Environmental Guidelines—An Australian Perspective

Abstract

In 2018, the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) embarked on the ambitious Environmental Guidelines Project. As the project gets underway, the author looks back at the formative research undertaken by Emeritus Professor Colin Pearson from 1990 through to the early 2000s. His approach to the management of the collection environment was both culturally and environmentally aware and led to the development of climate-specific environmental guidelines and collection care strategies. In this paper, the author recounts personal reflections on Professor Pearson’s enlightened and progressive teaching and looks at the ongoing global debate on sustainable cultural heritage practices within the Australian context.