Our Position and Responsibility as the MAK

Our vision is to create a climate-neutral museum for our visitors, staff members, the community at large, and future generations, which is why we are committed to achieving the goal of climate neutrality by 2040.

For us sustainability is not a trend but a responsibility. Our goal is to create a location where inspiration, open dialog, and exchange thrive, one that brings people together and stimulates thinking and action that can help us preserve our planet, our environment, and their inhabitants. We are convinced that culture, museum work, and sustainability go hand-in-hand in raising awareness and inspiring positive change.

We have taken a significant step in this direction with our acquisition of the Austrian Ecolabel, an independent certification mark whose bearersnot only in the business world but also in the world of culturecommit themselves to protecting the environment and to quality.

Ecological and Social Sustainability in MAKtion

Our approach to sustainability is based on the principle of circular economy, the use of renewable technologies, and a strong sense of social responsibility. We are committed to creating sustainable business operations that conserve resources, integrate innovative solutions, and at the same time focus on social justice, inclusion, diversity, and barrier-free accessibility. Through strategic cooperations and the creation of long-term, sustainable partnerships, we strengthen our commitment to achieving an environment-conscious and socially just future, especially as regards the sustainable acquisition of resources and transparent supply chains.

An Overview of Our Main Points of Focus

Access to and Creation of Inclusive, High-Quality Educational Opportunities for All

from art and culture to our team. Internally, we are committed through our Diversity Team and our HR Departmentand through our specially developed MAKademy Programto diversity and continuous development. Externally, through our comprehensive art education program we create easy access to culture and thus foster a free and open exchange of ideas.

A Circular Economy Approach

In our everyday work and in the museum’s daily operations too, we place great value on making ecologically responsible decisions. This includes inter alia using sustainable and resource-conserving materials, and long-lasting, reparable, and recyclable products. In making purchases in all our areas of activity, we exclusively prefer environmentally certified products bearing, for instance, the Austrian Ecolabel, the Blue Angel, or the EU Ecolabel, and work with regional, environmentally friendly firms and partners.
In designing exhibitions too, sustainability criteria are uppermost in our minds: here we pay particular attention to the recyclability of the exhibition architecture.

Achieving Climate Neutrality Together

Through strong partnerships and responsible supply chains, together we can take effective measures to continually improve our efforts on behalf of the environment and thus achieve our goal of climate neutrality by 2040.

Social Commitment & Equal Opportunity

For us at the MAK, civic engagement is of central importance. Through our wide-ranging programs, we strive to bring such topics as climate care, maintaining biological diversity, restoring and preserving ecosystems, as well as social justice, diversity, and inclusion more emphatically into the public discourse.

In its exhibitions, its educational agenda, and other of its programs, the museum focuses on an ongoing concern with the general ecological and climate crisis and the presentation of solutions thereto. For us it is especially important to encourage designers, architects, and artists to engage intensively with questions of sustainability and thus to increase the socio-, techno-, and ecopolitical relevance of the applied and fine arts in deciding the future of our environment.

We at the MAK invite you to visit our special exhibitions and temporary projects, as well as to avail yourself of our wide-ranging educational program, and thus to enter into dialog with us.

Barrier-Free Visits

For us a major concern is that all visitors have unrestricted access to the museum. All floors of the MAK on the Stubenring and all exhibition halls, as well as the toilets, are accessible to visitors with disabilities, and include an elevator with wheelchair access.

The MAK Design Shop and the Restaurant Salonplafond in the MAK are located on the ground floor and are accessible from the museum without climbing steps.

People accompanying visitors bearing a disability pass may enter the museum free of charge. Visitors bearing a relevant disability pass may also be accompanied by guide dogs.

We invite our visitors to support our sustainability strategy in the following ways

A climate-friendly journey to the museum: the MAK is in a central location and may be easily reached on foot, by bicycle, or by public transport. Close by you will find a number of public transport stops (see the Wiener Linien route planner). In addition there are sufficient bicycle stands in front of the MAK entrance (see the Bike Citizens route planner). And for those whose bicycles may have suffered a mishap, our porter can supply a repair kit.
Exploring our exhibition program and participating in the MAK’s workshops and projects.
Buying admission tickets online, thus saving paper.
Carefully separating waste. During your visit to the MAK, we ask you to use the waste separation bins provided.

Do you have additional suggestions and ideas as to how we can make the MAK even more ecologically sustainable? Then please write to us at umwelt@MAK.at

We look forward to your input!