The green transition has become a core evaluation metric for cultural institutions. Driven by European funding directives and frameworks like the European Commission’s Strategy for Cultural Heritage, museums are now required not only to innovate but to actively reduce their environmental footprint.
In this scenario, one of the most polluting and costly elements in the daily management of an exhibition often goes unnoticed: the fleet of traditional physical audio guides.
Until a few years ago, distributing plastic hardware to visitors was the only way to offer audio support. Today, continuing to rent and maintain dedicated devices represents a critical issue for both budgets (as continuous operating costs) and compliance with ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria.
The Hidden Environmental Cost of Physical Devices
To understand the true impact of a hardware-based system, one only needs to look at the life cycle of a single traditional audio guide.
Production requires rigid plastics, microelectronics, and, most importantly, lithium batteries. With intensive daily use, accidental drops, and general wear, these devices have a very short operational life. When they break down or their batteries lose charging capacity, they turn into WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which requires strict and expensive special disposal procedures.
As highlighted by cost optimization analyses in the cultural tourism sector published by management platforms like Revenews, financial sustainability is now deeply intertwined with environmental sustainability. Keeping hundreds of devices plugged in every night severely impacts a facility’s energy bill. Add to this the waste generated by daily hygiene practices: single-use wipes, chemical cleaning liquids, and disposable plastic earphones generate tons of unrecyclable waste at the end of every exhibition season.
Zero Hardware: Software as the Ecological Choice
Faced with these logistical and environmental issues, digitalization offers a clean solution. Data tracked by the Digital Innovation in Culture Observatory at Politecnico di Milano shows that the use of personal devices is now a firmly established habit among audiences.
Adopting a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach means an institution can stop purchasing or renting polluting materials, shifting the entire service to the smartphone the visitor already carries. Delivering the audio guide through a proprietary web platform allows management to:
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Eliminate Electronic Waste: No plastic shells to discard, no lithium batteries to replace.
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Cut Energy Consumption: The museum no longer needs to charge dozens of devices at the end of every shift, as visitors use their own phones.
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Remove Chemical Sanitization: Contact occurs only with the user’s personal screen, guaranteeing perfect hygiene without producing single-use waste.
The Impact on Grants and ESG Reporting
Removing physical hardware from the gallery is not just an ethical choice; it is a strategic financial lever. Many new public funding calls and European grants award higher scores to projects that can demonstrate a concrete reduction in emissions and physical waste.
Moving from a storeroom full of obsolete electronics to an agile software infrastructure allows museum boards to accurately document this waste reduction in their sustainability reports (ESG reporting).
Choosing pure digital, eliminating plastic and the hidden costs of electronics, means finally aligning cultural offerings with the ecological demands of the present, improving public service while freeing up vital resources for the care of the artworks.
