Climate Smart Humanities Organizations

As energy costs rise and natural disasters become more frequent, humanities organizations - such as museums, libraries, archives, historic sites, and colleges and universities - face an enormous task: to anticipate operational, physical, and financial impacts of climate-related events on their institutions, while also reducing their own impact on the environment. Climate Smart Humanities Organizations supports these efforts by offering federal matching funds for comprehensive organizational assessments that lead to strategic climate action and adaptation plans.  

Through the Climate Smart program, your humanities organization can undertake activities such as energy audits, risk assessments, and meetings with consultants. The resulting climate smart plan helps you establish goals and prioritize actions that reduce your organization’s impacts on the environment through mitigation and vulnerability from extreme events through adaptation. Together, mitigation and adaptation can inform a robust road map that addresses climate challenges, protects assets, and facilitates collaboration between internal and external stakeholders. Strategic planning for climate change is an essential part of sustaining humanities organizations’ operations and activities—becoming climate smart.

Individual organizations can apply for themselves or lead a consortium of organizations collaborating on strategic climate smart planning.

Awards in this program are made with federal matching funds and require fundraising of third-party, non-federal gifts at a ratio of one to one.

Watch the Climate Smart Humanities Organizations webinar 

• 59-minute presentation
• Closed captions available

Download a transcript of the webinar (PDF)
Download the webinar slides (PDF)