We have an ambition to be Net Zero by 2035 and want to ensure that our museums are ready for a changing climate.
We are only the trustees for those who come after us.
Carbon footprint 2023/24
For the 2023/24 financial year, our total emissions were 16,583 tCO2e, equal to 4.24 kg of CO2e per visitor and employee. Scope 1 was 355 tCO2e (2%), scope 2 was 3,671 tCO2e (22%) and scope 3 was 12,556 tCO2e (76%).
Scope 1 and 2 emissions
Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from fuel used in owned or directly controlled sources, such as on boilers or company vehicles.
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchased energy, such as electricity and heat.
V&A South Kensington has seen a reduction of almost 6% from our 2019/20 baseline (3,165 tCO2e).
Young V&A (formerly V&A Museum of Childhood) was commissioned in 2022, reopening to the public in July 2023.
Between 2022 – 2024, objects have been moved from our previous storage facility, Blythe House, and into V&A East Storehouse, opening May 2025.
As our estate has changed since our baseline year, future targets will be based on the 2023/24 financial year.
Scope 3 emissions
Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions from our activities, ocurring from sources not owned or controlled by the V&A. This can be from waste, employee commuting, the items and services we buy, or from activities such as object and business travel.
- Nearly half of our scope 3 emissions are from purchased goods and services, while investments represent almost a quarter
- Fuel and energy represent emissions from transmission losses from the grid, and from the use of nuclear energy at our sites (excluding V&A South Kensington and Dean Hill, our storage facility)
We have excluded visitor travel in the assessment, but still record how visitors travel to our museums for travel planning purposes.
Our franchises include partner sites V&A Dundee and V&A Wedgwood, however V&A Wedgwood data is not included in the 2023/24 assessment.
Scope 3 by museum activity
- Our five highest emitting business ares of the museum are Estates, Finance and Procurement, V&A East, the temporary exhibition programme and the Blythe House decant.
This insight will be used to develop a climate action plan (replacing our existing sustainability plan), by Summer 2025.
Methodology for measuring emissions
This year we have onboarded Normative, a carbon accounting software to improve the accuracy and reliability of our emissions calculations. All emission calculation is in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
For our scope 3 emissions, we have mainly used a spend-based assessment. For water and operational waste, we have used activity data. We are currently developing a data improvement strategy, with the goal of transitioning to activity or supplier-based data. As part of this process, data requests have been integrated into tender requirements for object logistics, exhibition design, and build.
We have excluded measuring certain activities such as object acquisitions, as the current spend-based assessment does not reflect the emissions associated with the objects themselves. However, emissions from transporting object acquisitions are tracked through our object travel spend. Downstream retail emissions are also excluded.
Sustainability plan
Our current sustainability plan is guided by place, people and programme. We are currently updating this and developing a new climate action plan, to meet our near-term target of 42% reduction of scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030. This new plan will launch summer 2025.
We will develop regular monitoring and clear annual reporting on a wide range of sustainability measures, with the progress of this plan being reviewed annually.
Climate ready museum
The record-breaking temperatures of summer of 2022 saw London reaching 40°C, followed by the world's warmest year on record in 2023. Climate change predictions warn of higher temperatures and more extreme weather events such as flooding, which can pose risks to the collections, such as chemical degradation.
We need to ensure that the museum is ready for these changes, understanding the potential impacts to our buildings, collections, people and visitors across the museum.
We are currently undertaking a detailed climate risk assessment to identify the current and future impacts of extreme weather due to climate change. These findings will shape the development of an adaptation plan in 2025/26, ensuring that the V&A is climate ready.
Place
Energy
- Lighting upgrades are taking place across the museum as we move towards more efficient LEDs
- We are improving our building management across sites, reviewing the way we heat and cool our buildings to reduce energy, all whilst ensuring the care of our collections and visitor comfort
- Detailed surveys for V&A South Kensington and Young V&A have identified options for carbon and energy savings
Materials and the use of resources
Making temporary exhibitions more sustainable
- The Exhibitions Working Group (with representatives from Exhibitions, Technical Services, Loans, Curatorial, Conservation and Sustainability) have conducted carbon assessments of three previous exhibitions, identifying key opportunities to save carbon through object logistics, exhibition design and build
- Sustainability is now built into each stage of the exhibition lifecycle –from concept to completion – considering all opportunities for more sustainable practice
- We are working closely with key suppliers (for example, designers) to integrate low-carbon design principles into our exhibitions. This includes designing for disassembly, reducing waste, and increasing the reuse of materials across exhibitions. We have established internal material guidelines to ensure we select the most sustainable options for exhibition construction.
Waste reduction
- We have a zero-to-landfill policy with a 67% recycling rate for our operational waste (2023/24)
- We have several streams of reuse including the IT repurpose and recycling scheme, working with Men in Sheds to donate old equipment from our workshops, and sending unwanted mannequins to fashion colleges
- We are reducing single use items in our cafés and will be trialling reusable coffee cups in the Garden Café from early 2025
Procurement
- We procure goods and services responsibly to maximise social, environmental and financial value. Our procurement policy and guidance are being refreshed to have sustainability embedded within them.
- Sustainability criteria are part of our specifications, briefs and tenders. As part of the data improvement strategy for scope 3 emissions, activity data requests are now part of exhibition procurement.
- Each year, we will engage with our highest emitting suppliers to gather data on their carbon emissions and understand their decarbonisation plans. We will work in partnerships with our suppliers to reduce emissions throughout our supply chain.
Retail and catering
- The V&A Shop always aims to source merchandise from reputable and responsible suppliers, favouring those that are ethically and ecologically minded. We proudly champion local industry by working with UK designers and manufacturers where possible, as well as supporting artisans and social enterprises from all over the world.
- To reduce waste, online orders are sent using reused and recyclable materials wherever possible. We also aim to improve our shops' environmental impact by working with our suppliers to switch to more sustainable materials, such as organic cotton or FSC approved paper, and by reviewing packaging solutions wherever possible. This is a gradual process which we have placed at the very heart of everything we do.
- In partnership with Benugo, our catering provider, we have removed palm oil from all bakery items and offer plant-based milks at no additional cost. Our fresh meat and cooked chicken are sourced from the UK and are Red Tractor certified, all fish is MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) approved, and all our fresh eggs are free-range.
- We are committed to reducing single use items in our cafes and moving away from plastic, with our disposable cutlery made from FSC approved wood, rather than plastic.
Air and water
- Since our 2019/20 baseline (45,584 m3), we have made a 27% reduction in our water use
- As a family of museums, we are looking to consolidate deliveries to reduce vehicle movements and congestion, and to improve air quality
Biodiversity
- To protect local biodiversity, we use an integrated pest management programme of biological controls within our garden and landscapes across all sites. This allows beneficial microorganisms and insects to thrive without the need for chemical application.
People
We support our people, partners and sector to embed sustainable decision-making and practices, and to share knowledge and skills. Sustainability is a core value and behaviour and is part of everyone's role at the museum.
Governance and leadership
- Our net zero governance is led by the Net Zero 2035 Programme Board, reporting to our Executive Board and Buildings and Strategy Committee. The Net Zero 2035 Operational Board reports into the Programme Board on delivery against our sustainability plan. Both boards meet every two months and progress is audited through our internal audit process.
Curator of the Future Programme
- The Curator of the Future Programme was created to ensure our collections, publications and programming connect with changing public expectations of the 21st-century museum. As part of this, a new curatorial training programme is being devised, to be rolled out to all curators joining the museum as well as existing staff
- In response to stakeholder consultation carried out in the previous year, the group identified sustainability as a key area for curatorial knowledge and skills development. Work includes coordinating workshops for staff to understand how to embed and incorporate sustainability into curatorial work, and inviting colleagues across the sector to share key learnings.
Partnerships and community
- We are keen to share our knowledge, skills and experience with the cultural and heritage sectors and beyond – locally, globally and nationally. This includes actively participating in networks such as Culture in Crisis and the Bizot Museum Group, and collaborating with peers to generate insight and innovation in museum practice.
South Kensington Zero Emissions Nature Positive Neighbourhood (SK ZEN+)
- We play an active role in the South Ken ZEN+ Programme, an initiative of the Exhibition Road Cultural Group (ERGC), externally known as Discover South Kensington. It brings together 22 arts and cultural institutions in South Kensington to tackle the greatest challenge of our time – the climate and biodiversity crisis.
London Climate Ready Partnership
- We are part of the London Climate Ready Partnership, driving awareness and action on climate change adaptation
- As part of this work we hosted a culture sector round table for the London Climate Resilience Review, highlighting challenges of adapting to extreme weather due to climate change
Bizot Green Protocol
- We were part of the international working group to refresh the Bizot Green Protocol, outlining how museums can implement sustainable practices across all areas of museum activity including collection care, exhibitions and loans.
- The Protocol is supported by science-based guiding principles, with climate control guidelines and practical tools to help facilitate adoption and implementation, including a handbook on adopting the guidelines, and another on greener transport.
- We have adopted and are implementing the guidelines overseen by our Bizot working group. Progress is reported into the Bizot Group annually by our Director.
- In February 2024, we hosted the second tranche of the Changing Climate Management Strategies Workshop, part of the Getty Conservation Institute's (GCI) Training for Sustainable Collection Care. The workshop brought together over 50 museum professionals from 23 countries across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The focus of the workshop was to share the V&A's experience with evidence-based risk analysis for sustainable management of collections environment. This also initiated a 12-month research collaboration between the V&A and the GCI to monitor objects in galleries with different environmental controls, to inform more sustainable approaches to collection care.
- Following on from this workshop, we are currently updating our policy for collections environment which will address our strategic objectives for sustainability, access, and collections care
- We are also updating our object courier policy to align with Bizot, and tracking data on progress
Programme
We recognise that we have a civic responsibility in both reducing our impact on the planet, and being able to convey stories through our collections and programme.
Collections
- We actively use our collections to explore and respond to audience aspirations around climate change and planetary limits. The new Design 1900 – Now galleries include a dedicated 'Sustainability and Subversion' section, exploring how designed things prompt us to ask questions of our past, present and future.
- Our Rapid Response collecting programme enables the acquisition and immediate display of design objects that address questions of social, political, technological and economic change. Objects include those given by the Extinction Rebellion Arts Group – a coalition of graphic designers, artists and activists responsible for XR's Design Programme – which reveal how XR has used open-source design to create a collaborative 'do-it-together' movement recognisable across the globe.
Learning and public programme
- We deliver learning activities that critically address and build understanding around local and global issues of climate change. These include talks for secondary school teachers on design for sustainable development as part of our Innovate programme, and family-friendly activities at the Museum of Childhood empowering children to take action on climate change.
- Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures is a 10-year project that encompasses an annual display, symposium and programme of acquisitions dedicated to looking at the use of renewable, natural materials and the future of sustainable forestry in connection to design and architecture. The programme invites practitioners from different disciplines ranging from science, design, forestry and academia to share research, knowledge and skills. Supported by the designer and furniture maker John Makepeace OBE, the programme encourages ideas of stewardship of natural resources and considers the responsibilities of designers and consumers towards the natural world in a time of climate crisis.
Research and higher education
- We undertake and disseminate research, teaching and learning related to sustainability issues. This includes residencies for artists, designers and makers in sustainable fashion, exploring the circular economy and in engineering.
- The subject of the Anthropocene continues to be part of ongoing curatorial research for V&A East who in collaboration with the V&A Research Institute (VARI), host cross-disciplinary specialists to support ongoing research into V&A collections with an environmental lens.
Galleries and exhibitions
We are always looking for ways to highlight sustainability in the content and delivery of galleries, temporary exhibitions and displays.
- Our Fashioned from Nature exhibition explored the complex and often controversial relationship between fashion and nature, taking visitors through centuries of fashion that have drawn inspiration from, and plundered the natural world – through to the contemporary innovators who are directly addressing the issues caused by the industry
- The exhibition FOOD: Bigger than the Plate explored how innovative individuals, communities and organisations are radically re-inventing how we grow, distribute and experience food. Visitors were invited to participate in a sensory journey through the food cycle from compost to table and to discover how the collective choices we make can lead to a more sustainable, just and delicious food future.
- We host the Prix Pictet, a global prize that aims to highlight sustainability and environmental issues through photography
Sustainability blog
Every day we're making progress on our sustainability journey. From tending our honey bees, to reusing exhibition materials, find out how we're embedding sustainability in daily museum life on our dedicated blog.
Resources
Want to play your part? By learning some new skills, from making your own clothes to repairing fabric, you can help proactively effect change. Take a look at our practical resources for sustainable living.
Contact
If you'd like to get in touch, please email our Sustainability Lead: sustainability@vam.ac.uk