Going green with museum exhibit design may be something you’ve been considering for a while now, but not had the time to investigate. The purpose of this blog is to draw to your attention some obvious and earth-friendly services you have considered or are perhaps are already using, but did not appreciate their green attributes. If this is your first time reviewing green options, you may discover the improved aesthetic opportunities as well as green opportunities. With these services, you will gain more designing opportunities while reducing your carbon foot print.
Principles, Materials, and Processes
1. It is important to increase sustainability whenever possible by choosing materials which are recycled, reclaimed, or rapidly renewable. With today’s large format printing technologies, there are more choices than ever before. Designing while making green choice need not be mutually exclusive. There are a host of materials from which to choose, depending on the look you are focused on.

• Fabric graphics, known as “dye sublimation fabric transfer printing” transfers images from a transfer sheet onto fabric when passed through pressure, heated rollers. The fabric’s fibers will open up when heated and receive the gassed inks. The inks become permanently entrapped when cooling occurs. The material type which is most suited to this process are polyester or polyester blends. Fabrics are available in recycled and recyclable. My company uses Fisher Textiles as the supplier of many styles of fabric, ranging from sheers and mesh all the way to heavy knits and canvases. We use their Enviro-Tex Repreve line of fabrics made for dye sublimation printing, which are eco-friendly and made with recycled Repreve yarn. “The manufacturing process of the yarn reduces energy consumption while also conserving petroleum resources by offesetting the need to produce virgin polyester.”-Fisher Textiles.

• UV Flatbed Printing is a greener process because it can print to a host of recycled or recyclable flat, rigid substrates like different woods, glass, acrylic, and various metals. There are many eco-friendly substrate suppliers which offer numerous stocks and substrates with earth-friendly options. Your exhibit design has a broad palette of choices, most flat substrates can work but check with your provider. The substrate will need be under two inches thick for passing under the UV curable light source.

2. Reducing atmospheric irritants by building exhibits using no VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) reduces pollution. This means opting not to involve solvent inks. Solvent inks are frequently chosen for producing outdoor banners on vinyl. They are cost effective and fade resistant, enduring the elements the best. Solvent ink printed scrim vinyl or vinyl banners with vinyl laminate are popular for outdoor applications, but not the best choice for the environment.

• Dye sublimation transfer printing reduces atmospheric irritants because it uses water-based inks. These inks have no VOC’s and provide amazing color saturation. The inks are permanently encapsulated into the fibers of the graphic. Fabric graphics are great for short-term outdoor applications and have great longevity for indoor applications, but keeping them out of daily direct sunlight exposure. Fabric graphics made for the outdoors are not as fade-resistant and will satisfy the your needs for a three month period.

• UV flatbed printing uses UV curable inks which are non-solvent inks with no VOC’s. The UV curable inks harden upon exposure to our UV-LED light source, designed to produce an “instant dry” or hardening effect. Note the light source used in some UV flatbed printers are UV-LED, which draws little electricity; thus being gentler to the environment by leaving a smaller carbon footprint. These UV curable inks are indeed very durable, resistant to friction, weather, and fade resistant.

3. Lighter weight options for transporting your exhibit will use less energy, therefore, reducing your carbon foot print. Consider reducing the weight of your exhibit. Choice of lighter weight exhibit includes signage, graphics, and their supportive parts.

• Fabric is a much lighter option in comparison to the traditional framed graphic under glass. The traditional sandwich consisted of a mounting board with adhered graphic, matting, a glass or plexiglass protective sheet, in a heavier metal or wood frame. Busting loose from rectangle tradition with amorphic shapes and flexible options, is a host of tension fabric exhibit displays. With fabric graphics, you only need one fabric graphic and one lightweight aluminum frame called SEG. SEG stands for silicone-edge graphics, which means the graphic has a silicone strip sewn into its edge and glides into the channel of framing made for this purpose.

• UV Flatbed prints can offer lighter weight options. There is a choice of lightweight substrates, and I recommend you discuss with your UV print provider which substrates they have available to them. The substrate must be rigid, flat, and under two inches thick. This can be lightweight recycled cardboards, bamboo, and other lightweight environmentally-friendly boards.

4. Choose eco-friendly accessories when possible. When material gathering, consider looking more accessories which are made of recycled content or that which leaves a smaller carbon footprint on planet earth. This might translate into using recyclable aluminum framing. It might mean employing LED lighting whenever plausible in the exhibit display, they reduce power usage significantly.  It might mean making sure your handouts are printed by your four-color printer using post-consumer recycled materials or even working to reduce the amount of paper. Ask all of your deliverable suppliers which products they offer which might be renewable or recycled.

5. This is just a suggestion but consider the longevity or repurposing of your exhibit displays. Truly each design is a unique one we all realize, but consider reusing parts of a display. Display structures can be re-configured. Also consider the shelf-life of the display and how you might stretch that out. When looking at the calendar year of exhibits, are there any signs or parts of a display which could be viewed as an interchangeable part to be swapped out. Its an unlikely stretch I realize, but if you are the one in charge of budget, I’m betting this thought has crossed you mind over the past several years of the recession.

6. This brings to mind the three R’s: reuse, reinvent, or rent. This concept rides on the shirt tails off the previous paragraph, particularly when you are staring at a short term exhibit. Is it possible to rent some of the display parts such as cases or framing? I’d recommend you start this search with a provider of museum and tradeshow displays, as the hardware used, can be interchangeable. Perhaps your PR department uses tradeshow hardware which could be re-skinned or re-configured. This is especially true with portable wall systems and graphics.

7. Do your own investigating and recycling about opportunities to recycle within the museum display industry. There might be some start up galleries seeking parts. Surely there’s a community listed on Google or discussion group to be found on Linked In who knows of such an organization. If not, perhaps you can donate parts to be added to the recycle reef, an exhibit made of recycles. Check it out : http://www.perotmuseum.org/explore-the-museum/traveling-exhibits/Recycle-Reef/index.html

If your are currently seeking a provider of museum graphics, then call 1.800.829.4562