Greenfield Village

GOING GREEN

When doing what’s possible becomes urgently meaningful

YOU COULD SAY The Henry Ford has been a green institution from the start. Industrialist Henry Ford minimized waste to maximize profit, and he applied the same principle to the work undertaken at the Edison Institute, now The Henry Ford. The magnitude of Ford’s preservation effort ensured the survival of objects and stories that inspire us to shape a better future for our planet as well as ourselves.

You could also say Ford himself contributed more than most industrialists to the Anthropocene. The automotive industry has added to atmospheric instability and global warming. At the same time, agricultural practices have become increasingly dependent on fossil fuels and synthetic chemicals, threatening the sustainability of our food supply. Combine these with extractive industries removing iron and other organic as well as inorganic materials from the earth for use in manufacturing, and The Henry Ford’s collections offer unparalleled opportunities to discuss the history of changing environments and human choices at the heart of those changes.

In May 2021, The Henry Ford President and CEO Patricia Mooradian chartered a Green Team to embrace transformative change centered on green museum practices and to position The Henry Ford as a leader in this movement (see sidebar at right).

Initially, the team leaped forward with three interrelated tasks: benchmarking, recycling and composting. A benchmarking subcommittee gathered data on institutional energy use, water management and waste streams to set measurable goals for the campus. Another subcommittee implemented composting on a programmatic level at Firestone Farm in Greenfield Village, with future planning for possible on-site composting for manure and commercial composting of other organic and compostable materials.

For visitors, however, one of the most visible and compelling examples of green practices on campus is the reconstruction of the vegetable building from the Detroit Central Market in Greenfield Village. This structure exists because it was reused for various purposes by the City of Detroit between 1861 and 2003. And The Henry Ford will reuse it when it opens this year as the hub of its Edible Education initiative, which will stress lessons in regenerative agriculture.

The Detroit Central Market building symbolizes the Green Team’s effort to tie best practices within The Henry Ford to larger stories about the complexity of environmental responsibility and our shared journey toward a greener future.

— DEBRA A. REID, CURATOR OF AGRICULTURE

AND THE ENVIRONMENT

ONLINE For more information, hours and pricing for Greenfield Village, visit thf.org/villagec READ Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites, co-authored by The Henry Ford’s Debra A. Reid, curator of agriculture and the environment, and David D. Vailc

GREEN MUSEUM MOVEMENT

The concept of “green museums” coalesced during the early 2000s as museum professionals began pursuing environmental sustainability. This involved, specifically, reducing energy consumption and waste, managing water resources, reusing materials, and recycling paper, plastics, metals and glass to stop environmental degradation.

The green museum movement also calls for moving beyond these essential activities to additional proactive measures that regenerate the environment. Museums are encouraged to take these messages beyond the walls of the institution through community engagement and regional, national and international partnerships in an effort to establish new standards and implement new practices.

To learn more about the green museum movement, read The Green Museum: A Primer on Environmental Practice by Sarah S. Brophy and Elizabeth Wylie.

DID YOU KNOW? / The Henry Ford Green Team is working on Ki Futures, a pilot project of the global organization Ki Culture that will help establish sustainable models for use by cultural institutions across the globe.

kiculture.org

dExpert traditional timber framers

Rudy Christian (right) and Laura

Saeger of Christian & Son are ensuring the reuse of 50% of the original cast-iron columns and 75%-80% of the original timberframe roofing of the Detroit Central

Market vegetable building. Their innovative framing system will help guarantee the structure serves in perpetuity.