The Museum’s commitment to sustainable development is reflected across social, economic, and environmental dimensions, integrating these principles into all areas of our activity.
1. Guiding Principles
The Sustainable Development Policy of the PME is based on the following guiding principles:
- Environmental responsibility:
Minimising negative environmental impact, managing resources responsibly, and adapting to climate change. - Social and cultural responsibility:
Promoting inclusion, equality, and social justice; ensuring the well-being of communities and staff; encouraging active civic participation; and protecting, promoting, and preserving cultural diversity, both tangible and intangible. We support creativity and identity. - Economic responsibility:
Ensuring the Museum’s long-term financial stability, generating economic value for the local community, and promoting sustainable economic practices. - Good governance and institutional responsibility:
Embedding sustainable development principles into the Museum’s management structures, strategic planning processes, and everyday operational culture, ensuring accountability and continuous improvement.
2. Strategic Areas and Goals
2.1 Environmental dimension
Goal: To systematically minimise the Museum’s environmental footprint, promote
responsible resource management, and support ecological awareness through the
Museum’s activities and programmes.
Key actions:
- Resource efficiency:
Implementing measures to improve energy efficiency and exploring the potential use of renewable energy sources. Introducing water-saving strategies, including the installation of water-efficient devices. - Waste management:
Developing and implementing a comprehensive programme for reducing, sorting, and recycling waste, including efforts to reduce single-use plastics and prevent food waste. - Sustainable procurement:
Establishing a policy prioritising the procurement of materials, supplies, and services from environmentally responsible suppliers, including eco-friendly cleaning agents and energy-efficient equipment. - Carbon footprint reduction:
Conducting regular energy audits and calculating the Museum’s carbon footprint, with measurable emission-reduction targets. - Environmental education and advocacy:
Expanding and integrating environmental themes into exhibitions, educational programmes, and public events, using ethnographic collections to explore traditional ecological knowledge and the impact of human activity on the environment.
2.2 Social and cultural dimension
Goal: To strengthen the Museum’s role as a dynamic civic and social space that actively promotes inclusion, social justice, cultural diversity, and a sense of belonging.
Key actions:
- Accessibility and inclusivity:
Ensuring comprehensive physical, intellectual, and economic accessibility for all visitors, including people with disabilities, through diverse language offerings, sensory-friendly spaces, and varied pricing models. - Community engagement and co-creation:
Actively involving local communities and diverse audiences, and implementing participatory curatorial practices and co-creation methods in the development of programmes and exhibitions. - Education and lifelong learning:
Providing a wide range of educational programmes for all age groups, from early childhood to lifelong learning, promoting cultural awareness and intercultural understanding. - Decolonisation and equity:
Critically examining and addressing colonial biases in collections and museum practices, amplifying non-dominant voices, and working to redress historical inequalities. - Health and well-being:
Exploring and developing programmes that support the health and well-being of the community. - Child protection:
Maintaining and continuously strengthening existing Child Protection Standards to ensure a safe environment for young visitors.
2.3 Economic dimension
Goal: To ensure the Museum’s long-term financial capacity and resilience while contributing positively to the local economy and supporting sustainable economic practices.
Key actions:
- Operational efficiency and cost reduction:
Implementing strategies to reduce operational costs through improved energy efficiency and waste reduction. - Diversified and sustainable funding:
Proactively diversifying funding sources, including seeking grants for sustainability initiatives and exploring new partnerships, sponsorships, and collaborations. - Contribution to the local economy:
Positioning PME as an active driver of local economic development by promoting sustainable cultural tourism and supporting job creation in creative industries. - Responsible procurement:
Integrating comprehensive sustainability criteria into all procurement processes, prioritising local suppliers and products with lower environmental impact.
2.4 Governance and institutional dimension
Goal: To embed the principles of sustainable development deeply within the Museum’s governance structures, strategic planning processes, and everyday operational culture, ensuring accountability and continuous improvement.
Key actions:
- Strategic integration:
Clearly incorporating sustainability principles into the Museum’s long-term strategic plan and all key operational documents, establishing clear, measurable goals and indicators. - Leadership and accountability:
Appointing an individual or committee with clear responsibility for overseeing the implementation and progress of the Sustainable Development Policy, ensuring accountability and transparency mechanisms. - Staff engagement and training:
Actively involving staff at all levels in sustainability initiatives through regular, comprehensive training and encouraging contributions of ideas - Stakeholder engagement:
Systematically identifying and engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, including staff, visitors, local communities, government bodies, partners, and donors. - Monitoring and evaluation:
Implementing a robust system for the timely and systematic monitoring and evaluation of all sustainability goals and actions, including regular calculation of the Museum’s carbon footprint and the publication of comprehensive sustainability reports. - Legal compliance:
Ensuring full compliance with all applicable national regulations (e.g., the Museum Act, the Environmental Protection Act) and adhering to relevant international standards and conventions. - Pursuit of certification:
Actively exploring and pursuing relevant sustainability certifications to ensure external validation and continuous improvement. - Digital transformation for sustainability:
Using digital technologies to enhance accessibility, engagement, energy efficiency, and waste reduction.
3. Monitoring and reporting progress
PME is committed to transparent monitoring and reporting of progress towards achieving its sustainability goals.
Key performance indicators will cover the following areas:
- Environmental:
Annual reduction in energy consumption (kWh per visitor), annual reduction in water consumption (litres per visitor), waste recovery rate (percentage of recycling/composting), annual reduction of the carbon footprint (tCO₂e), and the percentage of the procurement budget allocated to sustainable suppliers. - Social and cultural:
The number and percentage of programmes offering full accessibility features, visitor diversity metrics, the number of community co-creation projects, the number of staff training hours dedicated to sustainability, and the results of audience satisfaction surveys. - Economic:
The percentage of revenue derived from diversified, sustainable funding sources, documented cost savings achieved through operational efficiency, and the number of engaged local suppliers. - Governance and institutional:
The pace of policy implementation, the frequency of meetings of the Sustainability Working Group, completion of sustainability audits, the regularity and comprehensiveness of published sustainability reports, and levels of staff satisfaction.
4. Review and improvement
This Policy will be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure its relevance, effectiveness, and alignment with best practices, as well as with evolving national and international standards. PME commits to continuously improving its sustainability efforts and strives to serve as a model of a responsible cultural institution.
