The Brunel Museum, a popular attraction located at London’s Brunel Engine House, has announced that it has signed up to Climate Perks, a sustainable travel employee benefits scheme. Climate Perks allows employers to offer their employees paid “journey days”. These can be added to their annual leave, enabling them to take lower carbon transport modes to get to their holiday destination.
70% of all flights in the UK are taken by just 15% of the population, and those who take the most flights tend to be professionals with disposable income. This means that employers are ideally placed to encourage and support their employees to choose low-carbon transport, instead of flying.
See also: The world’s most sustainable museums
Paid journey days
Staff at Brunel Museum will receive a minimum of two paid “journey days”, in addition to the normal annual leave quota. The scheme aims to get people flying less, as well as to allow more people to embrace “slow travel” – appreciating the journey just as much as the destination.
Climate Perks is the brainchild of climate charity Possible. Since its launch, 60 organisations have signed up, including Friends of the Earth, Direct Ferries and the law firm Bates Wells.
Hannah Bland is Climate Perks project manager at Possible. She says:
“Having a museum sign up for Climate Perks is brilliant. Centres for learning and culture, like Brunel Museum, are invaluable places for initiatives like this to start gaining prominence. We hope that all the employees at the Museum are excited by the prospect of low-carbon travel and have some fantastic adventures in getting to their holiday destinations.”
Supporting more sustainable travel choices
Katherine McAlpine, director of the Brunel Museum, adds:
“Our museum tells the story of how Marc Brunel devised and created the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world. It also laid the blueprint for all future tunnelling projects, including the Channel Tunnel which today is among the best low-carbon way of travelling internationally from Britain. So it feels appropriate that we’re the first museum to sign up to this really important scheme.
“We’re so pleased to be able to support our employees to make more sustainable travel choices. ”
Recently, we have seen many museums taking action on the climate crisis, putting in place new plans and policies and showing their commitment to becoming more environmentally sustainable.
Earlier this year, Chris Michaels, director of digital, communications and technology at the National Gallery in London, spoke to blooloop about sustainability, NFTs and why technology will be crucial for museums and the climate crisis.
