Tyler Krantz is documenting his work with the Sydney Jewish Museum for History Beyond the Classroom 2019. Read the other posts in his series here.
This week, Breann and Roslyn wanted me to have the full experience of the SJM to see how their operations run on a daily basis. They paired me up with a class that was touring the museum, so I got hear from some of their great curators. Afterwards, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to Kitty, one of their Holocaust survivors who speaks their on a regular basis. Environmentally, I got to observe the trends of the both the museum, along with the visitors, to see where I can help to make some changes. One idea that I had was to create a mobile app that would have a map of the building and its key sites/locations, instead of passing out pamphlets to everyone who walks into the building.
After experiencing what a typical visitor would, I talked with Breann, along with members of the Marketing and Operations teams. Most importantly, I was able to gather data on how much paper they use, the price, and the company that supplies it as well. Moreover, I got all of the information on the products that they use within the office, and next week I am meeting with another member of the Operations team to gather information on the resources they use elsewhere in the facility, along with the events that are held there as well.
I spoke with some of the individuals about my thoughts for longer-term projects, and we came up with the idea to try and implement an Elkay bottle-filling station to ensure the elimination of paper cups. This is an expensive product, but we have already started looking into how we could pull this off. Moreover, I am looking at nearby museums to hopefully give our Green Team someone to reach out to and to observe their trends. The Australian Museum just created their own Sustainability Action Plan, something I am hopefully going to be able to create myself as well.
