GOGREEN: GREEN STRATEGIES TO CONSERVE THE PAST AND PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

Heritage conservation preserves the tangible remains of society, but relies on toxic, unsustainable materials and on energy-consuming air conditioning of collections. GoGreen promotes preventive and remedial conservation practices based on green principles to spearhead the green revolution within conservation. Specifically, GoGreen will: (1) develop new damage functions that allow more flexible environmental control in collections, thus improving energy efficiency; (2) generate innovative nature-inspired, bio-based and historical conservation treatment-inspired methods for remedial conservation, including new cleaning solutions for paintings and metals, all using green solvents, bio-inspired reagents, green delivery systems; and stabilization methods for metal and glass that employ innovative techniques like bio passivation to stabilize metal surfaces and nanomaterials that mimic the growth of silica to stabilize glass; (3) assess our new materials and methods using cutting-edge analytical techniques and benchmark methods in collaboration with expert practitioners and museums, to determine their efficacy in the cleaning of paintings and metals, or the stabilisation of glass and metal objects; (4) develop a digital web-app to aid conservators in the design of green preventive and remedial conservation treatments, and a decision model integrating green thinking in complex conservation decision making. Crucially, GoGreen encompasses all relevant and necessary academic and socio-economic actors spanning the full stakeholder value chain to ensure future impact. Our uniquely advantageous composition coupled with the embedding of bottom-up education of professionals through modules and courses for conservation training programmes, emerging conservators, and mid-career professionals, guarantees the next generation of conservators are fully prepared to embrace the GreenDeal.