MUSEUM IRELAND 2020
Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals: leave no sector behind Henry McGhie
This article follows on from a talk I did at the Irish
of future generations to meet their own needs.â
Museums Association conference in late February
That concept has developed over time, so that
2020. A short flight through a storm took me
sustainability is taken as a state in which society,
from the UK to Ireland (I didnât have time to take
the economy and the environment develop in
the ferry). An even more stormy train ride took
harmony with one another. It is not about âdoing
me from Dublin to Athlone. The wind blew dark
less damageâ, although people often think of it
clouds across the sky. In Athlone, the river was
that way. Sustainability is the ability to last, to
very swollen by recent storms, and looked rather
persist, to develop, to continue; topics that are
dangerously high. All of these things make me
now very much in the forefront of many museumsâ
think of climate change, a topic I work with a lot.
plans and futures. Sustainability is not necessarily
At that time, none of us really appreciated the way
about staying the same, but about growing and
that COVID-19 was beginning to spread far and
changing in positive ways to keep pace in a
wide, and the extent to which life was about to
rapidly changing world. Sustainable development
change.
is focused activity that helps us to achieve that rosy future that we want to secure. Sustainable
What a difference a year makes! The idea that I
development is focused activity that helps attain
could hop on a plane to attend a conference, and
the state of sustainability.
hop back soon afterwards, seems very alien now. Meeting people face to face â some familiar faces
The main programme to support sustainable
and many new ones - in new, and very interesting,
development is called Agenda 2030 and was agreed
settings has been replaced by Zoom meetings and
1 by the worldâs governments in 2015. The Agenda
more screen time than I really care for. Change
is achieved through 17 Sustainable Development
has been forced upon us, although that change has
Goals backed up by 169 targets (which are actually
been more or less painful depending on peopleâs
the more practical aspect of the whole Agenda).
and museumsâ circumstances.
At the conference, I talked about the roles of
2
museums in sustainable development, and how These are some of the concerns of sustainability
thinking about sustainability can help them to
and sustainable development. Although there are
have a strong purpose in society. Not only that,
no universally agreed definitions, sustainability
thinking with the future in mind helps museums
is usually considered through some form of the
to have a future themselves. These are ideas I
statement from the 1987 Brundtland report, as
set out in a guide, Museums and the Sustainable
âdevelopment [activity] that meets the needs of
Development Goals, that you can get for free (see
the present without compromising the ability
link in Notes).
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