3. Responsible and sustainable

Museums should act responsibly to ensure their long-term financial, environmental and social sustainability.

Museums and those who work in and with them should:

• maintain public trust and integrity in all museum activities
• consider climate impacts and social responsibility in all decision making
• treat museum collections as cultural, scientific or historic assets, not financial assets
• manage collections for the long-term for the benefit of current and future generations.

How to uphold the principle

Museums and those who work in and with them should:

Empowering audiences and communities

3.1 Understand that the climate crisis is an ethical, social and environmental issue and as such museums have an ethical duty to raise awareness and activate communities to create beneficial change.

Managing people, money and organisations

3.2 Consider climate and ecological impacts and social responsibility in all decision making and organisational activities. Take action to reduce these impacts in museum operations including protecting biodiversity and reducing carbon emissions.

3.3 Maintain public trust and integrity in all museum activities by exercising due diligence in partnership building, sponsorship and fundraising. Strive to secure funding from ethical sources that align with the values of the organisation and serve the best interests of communities.

3.4 Transition away from sponsorship from organisations involved with environmental harm (including fossil fuels), human rights abuses, and other sponsorship that does not align with the values of the museum.

Empowering collections

3.5 Use collections to inspire people and facilitate positive change for the benefit of the environment and society.

3.6 Conserve collections and optimise access for the benefit of current and future audiences.

3.7 Actively manage collections and their documentation for the long term, including an up-to-date inventory. Recognise that ethical transfer, disposal, reuse and deaccessioning are everyday and necessary parts of a sustainable collections management approach and the need for this work is urgent. Use Off the Shelf: a toolkit for ethical transfer, reuse and disposal to guide practice.

3.8 Refuse to mortgage collections or offer them as security for a loan. Ensure the financial viability of the museum is not dependent on any monetary valuation placed on items in its collections. Resist placing a commercial value on the collections unless there is a compelling reason to do so, and for collections management purposes only.

3.9 Recognise that collections should not be regarded as financial assets and that financially motivated disposal risks damaging public trust in museums.

3.10 Reject any item for purchase, loan or donation if there is any suspicion that it was wrongfully taken during a time of conflict, stolen, illicitly exported or illicitly traded, unless in line with relevant international conventions, or where the museum is co-operating with attempts to establish the identity of the rightful owner(s) of an item.

3.11 Avoid behaviour that could be construed as asserting personal ownership of collections.

3.12 Acquire an item only if the museum can provide long-term, sustainable care for the item and public access to it.