The framework in brief
Our earlier article presented the ESG4GLAM competency framework and the evidence behind it. This one opens the framework up and looks inside a single domain.
The 31 competences are not spread evenly: six are cross-cutting, eight environmental, nine social and eight governance. Each one is written in the language of cataloguing, conservation, exhibition-making and community programming.
We start with the environmental domain, home to the single widest gap in the survey.
Why the environmental domain stands out
GLAM institutions face environmental challenges that most other sectors do not. Many work from historic buildings, keep irreplaceable and climate-sensitive collections, and produce exhibitions, loans and public programmes that consume materials, energy and transport.
In the survey, environmental competences scored 4.28 out of 5 for importance but only 2.77 for current organisational level, a gap of 1.51. That is the second-largest gap of the four domains, behind only the cross-cutting one. Awareness is not the problem; practical capacity is.
The framework is also explicit that this cannot be one specialist’s job. Curators, conservators, facility managers, procurement officers, educators, exhibition designers and leadership teams all make decisions that carry an environmental footprint.
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Eight competences, four themes
The eight environmental competences fall naturally into four themes.
Know the rules and the numbers
- ENV-01 Environmental awareness and regulatory compliance: understanding the obligations that apply to buildings, collections, exhibitions and storage.
- ENV-08 Monitoring of environmental indicators: tracking energy, water, waste, emissions and indoor climate to support evidence-based decisions.
Care for the building and the collection
- ENV-02 Energy and climate control management: balancing energy use with conservation requirements and visitor comfort, including less energy-intensive storage standards.
- ENV-04 Ecologically informed preventive conservation: protecting collections while reducing resource use, chemical impact and energy consumption.
Make and buy differently
- ENV-03 Sustainable production of exhibitions and public programmes: lowering material, energy and transport impact, touring loans included.
- ENV-05 Sustainable procurement: applying environmental and social criteria to materials, services and suppliers.
- ENV-06 Waste reduction and circular practices: reuse, repair and sharing across offices, exhibitions and events.
Be ready when things go wrong
- ENV-07 Preparedness for environmental emergencies: planning for floods, fires, heatwaves and humidity risks.
Every competence is described at five levels, so a volunteer and a museum director can each find their own starting point.
Spotlight: preparedness for environmental emergencies
Of all 29 competences rated in the survey, ENV-07 shows the largest single gap: 1.88 points between importance and current level. It covers the ability to prepare for, and respond to, floods, fires, heatwaves, humidity fluctuations and pollution that threaten collections, buildings, staff and visitors.
The framework turns this into a progression that fits every kind of institution:
| Level | Typical roles | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Associate | Collections or facilities assistant, volunteer | Knows evacuation routes and basic collection-protection steps |
| L2 Professional | Conservator, curator, exhibition or facilities officer | Maintains an emergency supply kit for a storage or display area |
| L3 Senior professional / manager | Head of conservation or collections, facilities manager | Conducts a flood or fire risk assessment for a collection store |
| L4 Lead professional / senior manager | Deputy director, head of estates or operations | Develops and tests an institution-wide collection emergency-response plan |
| L5 Principal | Director, national heritage or climate-control adviser | Leads a national or regional disaster-preparedness network for cultural heritage |
The framework is also pragmatic about where to start. For micro and small institutions, such as volunteer-run libraries and single-person archives, it suggests emergency preparedness as one of the first priorities. For museums and archives with climate-sensitive collections and historic buildings, it notes that the environmental domain as a whole is typically the most urgent.
The framework links ENV-07 to an emergency preparedness module and a risk-assessment template, so the descriptors can become something an institution actually uses.