As the global climate crisis continues to unfold, we acknowledge our responsibility to take action. We are committed to implementing sustainable practices and developing an institutional climate action plan. We are also committed to using our platform as a civic arts institution to open a dialogue about climate change in our galleries and beyond. To help guide this work, we established a cross-departmental climate goals task force in September 2022. As we work toward a holistic roadmap, we are implementing systems for monitoring our institutional carbon footprint, reducing our carbon emissions, and learning from our peers and across industry lines. 

Our sustainability journey is an ongoing, iterative process. This page documents some of the initiatives and programs we have undertaken to understand and reduce our impact on the environment. The page was last updated on November 5, 2025.

In our practices

• In 2025, both the de Young and Legion of Honor became certified California Green Businesses with support from the San Francisco Environment Department. Green Businesses exceed all environmental regulations and implement specific practices to reduce pollution, save water, conserve energy, and protect human health.

  

• In 2025, installed aerators on every faucet at both museums, lowering water and energy consumption.

• In 2025, pivoted away from supplying bottled water for staff and instead promoted using reusable bottles and the City water supply.

• In 2025, changed office, kitchenette, and bathroom paper supplies to 30% post-consumer waste recycled content and chlorine-free/unbleached alternatives.

• In 2025, streamlined staff waste collection to centralized collection centers, eliminating the need for individual waste bins, significantly reducing our use of plastic bin liners.

• In 2025, provided reusable utensils, plates, and bowls for each staff kitchenette. This will reduce the amount of single-use items purchased for kitchenettes and lead to supply savings.

• In 2025, pivoted to remanufactured toner cartridges for staff printers. 

• In 2025, switched to certified non-toxic cleaning and building maintenance materials in non-aerosol containers. Switched to hydrogen peroxide-based disinfecting product diluted on-site.

• In 2024, partnered with the San Francisco Environment Department and contributed to the Municipal Natural Gas Equipment Inventory (MNGEI), a catalog of natural gas equipment used in municipal buildings in San Francisco. The inventory includes data from 228 municipal buildings across 22 departments and will serve as a tool to aid those departments in planning the necessary steps to electrify their building portfolios.

• In 2024, partnered with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to reprogram the de Young and Legion of Honor’s building management systems for efficiency. With these new systems implemented, the de Young will realize an estimated annual electricity savings of 320,000 kWh (approximately 4.0% of total electricity usage), and 17,580 therms (approximately 6.9% of current natural gas usage) and the Legion of Honor will realize an estimated annual electricity savings of 620,431 kWh (approximately 19% of total electricity usage), and 39,677 therms (approximately 16% of current natural gas usage).

• In 2023, developed a Natural Gas Curtailment Plan for the de Young and Legion of Honor. Emergency operational response actions have been identified along with key energy reduction opportunities to implement for the future.

• In 2023, conducted single exhibition carbon audit for Botticelli Drawings with the generous assistance of the Carbon Accounting Company. 

• In 2023, conducted institutional baseline audit with the collaborative support of artist Haley Mellin, arts initiatives Art into Acres and Art + Climate Action, and grant funding from the Teiger Foundation.

• In 2020, conducted single exhibition carbon audit for Judy Chicago: A Retrospective with the generous assistance of the Carbon Accounting Company.

• In 2019, bike shelter enhancement projects for the de Young and Legion of Honor were completed. The bike shelters have increased bicycle parking and have encouraged staff to use the environmentally friendly transportation in our daily commutes to the Museums.

• Since 2018, collaborate with San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on an ongoing museum-wide LED conversion project to replace all incandescent lighting throughout the institution. 50% of conversions have been completed at the Legion of Honor. 90% of conversions have been completed at the de Young.

• Since 2018, reuse, refurbish, or donate the casework and building materials from our exhibitions as much as possible. 

• From 2016 to 2018, participated in a City and County of San Francisco initiative to change incandescent light bulbs to LED bulbs in collection and exhibition galleries at the Legion of Honor.

• Through the generous support of the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative, conducted a review of de Young air handling equipment with Linden Preservation Services. This collaborative study has identified changes in the programming and operation of our climate system that will reduce energy consumption and can be safely implemented in collections areas of the museums, as soon as new BMS controllers purchased through the project with SFPUC are in place. The grant has also helped us target specific priorities for capital investment in HVAC systems that will have the greatest impact for both climate and collections.

• Implemented recycling of single-use gloves, fabric scraps generated in exhibition production and textile conservation, and art supplies. 

• Decommissioned hygrothermographs (replaced years ago by dataloggers) across the conservation departments were collected and given a second life with smaller institutions.

• Used LCA modeling and research to select sustainable materials for padded support boards that will be used for both the display and housing of textiles.

• Use recycled and eco-friendly packaging for online store orders, in addition to using post-consumer recycled paper bags in store. 

• Reduced our requirements for art courier travel and employ virtual courier oversight whenever possible.

• Provide water bottle filling stations at the de Young and Legion of Honor, and sell water in reusable aluminum bottles in our stores and cafés.

• Decommissioned server applications that were migrated to cloud-based environments, decreasing our power and cooling requirements.

In our programs

• Presenting About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift from August 10, 2024 – July 5, 2026. Featuring the works of 11 local artists, this installation explores how artists relate to their environments through place: place as the physical land, place as heritage, place as the imaginary, and place as belonging. Climate change is a recurrent theme in several works on view. With the recent California drought and wildfires in mind, artists confront homegrown concerns whose consequences transcend locality. Saif Azzuz drew the color palette for Lo’op’ (It burns) (2021) from maps of the 2021 droughts and fires. Rupy C. Tut’s approach in New Normal (2022) integrates natural forces into a narrative that both celebrates and laments the state of our planet.

• Presented Contemporary Indigenous Voices of California’s South Coast Range at the de Young October 7, 2023 – January 7, 2024. The exhibition featured portraits of Indigenous community members from the South Coast Range (the San Francisco peninsula through the Santa Cruz mountains, Monterey Bay, and lower Salinan Valley) by artist Kirti Bassendine. The photographs were accompanied by powerful personal statements from Native community members calling attention to cultural connections to the land, rematriation (restoring the relationship between Indigenous people and their ancestral land), and climate change.

• Presented Ansel Adams in Our Time at the de Young April 8 – August 6, 2023. The exhibition spotlighted the artist’s efforts to establish environmental stewardship as a pillar of civic life. The work of 23 contemporary artists opened up new conversations around Adams’s work, looking both forward and backward to present a richer picture of the relationship between photography, art, landscape, and environmentalism. 

• On Earth Day 2022, participated in the launch of the A Cool Million billboard campaign, a public arts initiative for climate awareness. Our participation in the campaign featured a commissioned work by Lynn Hershman Leeson.

• In January 2022, hosted the Virtual Wednesday program What Can We Do? Arts Organizations and Climate Sustainability in collaboration with Art + Climate Action. This virtual program brought together art world sustainability leaders to discuss Bay Area arts initiatives around the climate crisis. 

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Haley Mellin, and to Art + Climate Action for their continued collaboration as we strive to reduce our climate impact.