Wells Fargo Carbon Sequestration Research Grant

The Science Museum is committed to achieving 100% carbon neutrality by 2030. What does this mean? It means that it will reduce or offset the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the heating, cooling, and powering of all of its buildings to zero within the next seven years.

The museum will achieve this goal through a combination of strategies — from implementing energy efficient innovations, such as advanced heat recovery and upgraded building automation, to subscribing to Xcel Energy’s Windsource program for all of its electricity needs, and more. 

Another tool in our climate action toolbox

Renewable energy and energy efficiency won’t eliminate SMM’s emissions in their entirety, however. In order to achieve neutrality, the museum likely will need to rely on carbon offsets – reductions in greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere to compensate for emissions still attributable to the museum. From a climate change perspective, the effects are the same if an organization ceases an emission-causing activity or enables an equivalent emission-reducing activity — like increasing carbon storage through wetland restoration — somewhere else in the world. 

The value of wetlands

That’s where carbon sequestration, the practice of removing carbon from the air and storing it away in sediment, comes into play. It’s another tool in the Science Museum’s climate action toolbox, and valuable support from Wells Fargo Foundation is helping us learn and share information about it. 

With Wells Fargo Foundation’s support, the scientists in the Science Museum’s Department of Water and Climate Change have been collaborating with Cornell University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology to better understand the potential of different land use practices in rural areas for carbon sequestration. Practices like the reestablishment of wetlands or perennial vegetation could use the power of photosynthesis to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in sediments, vegetation, and/or soils, thereby offsetting some of the museum’s remaining carbon dioxide emissions.

As the museum builds out its plans, it can serve as an example to other organizations that are looking for carbon sequestration options to help them reach their own goals. 

Using science to find solutions

Guided by its Statement on Climate Change, the Science Museum strives to be a hub for climate action, demonstrating ways that new technologies and innovations can help individuals, organizations, and communities combat climate change. This wetland carbon sequestration research project, made possible by Wells Fargo, is another emerging solution that can ease the impacts of the climate crisis and enable us all to imagine, design, and realize a better future.