"Green Museum" Candidate

The museum gugging is currently a candidate for the Austrian Ecolabel. 

Do you have comments about our sustainability concept or ideas about how the museum gugging could continue to improve? 

Let us know by sending a message to sophie.maeusl@museumgugging.at. You are also welcome to use the feedback form below to share your suggestions with us. 

Sustainability Concept of the museum gugging

The museum gugging opened in 2006 as an art museum focusing on Gugging Art and Art Brut. With this orientation, we occupy a unique position within the Austrian museum landscape and are among the most important exhibition venues for Art Brut internationally.

The museumgugging has high expectations in terms of quality, and it measures itself according to international exhibition standards. Our visitor-friendly, service-oriented, barrier-free, inclusive and bilingual orientation is an inseparable part of our institutional culture.

Historically speaking, the museum gugging sees itself as a part of the art brut center gugging. Its location in Maria Gugging, its inclusion in the art brut center gugging and its direct proximity to the Gugging Artists all form a part of this place's unique character.

Our goals are focused around the presentation of the Artists from Gugging and Art Brut. Exhibitions are assembled in house by our artistic director as well as by well-known Austrian and international curators. We attribute special significance to a modern and responsive art eduction program, and we welcome diverse groups of visitors while devoting particular attention to young visitors.

In order to live up to the standards of running an organization in a sustainable way, the museum gugging adheres to the guidelines of the Austrian Ecolabel.

Beginning in 2025, the museum gugging will be powered 100% by electricity from renewable energy sources. The proportion of energy-efficient lighting is also to be increased. We will also be doing without heating and air-conditioning equipment in outdoor areas.

The majority of the building is already equipped with water-saving plumbing fixtures, and this aspect will be further improved whenever new purchases of this kind become necessary.

The museum garden is maintained in an environmentally conscious manner. We do not use chemical or synthetic fertilizers and pesticides or peat. In addition, no invasive species that are foreign to the region and significant EU-wide are planted in the available areas.

In the case of waste, we practice avoidance to the greatest extent possible. Where it is unavoidable, waste is separated and introduced into the relevant recycling systems. We also use appropriate containers and signs to draw our visitors' attention to the separation of waste. In the case of laundry and dishwashing detergents and cleaning supplies as well as office materials, we make sure to use them sparingly and to purchase products with appropriate seals of approval.

The museum gugging is very well integrated into the public transportation network. We also use our available channels of communication to draw visitors' attention to this service and motivate them to engage in more sustainable mobility. Cyclists pay the reduced price of admission to the museum. 

With our certification for the Austrian Ecolabel, we have additionally committed ourselves to continuously evaluating and improving our sustainability efforts as well as communicating about our successes. 

We all need to think and act sustainably! It is the only way we can preserve our planet in the long run and ensure greater accessibility and social justice for our communities.

As artistic, cultural and scientific institutions we are able to raise social awareness by presenting and communicating high-quality cultural content. We believe in the importance of working towards sustainability, environmental protection and respectful communities without exclusion or discrimination. We implement concrete measures at our artistic, cultural and scientific institutions and their events and exhibitions. But we also need to explicitly address the issue of sustainability in the exchange with our audiences. After all, we want to encourage the arts and sciences to explore sustainability-related topics. That is why the NÖKU Group came up with its own sustainability standard in the autumn of 2020. It is a sustainability guideline for all employees of the Group, its 40-odd artistic and scientific institutions and their operating branches, for events and exhibitions, as well as the NÖKU Holding itself. The standard is being implemented incrementally and consistently by all operations involved. It includes a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of all significant areas of activity involved in the planning and execution of events and exhibitions: locations, event and exhibition technology, all procurement processes, waste management, social matters (such as accessibility), mobility/transport, catering, communication, accommodation.

The NÖKU Group’s sustainability strategy contributes to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Art, culture, science and the promotion of creativity contribute in equal measure to the scientific, social and ecological dimensions of the 2030 Agenda.

Sustainability officers from the individual operations now communicate regularly on the NÖKU’s newly created sustainability platform in order to promote the transfer of knowledge and the exchange of experiences. Since early 2022, any implemented measures have been evaluated and communicated both internally and externally.