Environmental sustainability

Sustainability is a cross-cutting theme for the Museum’s activity in 2023. Accordingly, the Museum has designed an ambitious Sustainability Action Plan that reaches each and every department, from those specifically concerned with energy efficiency, exhibition management, and the design of public program and educational activities, to those connected with visitors, retail operations, and the restaurant. The Plan promotes initiatives to improve energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact, with the aim of achieving climate neutrality by 2030.

The driving force behind these changes is Gu-Zero, a group whose members come from different Museum areas, established in 2021 with the aim of sharing information, raising awareness, and engaging workers, suppliers, and social actors while identifying and implementing the initiatives included in the Sustainability Action Plan.

• European Week for Waste Reduction. From November 18 to 26, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is taking part in the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) by carrying out two innovative actions aimed at encouraging reduction, reuse, and recycling.
  Reducing and reusing museographic elements. In an effort to encourage waste reduction and the reuse of materials in an environment where recycling is quite unusual, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao shared with the Picasso Museum Málaga the 29 climate-controlled display cases used in the exhibition Picasso Sculptor. Matter and Body. These display cases were designed and manufactured by the Picasso Museum Málaga, where the exhibition was first held, and given their high costs and complex manufacture, it was agreed that they should be reused. As part of the museums’ agreement, upon the end of the show in Bilbao said display cases will go back to Málaga for further use in future exhibitions.
  Street marketing action sponsored by Iberdrola. The iconic polka-dots which were scattered over the Museum ponds during the exhibition Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now to identify the artist’s work were made with sustainable materials. After the exhibition, they were used to make the backs of household appliances, thus making a contribution to a circular economy.
• WAF International Symposium. On October 3, the world-famous artist Olafur Eliasson closed the WAF Symposium after a day of intense and fruitful sessions dedicated to presenting the most innovative sustainability strategies worldwide. The Symposium, organized by World Art Foundations (WAF) in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao brought together leaders from museums and foundations from all over the world to share the most innovative environmental sustainability strategies.
• Active Membership of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC). Since May 10, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is an Active Member of GCC, an international community of arts organizations working to reduce the museum sector’s environmental impacts. GGC’s primary goal is to facilitate a reduction of CO2 emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030, as well as promoting zero waste. With this membership, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao becomes the first Spanish museum to form part of a coalition in which international museums, such as MoMA or Tate, participate.
• Presentation of new uniforms. On March 22, the Museum introduced the new staff uniforms, made by Ecoalf with recycled materials. The new uniforms are worn by staff members at the Admissions and Information desks, the Store, and security. The choice considered design, comfort, versatility, and sustainability as well, in an effort to continue minimizing the environmental impact of the Museum’s activity at all levels. In this sense, the selection of Ecoalf was due to its committed to sustainability, recycling, and innovation in the making of clothes.
• Museum Next. In August 2022, Daniel Vega, the Museum’s Deputy Director of Exhibitions and Conservation, attended the Green Museums Summit, sharing the Museum’s strategies and initiatives for the staging of temporary exhibitions.
• International Climate Control Conference. In December 2022, the Museum introduced its more flexible climate control standards when taking care of works of art in this international forum.
• LED Lighting. Between 2015 and 2021, the Museum replaced all its lamps by LED lights, reducing the emissions of CO 2 by 350 metric tons a year—a considerable decrease in its carbon footprint.
• Renovation of Jeff Koons’s Puppy, de Jeff Koons. In November 2021, the renovation of Puppy, the flower sculpture by Jeff Koons, was finished. The project included an automatic irrigation system and a digital rain gauge to optimize the use of water. This has resulted in a more responsible use of this valuable resource and in lower maintenance costs.