Historic treasures, greener futures: Royal Museums Greenwich and the British Library turn up the heat on decarbonisation
Iconic institutions reveal how they’re cutting carbon emissions, improving energy efficiency and protecting priceless collections for generations to come
Royal Museums Greenwich and the British Library are finding ways to cut carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency while protecting nationally significant collections, as sustainability experts explained in the latest Decarbonisation Dialogue event.
Andy Maidment, sustainability manager at Royal Museums Greenwich, and Catherine Ross, head of sustainability at the British Library, discussed how their organisations are working towards net zero while navigating the challenges of historic buildings, energy-intensive collections and limited funding.
Both speakers highlighted the importance of balancing environmental responsibility with their institutions’ core missions: preserving collections for future generations while ensuring they remain accessible to the public.
Decarbonising historic buildings
Royal Museums Greenwich includes the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House, the Royal Observatory Greenwich and Cutty Sark, alongside collection storage and conservation facilities in south London.
Its buildings range from the 17th century to modern facilities, while its collection contains more than three million items. Maintaining the temperature and humidity conditions needed to protect these objects creates a significant, year-round energy demand.
During our webinar Andy explained that the organisation began developing its decarbonisation plans in 2022, starting with a self-funded feasibility study at its Kidbrooke collection centre.
He highlighted the importance of the Low Carbon Skills Fund, delivered by Salix and now closed, in accelerating Royal Museums Greenwich’s decarbonisation plans.
“If we hadn't obtained that funding through Salix, I’m sure we would not have been able to do this work quite so quickly,” he said.
The funding enabled the museum to develop a detailed heat decarbonisation plan for the National Maritime Museum, helping it understand the investment and infrastructure needed to reduce emissions.
He also explained that the resulting plan had been selected by our teams at Salix as an example of good practice, underlining its value in helping the organisation prepare for the complex work ahead.
Support from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is now helping advance work at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where £200,000 in Phase 4 funding has been secured.
The project will replace two independent gas-fired heating systems with a centralised, site-wide system powered by air source heat pumps. The installation will have a peak output of 400kW, with additional water-to-water heat pumps boosting temperatures in some buildings so existing heating systems can be retained.
The project is expected to eliminate around 62 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually from gas heating at the Royal Observatory.
Challenges on site
However, delivering the improvements presents considerable challenges. The entire observatory site is a scheduled monument, meaning new equipment must respect its historic character and minimise its visual impact. Archaeological remains, construction access and the need to protect the surrounding Greenwich Park also require careful consideration.
Andy said that improving building insulation is not always appropriate in historic settings. He said: “Fabric improvements would likely be to the detriment of the historic nature of these buildings. He explained that changes to certain historic features could not be permitted.
Instead, the project focuses on modernising heating infrastructure and adapting operating temperatures to work more efficiently with existing systems, without compromising the buildings or the collections they house.
During his presentation Andy also outlined plans to decarbonise the National Maritime Museum, where replacing gas boilers with heat pumps could deliver a much more substantial reduction in the organisation’s direct carbon emissions.
He explained that, although the Royal Observatory project would make a meaningful contribution, it would have a limited impact on the organisation’s overall carbon footprint. The National Maritime Museum project is therefore an important next step, despite its greater complexity.
For Andy, the decision to decarbonise was about more than financial savings. “It was not just about cost; it was about doing the right thing.”
Protecting collections while reducing energy use
At the British Library, the scale of the challenge is also considerable.
As the UK’s national library, it holds more than 170 million physical and digital items, including books, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, sound recordings and the UK Web Archive.
The collection grows continuously through legal deposit requirements, with new books, newspapers and other published material added every year. Its physical holdings grow by approximately eight kilometres of shelving annually.
During her presentation Catherine identified this continuous growth as one of the library’s biggest sustainability challenges.
She said: “By far our biggest challenge when you’re thinking about energy reduction and carbon reduction is the fact that we have to grow.
“We are legally mandated. We must grow every year because we have to ingest all of those new collection items.”
The library must therefore find ways to accommodate an expanding national collection while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Catherine stressed that protecting the collection remains fundamental to the institution’s purpose.
“Absolutely primary to us, as you’ve just heard from Andy, is about safeguarding our collection. That is our fundamental role, safeguarding the collection, allowing access to our collection and doing that for perpetuity.”
The challenge is finding lower carbon ways to maintain the environmental conditions required to preserve sensitive materials.
The library’s sustainability strategy, developed in recent years, sets out its approach to reducing emissions across its buildings, embedding sustainable practices and working with partners.
At its Grade I listed St Pancras site in London, improvements include a substantial solar thermal installation, more efficient pumps and LED lighting. Installing the solar thermal system required careful engineering to connect the roof-mounted collectors to hot-water storage tanks in the basement, as well as securing planning permission.
At Boston Spa in Yorkshire, where approximately 80% of the library’s collection is stored, a new purpose-built facility is being developed to accommodate future growth.
The new store adopts a Passivhaus approach, using an exceptionally airtight storage space designed to maintain stable environmental conditions without conventional heating, cooling or humidification in the main storage area.
Catherine explained that the design takes advantage of the way a book store operates, with the building’s airtight structure and the books themselves helping to stabilise temperature and humidity.
She said: “A bookstore lends itself to being Passivhaus. It’s just a huge cuboid, which will become over time full of books. And those books themselves act as a buffer for the environmental conditions, both for temperature and humidity.”
The adjoining logistics hub will incorporate timber construction, rooftop solar panels and ground-source heating.
The project demonstrates how energy efficiency can be incorporated into the design of new facilities from the outset, rather than relying solely on retrofitting existing buildings.
Funding is fundamental to progress
Both speakers stressed the importance of government funding in enabling public institutions to advance their decarbonisation ambitions.
For Catherine, the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme has also been crucial to the British Library’s progress, just as the Low Carbon Skills Fund had been pivotal to Royal Museums Greenwich. Its Phase 4 work is also crucial.
Doing the right thing for the planet
The discussion highlighted how cultural institutions can contribute to tackling climate change beyond reducing emissions from their buildings.
Catherine described how the British Library is exploring the stories its collections can tell, from historical maps documenting glacial retreat to sound recordings of species that are now extinct.
These materials offer opportunities to connect audiences with environmental change and demonstrate the value of preserving historical records for future generations.
Catherine said: “More and more what we’re seeing that instead of focusing primarily on decarbonisation, we’re saying, actually, this is about a critical part of plant replacement and it’s about climate resilience - and it also offers carbon benefits. And that’s been more of a sort of a mind shift.”
For both organisations, sustainability is about more than energy bills or carbon calculations. It also involves protecting cultural heritage, preparing buildings for future climate challenges and taking responsibility for their environmental impact.
The webinar demonstrated that decarbonising historic buildings and protecting sensitive collections requires careful planning, innovative engineering and sustained investment.
Thank you to Catherine and Andy for contributing to the Decarbonisation Dialogue - and demonstrating that improving energy efficiency and safeguarding cultural heritage need not be competing priorities.
Listen to The Decarbonisation Dialogue podcast and Tomorrow’s Energy to hear more experts from climatologists, writers, scientists, artists and more talk about how we are moving forward on climate issues.
Join our next Decarbonisation Dialogue on 18 November – register for your free place here.
