When it comes to sustainable, environment-friendly business practices, arts organizations have more often been criticized for being on the opposite end. Arts Council England’s annual environmental report released earlier this year shows that museums generate 41% of the total carbon footprint despite making up only 8% of the total National Portfolio Organizations (NPO).
Figure 1: Environmental Impact Snapshot for 2018/19. Source: Sustaining Great Art and Future.
Some organizations have already started to take action to address climate concerns by installing energy-efficient lighting and controls and trying out sustainable production or exhibition methods. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has laid out in their Green Initiatives that the institution is planning to expand Direct Digital Control Systems for both energy saving and climate control purposes.
Meanwhile, emerging technologies such as 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been praised for their transformative power in revolutionizing the world in all industries. Often mentioned in pairs, both 5G and IoT are expected to allow big data flow that can revolutionize the efficiency of business operation and thereby reducing costs and leaving less harm to the environment. When such technologies are implemented in arts and cultural businesses, it will not only benefit them with comprehensive audience data collection but also lead the organizations towards a greener future.
Figure 2: 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). Source: Internet of Things Platform.
Ericsson’s Exponential Climate Action Roadmap highlights how the digital sector including network technologies including 5G and IoT is estimated to have the potential to directly cut 15% of fossil-fuel emissions and indirectly support a further reduction of 35% by influencing consumer and business decisions and systems transformation by 2030. This is possible as 5G, IoT, and other network technologies can save energy by increasing the precision of data collected and exchanged by the facilities. The fifth generation of mobile network provides higher-speed connectivity to objects, people, and businesses. Combined with AI and machine learning, 5G will open the possibility for mass scale connection of sensors, electric grids, control systems, buildings, industries, and buildings, and enable the efficiency of systems.
Some of the suggested implementation specific to the cultural institutions would be connecting existing devices such as sensors to a smarter network so that they can communicate in real-time and optimize energy efficiency. In this scenario, the existing building of the organization can be transformed into a smart building where a smarter control system would be able to identify where most people are at to reduce unnecessary air conditioning, heating, lighting or other energy use in less populated areas of the building to save utility bills as well as lower carbon emissions. The Natural History Museum in London, for instance, has been maintaining a digital twin, converging information gathered by 15,000 sensors spread across 100,000 square meters of the museum space with operational technology. The data on temperature, humidity, vibration, and light in different departments linked together by digital twin allows the museum staff to quickly identify any problems and ensures the preservation of its collection and building.
Of course, increased connectivity is not the ultimate solution to sustainability and there are concerns that IoT may negate the efforts towards a more sustainable business practice. 5G could enable the acceleration of digital platforms, which drives even higher electricity consumption unless the connection is powered by a more efficient or sustainable energy source. With smaller or less tech-powered arts institutions, the new IoT powered by 5G might not be as compatible with their obsolete operating systems and may result in lowered performance. Therefore, it is necessary that each organization first analyze their annual carbon footprint as well as assess its digital capacity and compatibility before adopting the new networking technologies immediately thinking that doing so is the ultimate solution for a sustainable future.
References
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