GSTC2024Sweden – Cultural Sustainability in Museums and Cultural Organisations
I do I’ll be the first one okay welcome everyone to our one of the well the last session of the day last session of the conference thank you for being to this one I will start with the safety instructions and I’m the first moderator who wing it because we don’t have the text with somehow here um our venue has voice active safety protocol if you hear it say something leave the premises please um the exits are we have two one there one there uh somebody needs it the the defibrillator is up in the entrance area good good it the second day because we heard it many times um but I didn’t know I was going to have to do it um welcome again so our session is talking about we are focus on sustainability in museums and cultural organizations you may have realized if you sign up very early um and pick this session our title has changed because initially um the idea was to talk about cultural sustainability museums um very similar we’re still doing what we’re thinking we’re doing but we had a little bit of discussions um within our group so not everyone not all the examples that you’re going to learn about today are about museums as in museum like this one martime Museum all of the beautiful museums that are on this part of um stock home where right now um but more broadly the examples the year learn about today are of cultural organizations in including museums institutions that are promoting um culture and what is really culture when we talk about culture we talk about culture all the time and in fact it’s even one of the four pillars of the GAC criteria as you know by now um but where is it that we’re actually talking about and I actually because we had this discussion so what are our examples are not just about museums um because of it I looked it up so what is a museum the international Council of Museum museums um has a really really really nice definition that I encourage you to learn about a non a museum is a nonprofit permanent institution in the service of society that researchers collects and serves interprets exhibit tangible and intangible Heritage so these are are some of the key things um that the concept of a museum represents open to public accessible inclusive museums forer diversity and sustainability excellent um and some of the other aspects of what museums represent include operating with the participation of community offering varied experiences for Education engagement and really nicely reflection and knowledge sharing so I think these are connected to a lot of the things that we’ve been doing in the last few days um and so regardless of what we’re talking about in terms of specific examples coming from museums like this Museum or many of these great museums um or other types of cultural institutions I think a lot of these Concepts in terms of sustainability inclusion and so on are really relevant um and as part of cultural organizations when we talk about museums as part of this bigger umbrella of cultural organizations there are um different types of groups uh organizations museums galleries archives Heritage organizations um and so on I also found a really great resource um that talks about inclusion in museums and cultural organizations and I think social aspects of sustainability is what one of the the themes that we’re going to learn about today as well um that really talks about how the opportunities that we have in culture organizations to manifest and model inclusion Equity celebrate differences inform and enrich society’s conventions about identity and belonging um so I really loved learning about all of these um Concepts around museums and cult institutions that are really relevant to all of the discussions that we’re having at this conference and specifically today um and I hope that you would take from the examples that we are learning about today um the these connections related to what you do in terms of e work in sustainability whe whether you’re talking about or thinking about working on social cultural economic environmental aspects of sustainability and one last thing that I’ll add to this what is culture um question is I think it’s really having been exposed to discussions around the GCC criteria and because I’m involved in training so maybe some of you have seen me in that capacity and we always talk about these four pillars um and and you heard from Randy um yesterday as well these four pillars of holistic sustainability which is really really important um to to the the idea of sustainability itself but I think importantly I was trying to think of what are some of the different other ways of representing visually these four different areas because these are not four separate areas um in we know this in our our our own experiences when we think about and talk about sustainability challenges and opportunities and solutions those things don’t happen in these need for categories um but they are interconnected so I’m in search of a concept idea A visual representation that’s not just four pillars because we we do talk about four pillars but these are interconnected four areas of priorities um including cultural sustainability which is the theme of today um and but I think you will notice from our examples of cultural sustainability we learn about these are really importantly connected to social economic environmental aspects of sustainability as well and with that I’m realizing that I didn’t introduce myself we of the the whole the whole stress with the safety introduction my name is aaki as mentioned I work with the G’s um training program the sustainable tourism training program and I managed online courses and in because of that some of you I’ve met met only online and now in real life very happy to be here and I’m also really happy and proud to be moderating this session and I would like to how do we do this we I will introduce you one by one I guess because you come and then okay so our first speaker is car Eric gon I’m executive director of econom econom muse Network Society um which is um a and I would like to highlight a little bit of um some of the key professional aspects of their background um as well as maybe um an interesting thing that I learned about you um so the econom is a mus Network Society is a network of artisan and small organizations supporting intangible cultural heritage um sharing knowledge knowhow and Tra promoting traditional skills of these part partners that they work with um and working with um sustainable tourism as a tool um to empower Artisans and cultural heritage um promoter and I um was really excited to learn I think it was really interesting to see in within our panel this connection um you have a background in sustainable forestry which I think is a very interesting um Topic in itself even though that’s not what you’re going to talk about um when we think about cultural in institutions such as museums and sustainable forestry um so with that floor is yours thank [Applause] you so before I start every every time I come to Sweden uh Swedish people are asking me if I’m I’m Sweden because I have a Swedish name so I’m not from Sweden nor I’m from the Swedish monarchy uh uh but uh today I would like to be Swedish because I’m really jealous all the Swedish people since they won a little nice card all printed well and using it and I don’t have those cards so I wish I could add those cards so uh just to give you a bit of background am a Forester and what I like to be here is that 35 years ago the entire International Forest Product Industry went through the same thing about Forest management certification so it’s like The Forest Part like the tourism industry is maybe 30 30 years beyond what other sector have done but the demand is something else so I want to talk to you about what we’ve done in term of initiative by supporting our Artisan in our Network so first of all we are a small International Organization based in Canada uh we have expanded the network uh uh in Nordic in the Nordic in nor northern Europe by developing some chapters so we have members in the the ason region here in in Sweden so we assist ENT Artisan entrepreneurs and when I see Artisan entrepreneurs could be a small like one or two people doing Pottery or to a wine maker or a non-for-profit organization that produce something or a uh uh workers Co-op or social Enterprise so what you need to be produce something to be called an artisan so our mission is to preserve and help artisan to transmit their KN how to the visitor by implementing what we call the econ concept which is a touristic concept based around meaning The Artisan atwork discovering the history of the Artisan how the craft has evolved over time and the Heart of the Eon Muse is really to see the workshop really the Arts and working and demonstrating how he’s doing is craft and there’s always a boutique at the end because the ultimate goal of an econom Muse is for people people to have a better understanding of The Craft and the loal culture and they more willing to buy the product so we support Artisan to become a tourist attraction so uh for the people who don’t know what we’re talking about in term of intangible cultural heritage the UNESCO convention uh Identify some domain so uh it could be oral tradition and expression Performing Arts social practices ritual and festive event knowledge and practice concerning nature and the universe and traditional craftsmanship so the example I’m going to talk about today is uh for traditional craftmanship and a bit of social practices and ritual that we have members in so um how we started the issue about sustainability um that came up on I would say in my uh R Radio screen back in 2019 and when I heard about sustainable tourism I say it’s like the forest Product Industry this is this is a big wave coming and we need to take look at it uh so we started a with a survey back in in 2020 asking the membership across the different countries uh there was a question of of 160 question based on the GSTC indicator and some other uh environmental standard so what we found out is that uh some of the arct is that 25% or less of the member were taking action on green gas emission or sustainable Mobility meaning do you do you use electric car do you provide Buy U slashing support or you encourage your your uh employees to to buy or walk but they were really good in other other things like residual material you know they are artisan so the primary their main I would say their primary resource it’s that’s where they make their money from so uh but we found out that there was also question uh what were the barriers so taking uh one of the bar some of the barriers were time I don’t have time uh the budget I don’t have the budget to take action accessibility I don’t have the workforce and some of were’re a bit discouraged by the effort that you need to do or you say I’m going to do only small action while there are bigger players that what’s going to be my influence in all this um uh uh sustainable development so keep in mind time budget and Workforce so stuff that we’ve done we so I’m taking here example from the province of Quebec Canada so we we partner with an organization that promotes accessible tourism in the culture cultural and tourist uh sector so we team up with them they provided training to our membership but also to our staff uh we also did an assessment of all our businesses if they were partially totally accessible and so we got a funding we got some funding to do that but keep in mind that accessibility is not only about putting or escalator is interor design uh access to the interpretation panel uh so stuff like that that you need to keep in mind but some of the challenges iost to me the requirement uh sometime our membership members are operating in olding so it’s more costly it’s hard to put a ramp elevator and everything uh sometime they they are in historic buildings so you you cannot put everything you want in a certain building and sometime in efficient space so also what we’ve done is to raise awareness so we organize a workshop event or conference on on different issues like uh adaptation to climate change and look at the two bottom pictures uh in the province of Quebec last year last summer we got a lot of flooding and big forest fire so that mean some there were Road road closure or some community that they they need to evacuate so when you’re an artisan and you in those community so you’re losing Revenue because the touris don’t go so this issue of adaptation to climate change is really really important for the for the Arts ENT so tourism all cultural Green Building assessable tourism and sustainable certification uh also what we’ve done is we we encourage the use of um technology because sometime The Artisan are are not always there they’re not seven days at their workshop uh so we we introduce uh virtual reality so people can understand the craft one the arton is not doing his work or is not there uh or also introduce technology because when you put an interpretion panel maybe a year later the information is going to be uh outdated so using technology it’s easier to to put the information up to date um so we encourage the use of electric car and at the bottom the lady by herself it’s it’s a cool thing we’ve done we put uh it’s a beekeeper so we put the camera in the be so when you put the goggles as a visitor experience you feel like you’re the queen of the be because they’re flying all over uh so also what we’ve done is we put uh annuel award to encourage innovation in in developing a visitor experience so the next thing we’ve done is encourage some of our membership to pursue the uh sustainable uh tourism certification so one of the the uh session that I attendant uh this morning they were talking about group certification we didn’t grw group certification per se what we’ve done we’ve done a COR that we started with 16 businesses that uh we we did common workshop and Training Site visit we provided the Arts and wooden action plan and we support them to get all the paperwork done and so out of the 15 one drop uh and 10 pursue to get the Canadian certification called Green step uh I would say we went a bit maybe very quickly to get certification so uh some of the challenges or if I we would do it again we would take more time we would take more time to train and what are we train them on what is sustainable tourism um as an organization now they have their certification but to keep their certification they need help to because in two years time they need to improve their their uh their score card if I may say uh and also provide uh Workshop that they can get together and exchange on bre uh best practices so uh one of the question we were asked by the moror is H what action can be taken to become a sustainable tourism leader so maybe an easy one accessible tourism but something because the the our tourist uh experience is meaning the art design so there’s a tremendous support for the Arts Cent to engage dialogue with the visitor explaining what they’re doing dayto day to be sustainable but also creating visitor experience that were rare awareness about uh responsible tourism practices and V Mutual issues cultural preservation so and also uh train the guides and our membership uh to become ambassador to raise visitor awareness so thank you [Applause] thank you um Carl for getting started with with this um I would like to um remind everyone to go to slido as we’ve done for all of the sessions so far to post your questions so think about it um ask your questions and if you remember at the start of the conference I think there was a mention of the competition and this is your last chance so if you have been active this might be the way for you to be the most active one um so yeah please do um and I I wanted to um ask you really quickly um speaking of questions did The Artisans consider themselves tourism stakeholders before you started working with them did did they know that they’re part of the tourism ecosystem because see you’re a part of Jeweler a letter maker or wine maker beer maker whatsoever you you start your business and you produce for let’s say your local market Regional or national provincial Market you embrace the tourism sector after you’re not considered as a tourism business so the work we do is that we give we we we help the art Cent to to become a tourist destination so they don’t know much about tourism sometimes they do because we take members that already a bit of Tourism and sometimes don’t so we need to provide all the training so to work with the dmos how how you price your visit opening hours and everything this is something that they sometime they’re not used to do thank you yeah really want I I found that really interesting when you think about um so who are within our ecosystem of Tourism and again culture being one of the most important aspects of what it is uh what travel is all about um but maybe those people who really promote and provide culture experiences may not consider themselves to be part of the tourism ecosystem and it’s our work to really bring them in as you said provide that expertise share our knowledge with them so that um the tourism becomes something that is positive for them as well not just the other way around which I think often is the case um so I would like to um the next invite to Stage an beup who is the CEO of global partnership hanova um Anka brings many years of experience managing and delivering local International cultural projects including um what she does a global partnership right now um with a strong focus on ecological sustainability and climate action bringing sustainable tourism also um working locally to the Hanover region in Germany um and I think one of the most exciting aspects of what I learned about you because I did a lot of B of homework getting to know your work and so on um is how I would maybe describe thinking globally um acting locally um as well as thinking locally and acting globally so if you look at her the the website for the global partnership on no you’ll also see a lot of um projects examples bringing people together for positive actions for climate awareness um awareness raising and all that as we wait for um this that’s um what I wanted to di mention can we switch so here I am talking um well thank you for the introduction I’m glad to be here and um after several workshops and after two days I would say I can’t contribute new ideas for you only a personal approach and fortunate unfortunately not in perfect English as you did but I try my very best with this tool I guess so so I started working in cultural tourism nearly 35 years ago founding a small City Tour organization in HOV and in these times we were very alternative and very new because we introduced edutainment into guide City guided City tours that was uh very um attractive and so we worked out throughout the year several tours and were very successful and in the same time I was responsible for a tiny tourism Fair maybe you have heard about it or some of the participant of this um conference even have been there it was from 91 to 20 10 a small I already said it but very unique tourism Fair because we gave the chance together there years before internet decades before Facebook and um Instagram and all these people who gathered even didn’t use the word sustainable we still talked about environmentally friendly and socially responsible and so on and um throughout the years we gave the place stage for so many stakeholders and destinations that we were very proud that they learned and uh uh increase their Enterprise and after two decades we could say that the traditional tourism fa had learned from us and they introduced sustainable tourism and their program and we could say our historic mission was accomplished so I left um organizing Riser pavon and St ryen and um changed to Global partnership as well NGO with cultural fostering cultural and sustainable activities and uh since um 2018 I’m focusing on cultural roots of the Council of Europe maybe you know the first one of these roots it’s a San compostella pilgrims route approved in ‘ 87 and being so successful other stakeholders of Europe said ah we do have as well a European topic like H or Reformation or Napoleon and nowadays you do have 47 Roots they are all basing on several criteria in particular having one common Topic at least in three countries of Europe supporting International understanding and developing cultural tourism fostering local economies in all these working fed throughout the years U my personal interest was to make the world of Tourism as possible as um as sustainable as possible but I learned that um sustainability and communication uh plays a certain role but not in um in the application in the practice in spite of having so many labels and so many good PR examples so um I um continued working in this nevertheless and stand by my conviction and so following the idea of jonf Kennedy ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country I try to work without official mandate but with the idea to intervene in several projects bottom up to make sustainability in cultural organizations more tangable so as a private person I started a kind of personal consultation for regional Santiago to compella pilgrims rout as a multiplier a political being in contact with relevant stakeholders I was initiating a sustainable tourism Pro process as IO already said and as representative of the of global Partnership of a cultural institution be I became member of the European Jewish Heritage route and head of um the German branch in 2021 we as team of global partnership and its Partners recognized early on that cultural tourism does not necessarily include the ecological Dimension often it contradicts it so we focused in five topics starting with aw awareness Rising using the power of creativity to make the 17 SGS table giving training courses to minimize ecological impact highlighting traditional Customs how resources were used in the past and what we can learn from our ancestors we were organizing workshops as already K Eric said with artists with cooks with herb experts Crafts People and others to give creative suggestions for recycling upcycling saving and doing it yourself and finally conveying that Technical Solutions are great but frugality is often more sustainable like in the case of the STA to Heaven it does not need energy and it’s much more sportier than a lift we recommend the following characteristics concerning food you know all that keeps Body and Soul together and we gave to our partners all these examples you already know increase the share of local and E Electrical fairly produced Goods intensifies contact with our providers and all with their providers Farmers more organic food and vegetarian food on the menu avoiding waste and providing informations on the menu about the origin of the food production methods and interesting stories about food and drinks and finally reducing as in every respect packages throwing throw away table chairs or table wear or single use paper items so the next um important um topic to uh focus on is to present strong examples to the partners of win-win for both sides giving discounts on takeaway food and drinks when C customers use a deposited system or bring their own containers offering for Bus and Train Travelers discounts on events tickets for a local transport or rental bikes free drinks for those doing the daily room service and without the daily Room Service Direct benefits for those um who are contributing ideas that help save water energy or avoid waste on as well organize a kind of competition to um collect good sustainable ideas and to give a prize at it so merchandising as well is a very interesting topic and we have seen it already in the museums we are in that um it’s necessary to use typical items local produce and so on and the most important uh aspect is not increasing the amount of things we already have in our possession and last but not least um is drawing attention to the multifaceted forms of expression and accompaning symptoms to in all websites flyers and so on re requesting a clear statement on why and how we are planting PL actions and measures contributing to the Social and ecological development of the goals asking for action and reactions from the guest which sustainability ideas did they take with and which one would they gave um to the cultural organizations and the last uh Point here is as well developing stories that motivate us always to be aware of the consequences of our lifestyle and the help and help to turn around our wasteful lives in this sense um not that’s a good example but this is better finally the conclusion being convincing with our arguments and our own habits is a precondition for reaching stakeholders such as entrepreneurs politicians and influencers fulfilling enjoyable holidays uh do not have to involve excessive consumption storytelling is an excellent medium for steering The Winds of Change towards sustainability flexibility and creativity is needed to make a difference and to create a Snowball Effect teaming up with other change makers increasing the impetus towards binding criteria for sustainable future and last but not least not just tourism professionals but everyone can spread the message living working and traveling sustainable is [Applause] schol um so thank you um I wanted because I wanted to um ask a followup question and but also I wanted to highlight um that I really appreciate that you U major connection between opportunities Us in that we have in promoting environmental ecological sustainable sustainability practices through um the cultural experiences that we offer and I think that making that connection as mentioned at the start I think those things are really interconnected and I think this this reminded me of some of the disc question that we also been having at our conference about the the purpose the meaning why do we do these things um why do people want to participate in cultural experiences why do people want to go to museum we want to really maximize the the positive impacts um of the the the meaningful encounters that they will have um and we have an opportunity I think at culture organization when people are coming to your destinations to your institutions to your businesses we can because of their passion for something their interest for something to use that as an opportunity for education and awareness raising as these examples have shown but on not related to that but related to culture one thing I wanted to ask you about um because you you mention your work around cultural Roots um in Europe there’s been I think a lot of Trends um really concerning Trends to Earth more separation uh more division more conflict um and less Unity um whether we’re talking about sort of cultural differences political views and all that kind of stuff um have you have you felt that in your work um is is this kind of General Trend influencing our our work in cultural tourism um is are we are we addressing this as tourism to to help this trend go back to what we kind of talked about at the conference as well um positive promoting positive connections I would say that those which who are working in cultural Roots don’t have these borders in the mind they are Co working in co-working spaces and they are really in in relation in a deeper relationship with with each other but of course for instance in the case of the Jewish cultural root um it’s uh very um interesting how the different um share holders are reacting to um according to what is happening in Israel and what how Jewish people is attached here in Europe and how to support um instead of all these challenges uh positive option towards the future thank you I yeah I really appreciate that like what the the the concept of cultureal roots represents in terms of the possibility of connecting people with different backgrounds different ideas and so on so thank you again so more more on that again a reminder to think of and and enter and type your questions please on slido um next up I would like to welcome to stage and introduce P SC um who is the director of national museum of science and technology technis which I think some of you have already been today um at least a portion of it because of a session so Peta is um the chair also of the royal jur G Garden Society um the whole area we’re in um and also the chair among many many hats that you wear I would add the chair of the association of Swedish science centers and the board member of Swedish museums Association um so you can imagine how actively engaged she is in in all of these great things that we’re talking about especially um within this context um in in Sweden um Peta has um private and public sector um experiences professional experiences as well as mixed backgrounds combining expertise in culture Communication business and industry and I would really really like to add this one little fun fact um that I found out as we um I was going to say Skype but that’s not what we did as we connected the first time um that so I’m based in Germany and I mentioned my city um I’m not in a larger City like Hanover or Berlin or Munich um but a small City and it’s not very common that when I say where I am somebody knows it somebody outside of Germany Knows It But P did and I said why and it’s because the city of es stuna in Sweden is a city sister city of where I live in in in Germany what an amazing connection um so that was I think for me a really fun thing I actually looked it up what are s cities of my city um which I encourage you to do as well because you’re all Global um sustainable tourism people but with that thank you already for the inspiration but thanks um for being here p over to you thank you much I think sister cities uh it’s it’s a good thing actually because you get to learn people and I think tourism is also about getting to learn people and uh with all these different assignments I think I have a good perspective on this question how museums could contribute to sustainable uh tourism uh because um uh there’s a lot of power in museums uh we we meet a lot of of people and I try to in my my short speak to cover the three different aspects of sustainability like economic sustainable uh social and and um uh environmental uh climate matters uh I will do that by walk through my my museum and how we work a little bit uh it will be our external programming it will be how we work internally uh to become a sustainable organization or institution and I will tell a little bit about of of our Outreach work we do in socially less well of uh economic areas and then I will tell a little bit also about the wooden Hall that some of you have been into which is a good example of how you can uh save a bit of carbon dioxide uh museums then I think it’s uh very much a matter of democracy uh and the power of public spaces uh I would like to take a Swedish example uh we there’s a research done I think it’s done every second year by the gothenberg university and they check the trustworthiness of different societal institutions and uh museums are on the absolute top with an index of 72 and then you can compare with with the healthc care it has 50 and when it comes to politician it’s like minus two or industry minus 12 or something like that of course that’s uh it comes also with with a lot of responsibility but it it tells there is the potential uh because you you listen when you go to museum you you you interact and as you said there is something going on that that is driven by people’s interest uh and only in Sweden it lives like 12 million people we have uh L year we had 28 million Museum visits and if I go into my institution which is one of the top 10 indoor uh museums uh we interact or they interact with us for in average four hours so they interact with with with what we show what we do uh but also uh the food we eat and what we drink it’s a possibility commun to communicate these matters which you had good examples on if we do it in the proper way uh yes what should I say then yeah and we don’t tell uh this is what we do more or less um we don’t of course tell what people should think uh that’s their business so to say but we we helped them to uh get knowledge to to make a fairly complex World understandable so that so that they can make good choices when it comes to sustainability for instance so our next big exhibition will be on the forest everything that is uses fossil as a as a fossil materials as a resource today can be done by wood but wood is also the forest is also needed for something else Recreation reindeers uh the biological um multiplicity and so there are dilemas and if we can sort that debate up in a lustful way because it’s ailment we’re doing um and we have changed more or less everything we do we don’t do uh Blockbuster exhibitions any longer uh we have turned ourselves into more of a technical cultural house I would say open 12 12 hours a day uh to uh create meaningful meetings so we looked on what are our resources we have a good place uh we have a good topic Innovations we have been busy uh investigating possible Futures the last 100 years because an innovation is a promise of a better tomorrow really of course they brought us also to this kind of tricky situation uh because we are over consuming the resources of the planet due to use of uh technology but also the consumeristic way we live in um um but being this culture house we thought we have a lot of we have access to experts loads of experts why should we have the microphone people like me let the experts talk with the audience instead there are wonderful meetings and the experts they are in the industry they are in the Academia and people can ask the questions uh and the exhibitions more or less have a function of being the the the scene for those talks that’s one way of doing it you can do it in different ways of course uh when I go now I go into the internal perspective of what we do uh and of course you can do try to do it by yourself but it’s much easier if you do it together with other people and if you have listened to Camila earlier you realize that here on y Gordon we have we some plus 60 institutions we have chosen to to work together and we have defined four different areas which has the biggest impact on on um on the climate and on sustainability so the transport getting here and getting from here is of course very important how can can we improve that uh what we eat has a big impact on the climate as well uh on the social side uh that we should be for each and everyone open this place up it’s Royal year Gordon it could implicate that it’s not for everyone but it really is for everyone and then of course the the the programming activities that we do uh on this spot and then it’s it’s um uh guided to it’s a plan really what would we like to achieve what are the goals is the 177 uh different TW agenda 2030 goals and then we monitor monitor them together uh and the fine thing is that every decision maker of this 60 plus uh institutions we have sit we have sat down in a room and decided together we meet every now and then and check how are we proceeding do we have difficulties do we have problems yes we have problems in in areas and then maybe the neighbor has to answer or if we don’t have the answer within our organizations ourself then Camila fixes a bit of money and then we educate ourself and then we can improve and take the next step uh it’s very handy and it’s a power coming together it’s more interesting to give money of course to where it makes impact 60 uh different institutions are the biggest destination in in in in Scandinavia of course you would like to support that in the direction of of a better future so that is what we do there uh this is our now I’m back in the museum uh but on the outside again uh we have a lot of troubles in SW with the inclusion uh we have a lot of areas in big greater Stockholm where we have um people that are uh don’t they are not given the same possibilities I would say not it starts really in the school so we have got other people who are interested in a stable climate or stable societal climate uh societal development to support what we do so this is free for their teachers their schools and they can just sign up we we train the the teachers we bring the latest equipment into the classrooms and they are brought to Royal y Gordon 98% have never set put their foot here and maybe the biggest journey is to come to city the city of Stockholm they might live 20 minutes from City never never been there uh so it’s a big journey and it’s an important journey and that is about societal uh sustainability and now to something different uh we we we needed to build a new house that is not very sustainable of course but we we we needed to that to realize this do theater and the do theater is the needed uh to explain a complex U phenomena like climate or space chemistry uh things like that it’s really a a powerful learning tool inside this 3D Dome Theater but we wanted to do that in a way that told something about the possibility with Innovations and um therefore we decided to build the smartest wooden building in in we started in Stockholm and then we increased a little bit we said Sweden at actually is one of the most advanced wooden building wooden buildings in the world there’s already written papers about the house in Australia it’s I didn’t know that when I set off for this and it’s all about this bloody roof it’s so it’s so extremely complicated but it’s also imagine why do we build wooden houses thick houses in square format when you can bend wood it’s much it shows the potential in the material and we would like to open the mind of people to show what we can do with with wood as a material that can replace fossil material really so with that that’s a reference object and um that open minds really and you can see when people come there if there are couples they first enter the building and look like this like the most of you did and then they walk 10 m in and then they start to hug really it’s strange because you aroused and that’s a known phenomena among Architects and I think that’s a good thing if we hug a little bit more then it’s a good step towards a more sustainable world thank [Applause] you that is a really great statement um so I wanted to um because I thought what you said about the power of power that you have um and places like me museums to shape conversations and so on is really great and I wanted to ask about that but I don’t want to steal anybody’s question um so I would like to invite all of you to come up here for our um next part is really the the Q&A um and there you go we have a few already so let’s start with that um let’s start with the first question um from Alexandra cor M this is a question um to you for Eric have you already considered expanding your network to Asia uh we we would like to we just need to find the right partner that is willing to uh uh take over and develop a network within their own country or Province so and there she is but you do work internationally as well yes we we we we do uh we got Au funding many many years ago uh it was through a program so that’s when we partnered with uh Norway Sweden pharoh Island uh Northern Ireland Ireland and Iceland and so we got Au money and our partner in northern Europe uh were able to come to Canada understand the concept and bring it back and uh we provide some business support and then they were taking over and to develop their own network of Artisans so that can be a model potentially T be um rated in other places as well excellent um okay great question the next one I would take um from junik uh what what are some of the new ways that museums um can practice um sustainability in the future um or presently not just in the future but I guess I’ll go to you um P what are some of the new ways I think the yeah maybe the answer would be from it is that the new ways are the old ways because what do we have what are our assets our primary asset is that we have this space and the space is public and we have the audience people like to meet people and um I don’t think that people should stop traveling uh because of of climate reasons because if we don’t meet uh uh we don’t understand other people and other people’s living circumstance an es I think that is a important thing and and to create an atmosphere for for good meetings uh I think people need that in in in times of of um challenges more more than ever so develop what we have would be my and and speaking of the atmosphere um I see a question I guess I see it here too speaking of the the wooden Dome um is that is that the picture that you you shared I guess what’s what’s inside it how long did you did it take to build it it’s a 3D Dome Theater in 8k it’s high resolution it’s digital you can interact with it was actually fun if you heard the first session this morning it was about data and how data could help developing tourist industry uh it’s used actually to to make images show images of data sets uh because if you share the image it’s much easier to understand the complex things and that is what what we use it for uh so uh that was a good example I think it took two years to build it from start we the whole project took six years so it was pretty fast I would say uh it took the longest time was to raise the the money part of the process um great so um I think related to I think one of the the topics you touched on about the power of culture institution um and and I think with that power comes responsibility um because I think what we do can influence the conversations that people have the access information and type of information that they have access to um maybe even what kind of knowledge they would take home with them and so on um which I think is a really significant power and and and influence that we’re talking about um wanted to go to question here from Kina in the political politically unstable world as we live in nowadays how um are some of these examples that you’ve um you’ve shared with us today and approaches um the um the events that potentially can polarize the society um so what are some of the ways that um your in in your experience um working in the cultural area um have you dealt with tricky social political um issues how have you addressed some of those challenges in your work maybe yes please I can try to give an answer I already said it in the context of the Jewish culture route we all know if people know each other it’s um the first step to be in peace with each other and uh I’m turning the question um into the opposite I think cultural work communication work education work is a great help and within tourism and um outside of Tourism to make the world a bit better and um we all know if you know a person it’s um much easier to love her and as and if you don’t know her it’s much easier to hate her and so this this cultural work is a a huge um step forward absolutely go I think you were first okay thank you uh I think that uh a little bit of friction is is is good friction is good course it’s part of the the Democratic U uh forming that it’s part of democracy uh and think of great art uh it causes a lot of emotions so out with emotions but be on public spaces where you can talk and eventually you will form good things in in a way you have met than than than we behave in a better way I think I would say that culture T cultural tourism is the best way to connect between people if you go mountain climbing canoeing you by yourself but when you do culture and you meet the people you understand where they’re coming from they’re telling their story you have a better understanding of the local culture and I think it’s the best way for for I would say almost for peace you know and you remember when you go and travel and you visit what do you bring in your mind especially is when you the meeting when you met the people and what do you bring in your suitcase craft and local food true yeah and that was also the message I think we heard yesterday from um your ex prime minister um about the power of trouble and and why it is really important and we are in the business of really promoting this experience um but we want to do it in a sustainable way but we want to continue to encourage these kind of connections across borders um between different cultures and I think the sometimes the this this this power and the possibilities of cultural tourism um when we bring people with different backgrounds together when we encourage learning amongst those those groups of people um that power and and the significance might not be as well understood as for example when we talk about common emissions and all that kind of stuff um within the context of sustainability but I do believe um and again I think that’s why it is part of one of the big pillars of the gscc standard um is culture and it’s really all what travel is is about as you say what people take home with them when you think about a lot of those elements it is really about culture um as well so um we have um a couple of great questions related to accessibility um inclusivity and accessibility um and I think maybe in I think maybe the first question May be related to specifically museums um and Peta maybe you could address this um from your own um technis example but maybe museums in general um what are some of the the ways that museums can um ensure accessibility I think um physically and otherwise uh I think we the most sustainable thing is of of course to do of course is to to renovate an existing building in the most cases I would say we built a new one uh and U by doing that we even out four different levels we could take away a number of elevators uh so that helped us to to create uh a seamless circulation from accessibility point of view then we used wood as a material I think we have captured like 1,200 tons of carbon dioxide for the next 100 years in the bu building the heating system is saving another 15 Tons of carbon dioxide because it’s thermal heating uh but there are so many other ways of of accessibility aspects of that uh for instance in our case it’s a lot of noise uh s um lights and things like that so every last Wednesday in the month we have a a functional Wednesday we call it when we turn off lights uh sounds and also have less visitors and then we have quite a few people coming with certain needs and once they have been in our place like two three times they feel it’s their place then they know it then they come with other visites so there are many things uh to do really uh but you have to take it serious and also taking out accessibility will provide a better visitor EXP expence for uh people without disability so uh a a lady a couple coming with their kids with a stroller if there’s a button to open the door it’s going to be much easier so we need to think exibility not only for uh disabled people but people without disability it provide better visitor experience yeah and and when when that can lead to improving quality of life for everyone including residents um who enjoy those cultural experiences as well um I think that’s a winwin but um I think also maybe rated to the general topic of Inc casties I have a personal question um in all of the places that we’ve been um for our conference not the hotel but the venues to the the the Swedish people in in this room um is this uh what um is this typical normal that all of the bathrooms are mixed um it’s not a j is this is this a inclusivity accessibility um sort of a consideration or is it is this just a typical practice it has been a discussion I think uh before maybe 20 years ago something like that that it should be mixed uh but it also come when you had the the room for taking care of your small children yes so it’s mixed all over most cases the sing has been a discussion but do you know that this is very unique no no that’s very interesting um I can imagine yes then I guess there are economics as economic aspects behind it as well driving the whole thing interesting okay well progress comes with challenges um K thank you for sharing um I think there was a um question about Community engagement um I think this is a question to all of you um well whereas um specifically for museums but also to to all of you in terms of working together with the local community members um maybe you can share a little bit more examples and insights on what do you do how how do you do um how do they become part of um your processes decision making and other processes um in terms of your work who would you like who would like to start thank you well um the cultural Roots did not exist without um population without people it’s um a relationship between the countryside between people and between the cultural life uh in their surroundings so um it’s um a a junction you can’t um divide so um it’s needed for Artisan uh you need I would say you need you don’t need to involve Community but being in the community sometime it could be the attraction of your municipality or town but and you provide jobs uh and summer job jobs and sometime if you’re big enough you do sponsorship um and you just need to be corporate social responsibility artisan M well your your work is really based on working with local community members and being told um especially so especially when you put uh uh let’s say uh a flower mail um flower mail uh that belongs to the community so you already have the involvement of the community supporting the the this touristic project great um this is an abrupt stop uh we I thought we had more time apologies um however thank you everyone for sharing these questions and being part of a discussion and all thanks to all of you for sharing your insights examples um being part of this session and because this is the last session of the day I think we have some there ago um so here is um what you need to know for today um so in 10 minutes 10 minutes um 12 minutes and the Shadow Buses leaving from here to um back to the hotel um or Hass and fwell dinner today is going to be um at 700 p.m. at Vasa Museum s um yeah and if you for this is um as as with all the events that we had today this is for for those uh who have signed up already um and if you have you should have this uh the QR code um bring your B for that and as usual there’s that bar Meetup auction at the Hass beckon Hotel this evening as well and don’t leave yet yes please yes thank you thank you for hosting us [Applause] okay well thank you everyone e e
Museums play an important role in cultural preservation and education. As we gather to explore the connection of culture and sustainable operation, this session will delve into strategies for making museums more sustainable. Speakers in this session will discuss how museums can become leaders in promoting responsible tourism and environmental stewardship, ensuring a balance between preserving our cultural heritage and safeguarding the planet for future generations.
Moderator: Ayako Ezaki – Online Training Manager, GSTC
• Anke Biedenkapp – CEO, Global Partnership Hannover
• Peter Skogh – Director, Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology
• Carl-Éric Guertin – General Manager, Économusée Network Society