It’s St. Patrick’s Day – that strange day when everyone at the IMA  breaks his or her uniform of basic black in order to add a festive flash of green.

IMA's Rain Garden

While green slips into our wardrobe only once a year here, it is at the top of our minds every day. Here’s just a sampling of all the ways the IMA thinks green:

• Recycling – In 2009 the IMA recycled 7,392 pounds of newspaper, 12,950 pounds of office paper, 2,099 pounds of aluminum, and 2,046 pounds of plastic. Each employee has a recycling bin at his or her desk and large recycling bins are available in areas available to the public and staff.

• The Toby – During the renovation of The Toby in 2008, the IMA used green products whenever possible. The floor is made of recycled cork and tires. Recycled carpet tiles were used in the lobby, seating areas and hallways. Recycled glass and concrete was used for the countertops in the service area.

• Rain Garden – The IMA’s rain garden (see image above) captures and filters storm water runoff from the asphalt parking lot outside the Greenhouse that would otherwise flow into nearby waterways, carrying oil and other pollutants with it. Next time you visit the Greenhouse, be sure to check it out!

• Visitors Pavilion at 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park – Currently being constructed and opening June 20, 2010, the 3,000-square-foot Visitors Pavilion will be a LEED certified facility.  See images of the ongoing construction of the pavilion.

• Programming – The Planet Indy speaker series – an annual speaker series that addresses quality of life from a sustainable, creative perspective.  Last month the IMA hosted filmmaker Chris Paine (director of Who Killed the Electric Car?) as he discussed transportation and green lifestyles.  As part of the event, the museum exhibited an electric car just outside Nourish Cafe (check out the IMA TV clip).Upcoming Planet Indy talks include “gestalt gardener” Felder Rushing (April 22) and author of The Not So Big House series, Sarah Susanka (May 20)

So there it is, just a few examples of how the IMA is green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.

Slainte!

I thought it would be fitting this time around, as climate change negotiations proceed in Copenhagen, to discuss an interesting study done by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stanford University, Microsoft, and Intel.

by Marcin Wichary on Flickr

Many people have heard some version of “Moore’s Law” – that the number of transistors on a chip approximately doubles every two years. This study reveals a related trend in energy consumption per computation.

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It’s a big day! The IMA was just named one of the 10 recipients of the 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for museums and libraries. Indiana Senator Richard Lugar nominated the Museum about which he said, “The IMA provides the Indianapolis community with valuable arts programming, education and many special exhibitions through the exploration of art, design, and the natural environment. It is truly a treasure in Indianapolis and very deserving of this prestigious honor.”

The annual award presented by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) since 1994, recognizes institutions for outstanding social, educational, environmental, or economic contributions to their communities. According to IMLS Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice, the IMA was selected for the award based on the Museum’s “exemplary programs (that) respond to community challenges, positively impact people’s lives, and serve as models for the nation’s museums.”

National Medal for Museum and Library Service

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No, sorry… we’re not building a time machine. But, last week at the monthly All-Staff meeting, IMA employees were treated to a sneak peek of a monitoring project that the MIS department has in the works. It’s similar to what I wrote about in an earlier post, but on a bigger scale (by the way, that Eco-button went glitchy on me). In the IMA machine room, we have rack-mounted servers that host a variety of applications used by staff at the museum. There’s also a decent 16 terabytes (1TB = 1024GB) of disk storage in there.

One of the racks in our machine room

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