Accounting issues: counting visitor traffic for carbon impact

An important step in creating a carbon-neutral within in art institution is the calculation of the institution's carbon footprint, what some call a Greeenhouse Gas Inventory (GHG Inventory) or what we"ve called the "house balance" in practice. The house balance involves calculating how much CO2 the institution, nGbK in SALT. CLAY. ROCK.'s case, directly generates. Like any other museum or gallery, nGbK needs to calculate the C02 impacts related to energy and heating and any other climate gasses related to the normal opperation of the institution.

But it initially surprised both our curatorial collective and the nGbK management that we had to account for and be responsible for the climate impact of the visitors to the gallery. While we know that travel can be an important contributor to greenhouse gasses, we had a very specific reason for the surprise. nGbK charges no entrance fee and does not directly profit from any visitor's arrival. nGbK, founded in 1969 by the city of Berlin as an directly democratic, open membership organization is committed to addressing societal power structures. Though preceeding the birth of the terms, nGbK can see itself as a part of the free culture movement and as a third place, terms which relate to open and bottom up culture available for a variety of bottom-up democratic and social ideals.

So, in persuing its mission, and unlike many other organizations that recieved the Zero Fund grant, nGbK does not charge an entrance fee. As a relatively small organization among the grant recipients, we felt like nGbK and other similar organizations were being inadvertantly punished for its idealistic approach to culture. Our institution, recently relocated from the popular Kotti-kiez in Kreuzberg to an former McDonalds right across from the major Alexanderplatz transportation hub, has open doors. Anyone can walk in from the street whenever and be counted as a visitor, even if they are just asking directions or want to use our nice toilets.

These visitors' mode of travel within or to Berlin conceptually would need to be accounted for. According to the KSB and climate neutral goals, their arrival would be best by foot, bike, or public transportation. But while entrance-charging institutions have the opportunity to directly incentivize a more green arrival to their front doors through offers made by on-line and telephone ticket sales, we do not have this opportunity because we have no ticket sales to offer discounts for visitors arriving by train or green feet, or with bike helmet in hand. While there are businesses that help large institutions deal with the carbon footprints of their paying customers, we felt left on the hook for our green and democratic ideals.

Thankfully, when we and the few other no-entry-fee organizations highlighted this problem to the KSB, they were responsive. We are currently in the process of work on a solution that still asks us to account for our visitor footprint, while figuring out an accounting method responsive to our ethic. The latest proposal is to figure out a calculation that either makes us responsible for only a percentage of the impact, or that leverages the costs across several institutions.