Data Insights & Analysis: Emissions

Projects reported over 2,167 tCO2e emitted for PST ART exhibitions. This amount of carbon dioxide would:

• Fill the LA Coliseum Stadium playing field with carbon dioxide gas more than two and a half times over.¹

• Power the electricity of 452 US homes over one year.²

• Burn twelve railcars worth of coal.

• Require 2,174 acres of US forest to sequester back into the ground, about the size of one half of Griffith Park.³

This is not the total carbon footprint of PST ART, but the total calculated emissions by reporting participants. Since emissions data categories were limited and data was reported for half of all PST ART exhibitions, it is not unreasonable to assume that the equivalencies above might be doubled for the initiative as a whole.

When we look at data grouped by emission type, major institutions reported the highest emissions levels in all categories. Among the required reporting categories, flights were almost always the highest sources of emissions for projects that required air travel, followed by air freight. Building energy use was an optional category, since this data was often inaccessible to PST ART project teams.

When we look at emissions sources by institutional type, building energy was almost always the highest source of emissions for organizations reporting this category. While specific approaches varied, projects that opted to report on building energy were instructed to approximate the energy use specifically attributed to the PST ART exhibition by using this methodology: [Total kWh from power bills for entire space] x [% of space allocated to exhibition] x [# of days from first day of install to last day of dismantle]. For the emissions categories that were limited to PST ART projects, flights were generally the highest sources of emissions. For non-major institutions, publications were often a comparable source of emissions to their total exhibition freight.

A variety of intensity metrics are provided with the intention of being able to use them to set future reduction targets and allow for comparative metrics with other reporting initiatives/datasets. The table below provides information on the Project Related Carbon (PRC), defined as long haul travel and freight emissions related to the project. The chosen intensity metrics breakdown carbon emissions by exhibition size, implementation grant dollars awarded, and exhibition duration.

Travel intensity metrics were calculated based on flight information provided by all reporting organizations. As detailed in the table below, major institutions had the highest number of flights, translating into the highest total emissions and average per flight.

Long Haul Freight (LHF) emissions data was used to establish intensity metrics for shipping. The table below provides information on total and average LHF emissions, with intensity metrics that breakdown shipping emissions by journey and by weight transported. Initially, the intensity metric LHF/Ton was a surprise as it indicated that small and midsized museums had the highest intensity and that university-affiliated projects were only slightly behind major institutions.

Additional calculations in the two tables below for weight transported and journeys taken by shipping method and institution type help explain the LHF/Ton intensity metrics. While major institutions had overall higher emissions and higher numbers of total freight journeys, they were also much more likely to transport heavy material by sea freight, resulting in a lower LHF/Ton.

It was surprising to see that university-affiliated projects had the highest percentage of weight transported by sea freight.

The table below provides information on average shipping emissions based on the method of freight used. While it is already well established that air freight is the most carbon intensive method of shipping artwork, these numbers provide intensity metrics per one way journey and per ton of weight transported, which can be used to help projects perform ballpark estimates of expected carbon output when planning for exhibition shipping.

Publication reporting was option, but the majority of projects that produced publications as part of their exhibition (74%) provided emissions data. Some, but not all, projects separately included publication shipping with their freight reporting. The following table shows total emissions and average emissions per publication across all institutions types, calculated using the GCC Carbon Calculator.

On average across all PST ART projects, courier or shipping-related travel and artist travel were the most common sources of flight emissions, followed by curatorial and research travel.

However, the primary reason for flight emissions was significantly different across various institution types. Major institutions were more likely to have courier flight emissions. Small or midsized museums were most likely to have artist flight emissions. University affiliated spaces were most likely to have curatorial and research related flight emissions. Community and experimental spaces were most likely to have provided limited data about the reasons for their flight emissions.

Breaking down flight emissions further by flight class and reason, it was evident that courier flights had an outsized impact on overall flight emissions, accounting for 16% of the flights taken but 35% of the reported flight emissions. This is mostly due to business class courier flights, which accounted for 10% of total flights taken but 30% of the reported flight emissions. Almost all non-economy flights taken for PST ART were for courier travel, as well as a small number of long-haul curatorial research trips.

When examining this further by institution type, all business class flights taken for PST ART project were reported by major institutions, and almost all were for courier trips. Business flights accounted for only 8.1% of the total number of flights taken for PST ART but resulted in 26.5% of reported flight emissions.

Avoiding business class flights for couriers would have saved half of reported courier emissions. Consolidating all individual courier trips from the same location to a single, shared trip would have saved 75% of courier emissions. Using virtual couriers could reduce courier emissions to zero.

When it came to freight emissions, shipping by air freight had an outsized impact on emissions. Almost all (86.6%) of freight emissions resulted from air freight, although less than 17% of material by weight was transported by air freight. A majority of air freight shipments (115 out of 157) were for overseas destinations, meaning sea freight was the only possible alternative. For domestic routes, 33 shipments traveled as air freight. Presumably all of these could have travelled via road freight.

63.55 tCO2e could have been prevented by shipping domestic via road freight. For overseas air freight, 387.98 tCO2e could have been prevented if shipped by sea freight. While sea freight isn’t always a viable option, the drastic reduction in emissions should make it a larger part of the conversation if international shipping is deemed necessary.