Steam to Green, Discovery Museum and the environment

Discovery Museum is committed to raising awareness about the environment and encouraging people to act for a sustainable future.  

• The Steam to Green exhibition aims to demonstrate the wide variety of different technologies that are being developed and produced in the North East to improve environmental sustainability.
• All technologies come with challenges. We explain both the benefits and difficulties of each of the technologies included.
• Being environmentally sustainable and becoming carbon neutral is the ambition of all the companies we are working with, and we recognise there is more to do.
• This exhibition aims to provide hope in the face of the climate crisis - that industry and individuals are taking positive environmental action.

As well as raising awareness about the importance of the environment through the Steam to Green exhibition, we are working to reduce our own carbon footprint.

• Energy - we monitor our energy consumption and have implemented changes to reduce it significantly, including undergoing a major decarbonisation project which involved installation of district heating, secondary glazing and energy saving lighting. 
• Commercial - we analysed our retail, café offer and supply chain, and we are introducing changes. We purchase products and packing materials made from recycled materials where we can. We encourage our café visitors to reuse and recycle, and offer a discount to people who bring their own cup for hot drinks. 
• Our staff - we encourage our staff and visitors to walk, cycle or use public transport to travel to the Museum rather than driving, to reduce their own carbon footprint and collectively to make a significant impact to reducing carbon emissions. 
• Our partners - we have a partnership with Tyne & Wear Metro which encourages families to use the Metro to visit the Museum for a free day out, the Museum and exhibition being free and children under 11 with an adult travelling free on the Metro. 
• Exhibitions - in the process of creating the Steam to Green exhibition, we have actively sourced more sustainable materials for the structure of the exhibition. Most of the materials and the interactives have a lifespan of over 10 years so we will re-use them in future exhibitions and displays. We are also running the exhibition for much longer than usual (two years compared to 3-4 months), which means we won’t need to use as many materials as we have in the past.

Find out more about Climate Action at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.

The exhibition aims to demonstrate the wide variety of different technologies that are being developed and produced in the North East to improve environmental sustainability.

• All technologies come with challenges and in the exhibition we explain both the benefits and difficulties of each of the technologies included. 
• It’s also important to emphasise that the search for solutions to meet our energy needs while addressing the climate crisis requires multiple approaches and technologies. There isn’t just one technology that can fix the problem.
• We reached out to North East companies who are involved in renewable energy generation and those actively introducing environmentally sustainable practices and technologies. 
• We look for opportunities to update our collections to reflect what is happening in the North East today and will continue to connect with businesses to help us with that.
• Being environmentally sustainable and becoming carbon neutral is the ambition of all the companies we are working with, but like the rest of the world, we are all on a journey and all at different stages. 
• Clearly, there is more work to do to reach those goals. Steam to Green aims to provide hope in the face of the climate crisis – that industry and individuals are taking positive environmental action.

200,000 people visit Discovery Museum each year. If everyone who visits the Museum takes positive climate action, collectively we can make a big impact.

• The Steam to Green exhibition encourages us to become active citizens.
• As individuals, we can change the way we run our homes, how we travel and how we make decisions about what to buy. 
• We can also challenge others by contacting our MP or asking our employer, school, college or university what they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint.

In the exhibition and its promotion, we have intentionally avoided going into detail about the effects of climate crisis and instead intend to offer a hopeful view that action can still be taken and that there are companies working on solutions.

• As the exhibition is aimed at families with children under 11 years old, we have only included information and language that is age appropriate.
• Anyone feeling climate anxiety can find advice and support on the Friends of the Earth website.