Committing to Climate Action

In June 2024, the Getty Museum fully embraced the Bizot Green Protocol, which outlines the ways art museums should operate more sustainably and reduce carbon emissions in their practices.

A Museum Sustainability Working Group formed to continue developing sustainable collections care and exhibition practices; address questions about the effect of temperature and humidity changes on the collections; and reexamine and adjust collecting and exhibition policies as appropriate. The Working Group is drawn from Museum conservation, curatorial, exhibitions, registration, and preparations departments; its members coordinate the Group’s efforts with Trust Facilities, the Sustainability Office, the Museum’s Preventive Conservation program, and colleagues in GCI and GRI. The Museum has adjusted its criteria for outgoing loan of works of art from its collection, to allow, if it is safe for the artwork, a broader range of environmental standards up to 40-60% RH and 59-77oF (15-25oC). Loan requests for more environmentally sensitive works of art will be considered if mitigating efforts (e.g., sealed micro-climate packages) are implemented. Some objects may be denied as too fragile to lend. Museum conservators organized a series of workshops and lectures on preventive conservation, which began in July 2024. These activities are part of a larger effort to develop a proactive and intentional strategy for preventive conservation at the Museum, including a new position dedicated to preventive conservation, with the understanding that good preventive conservation practice aligns closely with sustainability goals.

Perhaps the most complex and challenging aspect of the Bizot Green Protocol concerns broadening relative humidity (RH) and temperature ranges for art spaces (galleries primarily, but also art storage, conservation studios, and preparation rooms). GCI’s Managing Collection Environments (MCE) initiative has been focused on this aspect of sustainability. In implementing the Bizot climate protocols, the Getty Museum has taken a stepped approach, broadening RH and temperature ranges in targeted art spaces (including galleries) in the Museum, allowing us to test the performance of our spaces within two set points (initially 47 to 55% RH) and to monitor how objects respond. This process will therefore involve continued research, testing, and information gathering. Following some of these tests, we introduced a broader range for RH and temperature in the Collection Pavilions at Getty Center. Similar monitoring practices to the pilot tests will be employed, in addition to our existing art-level Hanwell dataloggers. Based on the results of pilot tests, we will consider further adjustments in collection areas following the AHU upgrade project.

Getty Museum settings, as of June 2025:
Relative Humidity: RH is set at two limits—47% and 55%—with fluctuation of up to 10% allowed within this range during a 48-hour period.
Temperature: Museum introduced seasonal temperature set points:

• Summer (June – October): 73 +/-3ºF (23 +/-2ºC)
• Winter (November – May): 70 +/-3ºF (21 +/-2ºC)

Evaluating Expanded Environmental Parameters in Storage: The GRI is fully committed to sustainability and lowering its carbon footprint through a variety of initiatives. One important aspect is to lower energy consumption by exploring expanded environmental parameters in storage areas. The GRI is home to a large circulation library and vast special collections and archives with diverse material make up, held in nine storage locations. GRI Conservation and Preservation is collaborating with Getty Conservation Institute’s Managing Collection Environments Initiative and Getty Facilities on a pilot project to explore the effects of expanded environmental parameters on energy consumption and impact on collections in high-density storage. The overall goal of the project is to better understand how to optimize climate control settings that balance sustainability with preservation needs. Crucially, the results of the project will inform policies for the rest of the GRI storage areas with the aim of simplifying environmental parameters and meaningfully reducing energy usage.

Traditionally, collection storage areas have been maintained within strict temperature and relative humidity parameters, often leading to significant energy consumption. However, recent research and practical evidence demonstrate that widening these parameters can reduce energy use while still maintaining a safe environment for collections. The GRI launched a year-long pilot study in 2025 in one of its storage vaults to test this approach by carefully adjusting climate settings and monitoring the effects over a full year. The expanded parameters implemented have moved from a single set point of 65 ± 3° F and 37.4 ± 5% RH to a dual set point band of 55 – 68°F and 30 – 45% RH. Additionally, overnight setbacks were implemented to reduce airflow during the non-occupied hours of 11pm - 4 am. Data loggers were placed in strategic positions throughout the vault, inside compact shelving and enclosures to continuously monitor the temperature and relative humidity. Select objects are being assessed for any adverse effects using well-established risk assessment protocols and tools designed to quantify preservation indexes. They are also being monitored for change using predetermined criteria. The project team also seeks to analyze energy usage data and associated costs. The careful review of the data already enabled the team to identify and address inefficiencies in the HVAC system. Based on this study, the project team hopes to be able to apply expanded parameters to all GRI vaults and storage areas, including projected construction of additional storage areas. The project also informs a targeted approach for especially sensitive materials that cannot withstand expanded parameters and therefore should be stored in separate conditions. Overall, the team hopes to contribute to sustainable practices in cultural heritage preservation, from environmental policy changes at the GRI to encouraging other museums, libraries, and archives to adopt similar strategies. This initiative reflects a commitment to both environmental responsibility and the long-term stewardship of the GRI collections.

The GCI has been actively engaged in researching sustainable control and management of collection environments for over 10 years, as part of its Managing Collection Environments initiative, and has made sustainability a priority for its current strategic plan. The GCI is committed to advancing more sustainable solutions for collections care, storage, emergency preparedness, and transit, while also training and supporting professionals with the tools and guidelines needed to implement sustainable strategies across different contexts. Much of its work has focused on examining the effects of collections environmental settings on a variety of cultural objects and contexts through scientific testing and empirical observations, but has also included developing easy to use environmental monitoring tools to predict materials’ responses to varying conditions and expanding research, guidance, and risk assessment tools to help the field understand, monitor, and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Our work was pivotal in informing the Bizot Green Protocol recommendations.

The GCI has spearheaded a number of case studies where specific objects have been monitored as environmental conditions were widened to Bizot levels or beyond. One of these, carried out at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, was recently short-listed for ICOM’s inaugural Award for Sustainable Development Practice in Museums. It has also published widely, including a widely-read suite of technical notes that present examples of sustainable management of collections from around the world, and includes sections on technical information, communication and current best practices.

The MCE Initiative also held three workshops – in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – to share findings and advance understanding of risk analysis and collections environment settings and continues to develop and disseminate open access tools and guidelines. In addition, the GCI has been a consulting partner with Getty Museum and Getty Research Institute on parameters changes in the galleries and storage areas of both of those Getty programs.

Getty Trust’s Facilities and Sustainability units support and help advance the actions of Getty programs with responsibility for collections care.

Getty Facilities works with all of Getty’s programs on a Central Plant/Air Handling Unit (AHU) upgrade project underway from May 2025-December 2027 to improve our ability to regulate different environmental conditions in galleries and art storage areas, change our filtration protocols (switching from MERV16 to MERV14 filtration ratings), convert from steam to adiabatic for humidity control, and introduced fan wall technology for improved redundancy and reliability as well as any other beneficial adjustments to our systems. This effort is ongoing.

Getty Foundation sponsored the 2025 PST ART Climate Impact Reporting project, which helped advance climate action across the Southern California region’s cultural institutions.