Behind-the-scenes: Sustainability
The Hepworth Wakefield is part of a growing movement of museums and arts organisations that recognise their role in place-keeping, regeneration, raising aspirations, and health and wellbeing.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation inquiry into the civic role of the arts describes the different metaphorical places that arts and cultural organisations, including museums, can become in the lives of local communities as follows: colleges (places of learning), town halls (places of debate), parks (public spaces open to everyone), temples (places that give meaning and provide solace) and homes (places of safety and belonging).
In recent months this has increasingly meant many museums have becomeplaces of debate and learning about the climate emergency movement, from Extinction Rebellion sit ins, to the Arts Council England’s environmental programme Spotlight, and the Museum’s Association 2019 annual conference theme being Sustainable and Ethical Museums in a Globalised World.
From its inception The Hepworth Wakefield has implemented procedures to ensure that the gallery is environmentally responsible and sustainable, and between 2011 and 2019 The Hepworth Wakefield has reduced its carbon footprint by 60%.
This summer staff from departments across the organisation have formed an Environmental Sustainability Committee who meet regularly to explore ideas about how we can share our energy efficiency initiatives with our colleagues and visitors to increase awareness and generate debate about this key issue.
The Hepworth Wakefield are now applying for funding to enable us to implement changes to further increase our energy efficiency and reduce our carbon footprint by changing the lighting throughout the building to LED lights and installing solar panels on the roof, and we need your help to make the case for this important change.
LED lighting facts and figures
LED technology has significantly increased in efficiency over the past few years with LEDs generating more light for less wattage than traditional bulbs and an increased life cycle- lasting 10 – 15 times longer. This leads to reduced energy usage, financial savings and lower carbon emissions.
150 LED spotlights have already been supplied and fitted in some of the galleries, but we need an additional 705 new fittings to fit LED lighting throughout the building.
Once in place the LED lights will:
- save 50-60% on the amount of energy used
- reduce THWs carbon footprint by 27.31 tonnes of carbon (7% of our overall carbon costs)
- save over £10,000 a year
Did you know?
THW utilises its unique position on the River Calder to use water from the river in an innovative low carbon solution to meet the heating and cooling needs of the site. One tonne of water from the river is used every 16 seconds to maintain the temperature and humidity of the gallery via a heat pump system. The system draws water directly from the river through the line of an old mill race at basement level and this is then circulated throughout the building, providing a renewable energy source for the majority of the cooling and heating requirements, essential to maintaining the right environment for the art works on display and in the store.
