Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections

Cultural institutions, including libraries, archives, museums, and historical organizations, face a complex challenge: to preserve humanities collections for future generations through environmentally sustainable preventive care strategies to reduce energy consumption and costs as well as to strengthen institutional resiliency in the face of a changing climate. Cultural institutions can accomplish this work most effectively through managing collections’ environment, including aspects such as temperature, relative humidity, pollutants, and light; providing protective storage enclosures and systems for collections; and safeguarding collections from theft, fire, floods, and other disasters. By using environmentally sustainable methods, institutions reduce reliance on fossil fuels and ensure collections are better protected from current and future disasters.