Green is the trend. Not the color, but the commitment to environmental (“green”) principles and materials.

And the trend is entrenching itself in museum exhibit design.

Green, or environmentally friendly, building materials are generally defined as those that are composed of renewable, rather than non-renewable resources, make efficient use of the resource, do not negatively affect indoor air quality, are energy efficient, conserve water, and are affordable. In sum, they conserve energy and other resources in their manufacture and processing and in their use, they are sustainable and reduce the use of toxic chemicals.

But green materials are now more than a trend; most of those criteria date back to 1999 when the Construction Specifications Institute was on the fore of exploring the idea.

Affordability, always a concern in museum exhibit design, has actually been identified as a strong point of environmentally-friendly materials. For example, the impact of green materials is considered over the entire life of a product. So it’s expected that they will last and not have to be replaced midstream. There’s a two-fold nenefit to durability. One is the green element. That is, if some part of the condtruction doesn't have to br replaced, it ultimately uses fewer resourses. The other is practical: it's costly to have to replace parts.

In fact, practical experience shows that achieving environmentally efficient standards in large scale construction that qualifies for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification of the U.S. Green Building Council adds only about 1% to a project’s cost. In a practical example, meeting LEED standards added less than $100,000 to a $21 million hotel project, or less than ½ of 1%.

The cost may be greater in a smaller project, such as an exhibit, simply because the economies of scale – as in getting discounts for volume purchases – is less likely. Even so, proponents argue that the relatively small cost addition is always worthwhile.

There is even a Web site devoted entirely to green exhibits, appropriately http://www.greenexhibits.org. It “was launched to provide museum exhibit designers and fabricators a resource for designing and building exhibits and environments that best support healthy spaces and a healthier future for kids and the environment” with an emphasis on children’s museums and similar venues.

The site was established through funding from the MetLife Foundation working with the Association of Children’s Museums as part of the Promising Practice Replication Award to Madison (WI) Children’s Museum. The museum began in 1998 to develop an entire approach to its exhibits program that stressed sustainable, non-toxic, safe environments.

The site uses a step-by-step approach to rethinking how exhibits are conceived, designed, and constructed with an eye toward being green. It also includes significant practical guidelines for selecting materials. For example:

"Most materials and products used in standard exhibit construction produce toxic emissions, contribute to emvironmental degredation, come from sources thqt are not rapidly renewaql, and/or contribute to indoor air polution. These include plex-glass, laminates, fiberglass, plywood, paints, solvents, adhesives, carpeting, staqins, finishes, wood, metal, primers, wall covering, sealants, particleboard, drywall compound, fabrics and furniture finishes.”

It’s been pointed out that the industrialized part of the world comprises only 20% of its population, but consumes from three-quarters or more of the earth’s raw materials. Of course, the argument fails to note that those materials are consumed in large part because the industrialized world is industrialized and, thus, producing products.

Still, with the cost of materials, especially new virgin materials, increasing and greater concern about the associated non-monetary expense to the environment, builders (often driven by their museum clients’ social concerns) are finding that it makes sense to begin the rethinking process.

Among the suggestions for using materials more efficiently to avoid depletion, waste and pollution are:

• Design products to use less new materials
• Implement policies to promote conservation, recovery and efficiency
• Recover a maximum amount of materials from the waste stream
• Create an economically sustainable market for materials to be recycled

Implementing the 4R approach, it says, requires a “cyclical” approach, as opposed to what it calls the typical “linear” approach of “extract, use, and dump.” The cyclical approach is about changing the processes of manufacture so that the need for resources is reduced, as many as possible are reused and recycled, and essentially using as many recycled (rebuying) products as possible.

While that generally sounds like it applies to product suppliers rather than to those in the middle of the raw product stream, such as exhibit builders, the point might be taken that everyone has to have a hand in (and commitment to) greater efficiency for the idea to actually work.

Certainly the impetus will be coming from the top of the ladder, the client side.

The National Building Museum, for example, is putting its green show on the road with The Green House, a traveling exhibition with four sections: Five Principles of Sustainability, Contemporary Green Houses, Materials Samples Room, and a Concluding Gallery.

The exhibit itself is constructed from green materials. Text is silk screened on composite board made from sunflower seed hulls; all paints, stains and varnishes are environmentally-friendly; and the model bases are outfitted with low voltage LED lights.

It wouldn’t make much sense for an exhibit about a green house to use anything other than environmentally-friendly materials. Exhibit builders can expect other clients to learn that they are ethically compelled to specify green approaches.

And that will likely mean from the ground up.

Whether the concern is children’s exposure to chemicals or environmental sustainability, designers are finding they have yet more considerations – some of which may be surprising – in developing specifications for exhibit components.

Green Floors, Fairfax, VA, for example, has 10 criteria that make its flooring materials green – and they don’t all relate to materials and how they are manufactured, used or reused, or even what they are comprised of: social responsibility; manufacturer processes; distribution methods; renewability; recycled content; recyclability; toxicity; life cycle; installation; and maintenance.

While some of those criteria may sound like the concerns of a company striving to be a good corporate citizen, they may very well reflect the concerns of many museum clients who take a broader view of the impact of the projects they commission.

The practical considerations in selecting environmentally friendly flooring would include whether it emits potentially toxic or just aggravating vapors, whether it’s sustainable (as in wood that is in vast supply or can be regrown rapidly and is, thus, renewable, and whether it’s made from natural materials that are, again, abundant or renewable).

Plywood, the staple of exhibit construction, may be a bit more difficult to justify as green. The main problem is with the agent used to bond the plies together that typically contains formaldehyde, which is toxic. Professor Kaichang Li of Oregon State University, working with Columbia Forest Products and Hercules Inc., won last year’s Green Pathways Award in the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency for his design for soy-based adhesives to produce cost-competitive plywood and particleboard for interior uses. It is manufactured under the PureBond Brand by Columbia Forest Products.

Lighting may be getting the most attention as green efforts take hold. And LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are seen by many as the wave of the future. They are, after all, reported to be highly energy efficient. But there are dissenting voices. They note that they are only really efficient when compared with similar, small-scale applications of incandescent lighting, such as in path lighting, exit signs and flashlights. (One popular statistic that’s cited is LED efficiency over incandescent lamps in street signal lighting, 65% or more. That’s accounted for by 70% to 80% of the incandescent lamp’s luminescence being absorbed by the colored filter – red, yellow or green – that covers it.)

The best lighting choice for a green environment, virtually everyone agrees, is fluorescent lighting. And with the advent of new designs that virtually eliminate visible flicker and unfortunate green coloration, they are becoming an option.

Just as a museum exhibit almost always has Just as a museum exhibit almost always has an intention to educate visitors, the new world of museum exhibitry is going to require that the builders of these exhibits educate themselves in the new green world their clients will be demanding.

It’s apparent that standards will develop from various sources for materials and approaches. In the meantime, clients will have their own ideas of what comprises green. With a bit of homework, exhibit builders can help these clients make better informed decisions. eb

All photos: ©Hoachlander Davis Photography, courtesy National Building Museum