Rising costs force museums across North America to rethink climate control guidelines

Museums across North America are reconsidering long-standing climate-control standards that typically require tight ranges of ±2°C and ±5% relative humidity, guidelines rooted in 1970s research for London institutions. The article notes that HVAC systems can account for 60%–70% of a museum building’s energy use, making strict requirements costly and carbon-intensive, and that such standards are often embedded in loan agreements that can exclude institutions whose systems cannot comply. The Bizot Group issued the Bizot Green Protocol in 2015 and updated it in 2023, advocating more flexible, adaptive, object- and building-specific approaches rather than one universal set of numbers. In March, five Los Angeles institutions—the Getty, the Hammer Museum, Hauser & Wirth, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—announced a joint commitment to adopt the Bizot Green Protocol, building on Getty’s PST Art initiative “Art & Science Collide” and its Climate Impact Program led by artist Debra Scacco and climate consultant Laura Lupton. Conservator Caitlin Southwick, founder of the sustainability nonprofit Ki Culture, argues that the updated protocol supports bespoke standards based on science-backed research and local conditions.

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