MoDiP is part of the Arts University Bournemouth which has the following environmental commitments:
- A commitment to the protection of the environment, including the prevention of pollution
- A commitment to fulfil its compliance obligations
- A commitment to continual improvement of the environmental management system to enhance environmental performance
- A commitment to never investing in fossil fuels
More information can be found on the AUB’s environment webpages.
The museum itself has taken the following specific sustainability actions:
Exhibition text
We avoid using foam core board which is difficult to recycle. Instead we print our exhibition text on paper and place it in reusable acrylic mounts.
Move away from using vinyl lettering
We previously labelled our temporary exhibition cases with vinyl lettering but have decided to stop doing this. We now put the titles on our paper text panels instead. The only vinyl lettering in the museum is now in a permanent display case.
Changed our pencils
We ask that visitors only use pencils in the museum and have always felt that we cannot make this demand without providing pencils to those who have not brought their own. For a number of years, we had used pencils made out of recycled CD cases but felt that this was no longer acceptable as the plastics material was only being diverted for a short time before it ended up in landfill anyway. We now offer branded pencils made from a sustainable wood source.
Quality Freshers give away
The AUB’s Freshers Fair is a great way for us to meet new students and promote the museum as a resource. We have always believed that if we are to offer free branded give-away items they should be something that will be used and not discarded at the first opportunity. To this end we have sourced good quality items such as reusable coffee mugs, which we enjoy spotting in use around campus. These mugs have now been superseded by useful notebooks made with card and paper from a renewable source.
Glove recycling
To protect the objects in the collection from the oils in our hands, we ask researchers and museum staff to wear nitrile gloves when handling them. It has taken some time but we have now found a recycling stream for these gloves.
Communicating sustainability in design in plastics
There are a number of ways in which the museum communicates sustainability in design in plastics to a variety of audiences:
- Exhibitions such as Revolution.
- Webpages such as Plastics and the environment, and Plastics and sustainability.
- Blog posts including Don't blame plastic, it didn't want to be rubbish
- Resources including Eco-plastic detectives.