved Facil­i­ties and Efficiencies

  • 90% of motors, includ­ing all air han­dlers, have been replaced with EFF1 rat­ed motors and VFDs
  • CSP has been approx. 90% re-lamped with LED light sources. LDM & McLel­lan House only par­tial­ly, pri­mar­i­ly due to the dif­fi­cul­ty in obtain­ing LEDs pow­er­ful enough for use with such high ceilings
  • PMA has entered into a 20yr Net Ener­gy Billing Agreement.
  • PMAs com­mit­ment is par­tial­ly fund­ing the devel­op­ment of a solar elec­tri­cal gen­er­at­ing facil­i­ty which ensure that approx. 90% of PMAs cur­rent elec­tri­cal needs are met from renew­able sources.
  • Per­formed an ener­gy audit, and enact­ed rec­om­men­da­tions on effi­cient oper­at­ing practices.
  • Cur­rent­ly engaged in a project to replace our exist­ing chilled water plant with a rooftop unit, enabling ener­gy sav­ings from reduced pump & motor use, as well as elim­i­nat­ing the use ozone-deplet­ing refrig­er­ant on PMA property.
  • New chilled water equip­ment will also enable more effi­cient cool­ing dur­ing shoul­der months.
  • Part­ners in an IT equip­ment recy­cling scheme (Give IT Get IT) designed to fur­ther dig­i­tal inclusion
  • Numer­ous small­er sus­tain­abil­i­ty ini­tia­tives, includ­ing reduc­tion of microplas­tics in PMA waste streams, sin­gle-sort recy­cling of PMA waste streams, elim­i­nat­ing the use of pes­ti­cides & her­bi­cides in PMA land man­age­ment practices.

Sustainability is funded in part by

Individual Support:

Dou­glas and Sharyn Howell

Foundation Support:

King Phil­an­thropies

Corporate Sponsors:
CPRC Group The leader in conversion technology
Holiday Inn By the Bay