Promising Practices
Promising Practices, similar to case studies, are examples of sustainable initiatives developed within the Caretakers of Wonder network.
These Promising Practices are offered as a collection of ideas, projects, and approaches implemented or planned by museums and science centers. Authored by the teams responsible for their development, they resemble case studies while focusing on practical applications. The range of practices includes Sustainability Plans in Leadership and Development, sustainable Purchasing methods in Operations and Guest Services, Outdoor Exhibits in the Exhibits department, and the inclusion of Mindfulness in Early Education Programs. Each Promising Practice is intended to illustrate efforts toward sustainability and alignment with environmental and community health.
Education, Programs & Events
Green Events
Discovery Museum
Discovery Museum’s 2021 Sustainability Plan highlighted reducing the environmental impact of the museum’s special events. Through work led by the Development Office in collaboration with Facilities and others, we instituted measures that impacted routine meetings and events, changing the museum culture, and eventually leading to a carbon-neutral Gala in 2023.
Green Events
Madison Children’s Museum
As co-hosts of the Association of Children’s Museum’s annual conference, InterActivity in May of 2024, we knew that we wanted to host the most sustainable and fun event possible. Madison Children’s Museum is known for green practices and exhibits, and we sought to meet and exceed that standard.
Internships
Museum of Discovery + Science
At the Museum of Discovery and Science, we spearhead this mission through our EcoExplorers internship program. The program spans a year, blending immersive summer experiences with year-round workforce readiness training. By sharing their insights at MODS, EcoExplorer interns enrich visitors' understanding of environmental issues and inspire broader community engagement.
Mindfulness in Early Education Programs
Madison Children’s Museum
Mindfulness is not always a concept associated with children. After all, how does a young child meditate? This Promising Practice will introduce some of the work and activities at Madison Children’s Museum that encourage children to pause and be curious about how they are feeling and encourage prosocial behaviors.
Program Materials
The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon
We observed within our Makery Space and Clay Studio was the large amount of waste being created through take-home projects. We began to have conversations with staff about how we could be more intentional with the product that was being created in programs, and have a greater focus on process.
Program Materials
Discovery Museum
Since 2021, Discovery Museum embarked on a sustainability plan, we have been considering the sustainability of the materials we use in our programs. We have focused on shifting staff and visitor expectations: we are moving away from make-and-take, strategizing ways to reduce visitors’ consumption and waste of materials.
Program Materials
KidsQuest Children’s Museum
While waste will always be present in maker education, KidsQuest Children’s Museum identified issues with our program materials: guests walking out with creations and removing materials ; materials breaking down too quickly; and recyclable materials being made nonrecyclable. To solve these materials problems, we have engaged these approaches since 2021.
Youth + Family Climate Action Summit
The Wild Center
The Wild Center’s Youth Climate Program convenes, engages, and inspires young people to act on climate change through conference-style Youth Climate Summits that focus on the knowledge and skills—climate science, impacts, justice, and solutions—needed to effectively lead on climate change.
Exhibits
Indoor Exhibits
National Children’s Museum
National Children’s Museum is located in downtown Washington, DC, in a building without proper outdoor exhibit space. Yet we understood early on in our exhibit design process that incorporating nature and age-appropriate climate change content was essential. Developing indoor, nature-inspired experiences is possible—it just takes a bit of creativity.
Indoor Exhibits
Chicago Children’s Museum + Caretakers of Wonder Operations Team
Connecting young children with nature is the best predictor of future environmental stewardship—and it’s great for children’s health and well-being. If your museum has limited access to the outdoors, creating authentic nature experiences indoors is easy—and cheaper than you might think.
Indoor Exhibits
The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon
Given that wildfires are an annual event in Southern Oregon, The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon felt a responsibility to create exhibits and programs informing families about wildfires, including prevention and their long-term effects. This exhibit is spurring conversations among visitors, leading to new partnerships, and expanding our programming.
Outdoor Exhibits
Madison Children’s Museum
Research that says that families are spending less and less time outdoors, so we have been prioritizing projects that make outdoor exhibits as robust and engaging as possible. By centering children’s health at the heart of exhibit development, we have chosen to create natural play spaces, relying on natural materials.
Outdoor Exhibits
Louisiana Children’s Museum
The 8.3-acre Louisiana Children’s Musuem campus in the heart of New Orleans’ City Park opened in 2019 after relocating from our original location in the Warehouse District. This transition involved a shift from a nonexistent outdoor exhibit space to an expansive Big Backyard outdoor landscape complete with a 4-acre lagoon.
Facilities + Buildings Operations + Grounds
Tenant Museum Relationships
National Children’s Museum
National Children’s Museum is located in downtown Washington, DC, in a building without proper outdoor exhibit space. Yet we understood early on in our exhibit design process that incorporating nature and age-appropriate climate change content was essential. Developing indoor, nature-inspired experiences is possible—it just takes a bit of creativity.
Energy Consumption
and Reduction
Caretakers of Wonder Operations Team
Connecting young children with nature is the best predictor of future environmental stewardship—and it’s great for children’s health and well-being. If your museum has limited access to the outdoors, creating authentic nature experiences indoors is easy—and cheaper than you might think.
Landscaping/Making Outdoor Environments
Discovery Museum
Given that wildfires are an annual event in Southern Oregon, The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon felt a responsibility to create exhibits and programs informing families about wildfires, including prevention and their long-term effects. This exhibit is spurring conversations among visitors, leading to new partnerships, and expanding our programming.
Landscaping/Making Outdoor Environments
Louisiana Children’s Museum
The 8.3-acre Louisiana Children’s Musuem campus in the heart of New Orleans’ City Park opened in 2019 after relocating from our original location in the Warehouse District. This transition involved a shift from a nonexistent outdoor exhibit space to an expansive Big Backyard outdoor landscape complete with a 4-acre lagoon.
Leadership + Development
Building a Work Culture Focused on Sustainability at All Levels
Discovery Museum
Discovery Museum published its 5-Year Sustainability Plan in June 2021. It contains 29 action steps toward carbon neutrality that require thought and action across all areas of our operations—from Facilities to Development to Finance and more—and across all levels of staff.
Building a Work Culture Focused on Sustainability at All Levels
Museum of Discovery + Science
The Museum of Discovery and Science’s Hub for Resilience Education is an initiative that is integrating environmental sustainability throughout the organization, from programs and exhibits to institutional culture. The goals of the Hub are to anchor—and champion—our community’s conversation, education, and action regarding environmental sustainability and resilience.
Building a Work Culture Focused on Sustainability at All Levels
Louisiana Children’s Museum
When the Louisiana Children’s Museum moved from their old location in the warehouse district of New Orleans to our new location in City Park in 2019, they made a choice. In our their location, they live their sustainability goals in their LEED Gold building.
Cost Benefit Analysis
Chicago Children’s Museum
By comparing the estimated costs and benefits associated with a project, basic principles and framework can be applied to virtually any decision-making process, including efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of a facility. Read how we’re using cost-benefit analysis to support carbon reduction efforts at Chicago Children’s Museum.
Creating Institutional Position Papers
Chicago Children’s Museum
A Position Paper Development Process was established by Chicago Children’s Museum in 2009 to have a consistent method for codifying our philosophies. The purpose of the Process has been to share consistent viewpoints and strategies; enable staff and board to “speak the same language” about the museum’s philosophies and principles.
Fundraising
Discovery Museum
The importance of children spending time outdoors and playing in nature was a highlight of Discovery Museum’s 2013–2017 capital campaign, which funded the Discovery Woods nature playscape. Since then, we have refined our fundraising message around outdoor and environmental education and sustainability, anchored around capital projects and adapting to changes.
Green Teams
Madison Children’s Museum
Madison Children’s Museum has embraced sustainability as a core value for over 30 years, first committing to creating healthy exhibits and children’s environments free of harmful toxins in 1995. After post-pandemic staff rebuilding, a new cross-department green team was formed to recommit to shared learning, goal setting, and sustainability actions.
Investments + Divestments
The Wild Center
Increasingly, museum boards look to their endowments to affect social change by investing in companies that align with their values and mission. At the Wild Center, our staff and finance committee have begun the process of board education and support for selecting some ESG investments in our endowment portfolio.
Stakeholders + Partnerships
The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon
Many children and families in the region of The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon do not have access to healthy, quality foods. we have created a “Fun with Food” program in our culinary studio. It emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables that are locally grown and recipes that are family friendly.
Stakeholders + Partnerships
Museum of Discovery + Science & Louisiana Children’s Museum
The Museum of Discovery and Science in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and the Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans, LA, formed the Caretakers of Wonder Southeast bioregional cohort. By sharing ideas and learning about each other’s works, our organizations benefitted from each other’s experiences and insights.
Sustainability Plans:
Energy Consumption
and Reduction
Discovery Museum + Caretakers of Wonder Operations Team
Discovery Museum had a history of commitment to the natural world but needed to bring that to the present with a visible and inspiring set of actions towards environmental sustainability that highlighted our commitments to addressing climate change. We created a Sustainability Plan that articulated 8 major goals.
Working with Local Government to Further Green Goals
Madison Children’s Museum
Madison Children’s Museum is a mid-sized museum with big ambitions to address children’s needs in a warming climate and support their futures. Our museum’s expertise in creating equitable, inclusive, accessible, joyful hands-on learning experiences makes partnering with local government agencies a natural extension of our work.
Marketing + Communications
Climate Change Communication + Positioning
Museum of Discovery + Science
At the Museum of Discovery and Science, we are working to communicate our position related to climate change. We are working with a local, web-based news outlet called The Invading Sea. This relationship with The Invading Sea has proven to be instrumental in enhancing our visibility in environmental stewardship.
Climate Change Communication + Positioning
Discovery Museum
At Discovery Museum, we use evidence-based climate change communication in our programs, on signage, and in other forms of communication. Our whole museum uses solutions-oriented, empirically tested messaging techniques so we can have the greatest chance of helping our audience move with us toward community-level climate solutions.
Operations + Guest Services
Carbon-Offsets & Transportation + Parking
Discovery Museum
Discovery Museum has chosen to create a unique effort of collecting fees to purchase carbon offsets as a means of mitigating the visitor generated emissions and carbon impact. Working with Environment & Culture Partners, legitimate providers of offsets were located, and we selected appropriate offset projects to support.
Designing Food Service Prioritizing Sustainability
Madison Children’s Museum
In 2022 at Madison Children’s Museum (MCM), we saw an opportunity to align our values of sustainability and access with our cafe. So, we got into the food business, where we could better understand and control sustainability, operations, food procurement, and waste while supporting our visitor experience.
Digital Membership
Madison Children’s Museum
Paper membership cards were an expensive, unsustainable practice that wasted time and offered poor customer service to our Madison Children’s Museum members. In 2021, we started using the Social Good Software, enabling us to offer digital membership cards that can be saved to any member’s smart phone wallet.
Digital Membership
Chicago Children’s Museum
At Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM), we spent many dollars, staff hours, and many reams of paper goods to support our membership card program. With the adoption of our digital membership cards, members found the new cards effective and easy to use, and cost and staff time decreased significantly.
Emergency Procedures: Air Quality
Madison Children’s Museum
Inclement weather and environmental events heighten levels of uncertainty and insecurity for staff and visitors. Acknowledging that children’s museums serve vulnerable populations, clarity and care are needed when making operational decisions. Madison Children’s Museum updated their operational procedures and policies to address severe weather patterns that emerged in 2023
Emergency Procedures: Air Quality
The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon
Smoke from wildfires contains a wide variety of pollutants, measured as particulate matter (PM), causing serious public health concerns. The Children’s Museum of Southern Oregon has created procedures for smoky days including monitoring the Air Quality Index, determining when it’s unhealthy or unsafe for visitors or guests to be outside.
Emergency Procedures: Hurricanes
Museum of
Discovery + Science
The Museum of Discovery and Science is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a coastal community vulnerable to hurricanes. We have an institutional Hurricane Preparedness Plan, and we host an annual community event, Eye of the Storm, that is designed to prepare our community for the impacts of extreme weather.
Emergency Procedures: Polar Vortex
Madison Children’s Museum
At Madison Children’s Museum, we know winter. Polar Vortex events—where Arctic cold air reduces the temperatures to well below zero —are new. We adjusted to address weather patterns like this that emerged in 2022 to account for our exhibits, as well as the wellbeing of our visitors and staff.
Emergency Procedures + Severe Weather Policies: Museums as
Areas of Refuge
Caretakers of Wonder Operations Team
When there is a challenge of any kind in a community, museums’ spaces provide shelter; museums’ systems and mission-driven work can support communication and other individual needs for safety and wellbeing. Museums are naturally-suited to providing safe places for their community. Explore how you can provide safety, and refuge.
Gift Shop:
Sustainable Purchasing
Louisiana Children’s Museum
Learn how Louisiana Children’s Museum changed their gift shop practices in 2022 to specialize in affordable and thoughtfully curated low-waste educational items. All the items are based on the sustainable and educational experiences from the museum’s galleries and exhibits.
Café: Food waste
Louisiana Children’s Museum
At Louisiana Children’s Museum, we work to decrease the volume of food waste that staff and guests contribute to the greater New Orleans municipal waste stream including composting. These changes were enacted when our new campus was opened to the public in the Summer of 2019.
Transportation + Parking
Madison Children’s Museum
Madison Children’s Museum created an Alternative Transportation Policy in 2010. It was created in an effort to become the greenest and most sustainable museum possible. The policy outlines our commitment to fostering a healthy work climate, and to doing our part to be a role model for visitors.
Gift Shop:
Sustainable Purchasing
The Wild Center
One of the most important considerations when purchasing sustainable items for The Wild Center’s store, is that items must also align with our museum’s mission. By carrying more sustainable products, our museum store has been able to stay at the forefront of trends, and we’ve seen sales surpass past years!
Vendor Relationships
Louisiana Children’s Museum
When the Louisiana Children’s Museum moved from the Warehouse District to City Park in 2019, we changed the entire way we operated. In alignment with our sustainability goals, we used vendors who were operating with sustainable practices and who carried on as vendors through the first year of our operation.