Sustainability

Our museums and collections are powerful tools for environmental action — we’re using them to protect our planet and inspire sustainable change.

Bluebells growing in woodlands, blue sky visible in the background

Our Commitment

  1. Use our natural sciences collections, sites and expertise to amplify awareness of and inform responses to the environmental crisis.
  2. Champion a more sustainable way of living and working through our policies, research, data collection, collections development, exhibitions and programming.
  3. Enshrine sustainable practice throughout the organisation’s activities and the management of our resources.

Sustainability Policy

We have established an Environmental Sustainability Policy to drive our ambitions of becoming a more sustainable organisation. The policy covers areas such as carbon audit; energy; waste and recycling; biodiversity and resource use.

As custodians of culture and nature, museums shape how we see the world — and how we care for it. As stewards of our heritage, they have both the power and the responsibility to inspire climate action and sustainable change
National Museums NI Logo

Adrian Fitzpatrick

Sustainability Manager

Our Statutory Responsibility

The Climate Change (Reporting Bodies) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2024 have introduced requirements for climate change reporting duties for specified public bodies. National Museums NI will continue to show leadership by playing our role in delivering and supporting climate action in Northern Ireland.  We will be reporting regularly to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) on our mitigation (3 year cycle) and adaptation (5 year cycle) measures.

Sustainability in Action

Initiatives

In 2018/19, we commissioned a baseline carbon audit for our operations which revealed that we emitted 2,004t CO2e for direct and indirect emissions. CO2e refers to Carbon Dioxide Equivalent which is a measure to compare the climate effects of various greenhouse gases.

In 2023/24 our Scope 1 and 2 emissions have been calculated as 1,611.3 tonnes CO2e. Carbon reduction is now one of our lead environmental sustainability key performance indicators in our annual business plan. We are committed to a 50% reduction in direct and indirect emissions by 2030 in alignment with the 2015 Paris Accord.

We have also signed up to Business in the Community NI's Climate Action Plan and the Pledge to Net Zero, following science-based targets to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.

National Museums NI calculates its carbon emissions on a financial year basis using guidelines from the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi) which are based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Science-based targets provide organisations with a clearly defined path to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals i.e. to limit the increase in global temperatures to no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Emissions are expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and calculated on basis of the SBTi guidelines using UK Government greenhouse gas emission factors and Scottish Government data for greenhouse gas emissions related to GDP.

Emissions (tCO2e)/ Financial Year

Scope 1 

(Direct emissions – Heat, fuel)

Scope 2 

(Indirect emissions – Electricity)

Scope 1 & 2 Target

Scope 3 

(Indirect emissions                - External to organisation)

Total Emissions (tonnes CO2e)Operational Carbon Intensity (Scope 1 & 2)
2023/2024873.7737.61,8043,696.705,308.1025.99 kg CO2/m2
2022/2023 1,200*727.51,9044,663.80**6,591.20***31.01 kg CO2/m2
2021/202211,061.90810.1-3,266.505,138.5031.8 kg CO2/m2
2018/2019 1,021.60982.5Baseline6,495.108,499.3034.25 kg CO2/m2

1. The estate area increased by 3,500 m2 during 2020 with the acquisition of additional storage and installation of new plant. Existing infrastructure was also refurbished in this period.

*Updated from previously reported figure of 1,282.9 t CO2e

** Updated from previously reported figure of 4,679.5 t CO2e

*** Updated from previously reported figure of 6,689.8 t CO2e

We are managing our waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy of prevention, reduction, reuse, recycling, and disposal. And we are working to identify how we can improve our processes towards better waste prevention. This will include a waste audit to establish the composition of our waste and an assessment of what we need to do to improve our reduction, reuse and recycling.

At Ulster Folk Museum and Ulster Transport Museum we are establishing new and restoring existing meadows across the Cultra site by reducing the mowing schedule through initiatives such as No Mow May. National Museums NI signed up to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan in June 2021. The No Mow May initiative is a positive first step towards implementing the actions associated with the implementation of the Plan within our museum estate.

Partnerships

We are building partnerships with like-minded organisations to support our environmental sustainability and biodiversity efforts. 

TCV Volunteer

We have been working with The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) to revive previously dormant green spaces across our museum sites, inviting volunteers and visitors to actively participant in initiatives like native tree planting, creating willow walkways and learning about sustainable practice.

We are working with the Woodland Trust to activate and deliver a long established woodland restoration management plan at the Ulster Folk Museum and Ulster Transport Museum.  Some of this work entails identifying specific conservation threats and determining ecological priorities including for example the removal/control of damaging invasive species such as Cherry Laurel and Rhododendron.

National Museums NI is a member of Fit for the Future. This is an environmental sustainability network administered by the National Trust with over 150 charities, heritage organisations, cultural venues, public sector bodies and more in its membership. Fit for the Future facilitates knowledge-sharing and collaboration across organisations and sectors so that they can achieve the rapid and far-reaching changes needed to decarbonise, adapt to climate change and drive positive environmental impacts. 

Sustainability Partners

Recognitions

We are proud that Ulster Transport Museum has achieved the Bronze Award in the Green Tourism accreditation programme. This follows the Ulster Museum and Ulster Folk Museum both being awarded the Bronze Award, with the support of Belfast City Council and Visit Belfast. The Ulster American Folk Park holds a Silver Green Tourism Award. 

We have achieved a Silver Level in the 2023 and 2024 Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Surveys by Business in the Community and are committed to improving its environmental impacts. Find out more and download the report at www.bitcni.org.uk/niebs

We are pleased to have been selected as finalists in the nature and biodiversity category of the 2025 Northern Ireland Responsible Business Awards. This was a recognition of our efforts to improve biodiversity at Ulster Folk Museum the restoration of long established woodland in partnership with the Woodland Trust and The Conservation Volunteers. In 2024 we were selected as finalists in the nature and biodiversity category of the 2024 Northern Ireland Responsible Business Awards in recognition of our efforts to improve biodiversity within Ulster Folk Museum and Ulster Transport Museum.

 

Green Tourism Bronze Logo, Green Tourism Silver Logo, BITCNI Silver logo

 

 

Get in touch

We look forward to sharing more about the various environmental sustainability initiatives that the various teams across National Museums NI are working on. For any queries on sustainability or environmental issues, please contact our Sustainability Manager.

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