MUSEUM STAFF KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTIONS AS DRIVERS FOR GREEN BUILDING EDUCATION IN SCIENCE MUSEUMS

Abstract

Green building practices are on the rise, as is research into the drivers of green building adoption and the impacts of green building on occupants. Stakeholder knowledge, organizational culture, and cost have been shown to drive decisions about green building adoption, and occupant outcomes have been studied in terms of behavior and satisfaction. However, there is little consensus about how to communicate green building features to the public—that is, how the drivers for adoption can be communicated to potential building occupants. In science museums, sustainable architecture can support organizational values and initiatives surrounding environmental sustainability, but few studies identify how those values can best be communicated to museum visitors in a green building. To begin to address this question, this research engaged eight LEED-certified museums across the U.S. to examine how the museums leveraged their buildings to educate visitors about green building technologies. Site visit documentation revealed a disparity in interpretation strategies across the museums. Interviews with museum staff illuminated both challenges and opportunities for green building education, where staff decision-making was based on their own understanding of green technologies and perceptions of audience interest, age, and politics. This work highlights the importance of institutional actors in green building messaging, with implications for how public buildings such as museums could operate as sites for green building education.