Panel Summary
This panel discussion hosted for attendees at Independent 20th Century in New York on September 7 2025 brought together diverse voices to discuss one of the most urgent questions facing the art world: how to build a greener future. Moderated by James Hendy, General Manager and SVP, Crozier, the discussion featured artist Robin F. Williams, journalist and author Annabel Keenan, and decarbonisation expert Pawel Woelke from Thornton Tomasetti.
Setting the Scene
James opened by acknowledging Crozier’s own carbon footprint, with over 700 employees, 50 facilities, and 180 vehicles worldwide, and emphasised the company’s commitment to finding creative solutions to reduce its environmental impact.
The conversation recognised a key tension: the art world deeply values sustainability, but its day-to-day operations, shipping, climate control, global art fairs, often work against it.
Artists Leading the Way
Independent 20th Century, New York, 2025, Casa Cipriani, Robin F. Williams, James Hendy, photography by Leandro Justen. Courtesy of Independent. Building a Greener Art World: Annabel Keenan, Robin F. Williams, Pawel Woelke. Moderated by James Hendy September 7, 2025
Robin F. Williams described Artists Commit as an artist-led collective promoting a climate-conscious, resilient, and equitable future. Their Climate Impact Report invites artists, galleries, and institutions to audit and share the carbon impact of their exhibitions.
Robin stressed that even a small group can shift the conversation. The initiative empowers participants to examine their practices without judgement, share findings publicly, and collectively raise standards.
“It doesn’t take that many people to shift the conversation and make a difference.”Robin F Williams
Understanding the Challenges
Annabel Keenan highlighted why progress is slow:
- The art world is global, unregulated, and highly competitive.
- The commercial sector is extremely opaque.
- Museums are often underfunded and cautious about risk.
- Art is subjective, making it difficult to define “necessary” vs “wasteful” practice.
Despite these challenges, Annabel sees hope in initiatives that encourage self-reflection and transparency rather than prescribing rigid solutions.
Independent 20th Century, New York, 2025, Casa Cipriani, Annabel Keenan, Robin F. Williams, photography by Leandro Justen. Courtesy of Independent. Building a Greener Art World: Annabel Keenan, Robin F. Williams, Pawel Woelke. Moderated by James Hendy September 7, 2025
“The art world is global, nuanced, and largely unregulated. The commercial side lacks transparency to an extreme degree, with enormous competition and huge sums of money at stake. This makes it hard for galleries to share resources or “open their books” on sustainability.”Annabel Keenan
A Structured Approach to Change
Pawel Woelke advocated for breaking decarbonisation down into actionable steps. Climate change can feel overwhelming, but identifying and quantifying emissions gives organisations and individuals agency.
“Climate change is a hazardous event. Greenhouse gas emissions are its main contributors. You can identify and quantify them, then reduce them, that’s decarbonisation...
Every industry tends to focus on the wrong thing. People focus on what’s visible, even if it’s not the most impactful. That’s true in the art world too.” Pawel Woelke
Independent 20th Century, New York, 2025, Casa Cipriani, Pawel Woelke, photography by Leandro Justen. Courtesy of Independent. Building a Greener Art World: Annabel Keenan, Robin F. Williams, Pawel Woelke. Moderated by James Hendy September 7, 2025
Pawel emphasised the importance of designing for resilience as well as reducing emissions, and aligning business incentives so that sustainability makes commercial sense.
Key Topics Explored
Climate Control Standards:
Post-WWII standards for temperature and humidity are applied globally, often unnecessarily, leading to massive energy use. Guggenheim Bilbao’s decision in 2022 to relax standards cut its energy bill by €20,000 per month and inspired others to follow suit.
“Financial sustainability can drive environmental sustainability.” Annabel Keenan
Shipping & Sea Freight:
Sea freight can reduce emissions by up to 95%, yet adoption remains low due to timing, customs, and insurance concerns. The panel stressed that collective demand would accelerate solutions and normalise sea freight use.
“Artists and collectors have a lot of agency here. I showed in Tokyo last year, and one of my conditions was that the work had to ship by sea. I planned for the additional time.” Robin F Williams
Artist & Collector Agency:
Artists can stipulate greener shipping methods, plan for longer lead times, and reduce unnecessary travel. Collectors can request sustainable shipping and favour galleries prioritising climate-conscious choices.
Art Fairs:
Art fairs represent a large share of many galleries’ carbon footprints. Suggestions included using more sea freight, reusing packing materials, reducing staff travel, and encouraging fairs to produce climate impact reports.
Collaboration & Accountability
Across the conversation, two words stood out: collaboration and accountability.
Top-down leadership from major museums, auction houses, and mega-galleries is essential, but so is grassroots action from smaller galleries and artists. Together, these pressures can create systemic change.
Annabel also advocated for greater transparency, suggesting that journalists and critics call attention to those who are not engaging with sustainability efforts.
Audience Insights
Audience questions explored whether certification (e.g., B Corp) could work for the art world. The panel warned that rigid certification risks excluding smaller players and could lead to greenwashing.
Instead, they advocated for flexibility, shared standards set by influential institutions, and community-driven commitments.
The discussion also touched on generational shifts, with the panel predicting that younger collectors, shaped by sustainability expectations in fashion and luxury sectors, will demand greater transparency and greener practices from the art world.
Closing Thoughts
The panel agreed that:
- Change is possible but requires both practical solutions and mindset shifts.
- Small groups can create outsized impact.
- Sustainability must become a “third box” in decision-making, alongside cost and speed.
- Collaboration across the industry, combined with transparency and public pressure, will be key to accelerating progress.
James concluded by encouraging panellists and participants to “keep pushing”, even when it’s uncomfortable, because without voices driving accountability, the art world risks staying still while the climate crisis moves forward.
