Unveiling the Environmental Heritage of University Museums

Introduction

The environmental heritage of universities includes many different objects which testify to the research and educational models through which this institution has shaped the link between humans and the natural environment. 
The recognition and exploration of environmental heritage is in its infancy; however, different interpretations can be already detected. Some scholars define it by focusing on the many legal and policy links between cultural heritage and the natural environment; others focus directly on climate change, energy efficiency and carbon emissions.  A third approach concentrates on energy and its impact on material culture as witnessed by the many museums on the history of oil and the inclusion of the Oil Industrial Heritage of Saudi Arabia in the Unesco Tentative List.  This exhibition aims at revealing the environmental heritage of research in universities as a contribution to the conceptualization of this type of heritage and the creation of resilient socio-ecological systems.