Dear Colleagues,

In September 2018, BGCI’s (Botanic Gardens Conservation International) 10th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, which was held in Warsaw, Poland, focused on increasing the impact of education and public engagement in botanic gardens. Attracting more than 750 million visitors a year, botanic gardens have the opportunity to interact with and influence a large section of society. In this context, environmental sustainability emerged as an area in which botanic gardens could have a significant impact. There was also the sense that botanic gardens are currently not doing enough about sustainability, particularly in influencing behavioral change amongst visitors and, in this way, achieving real societal impact. The delegates felt that it was appropriate that we show leadership as the world struggles to slow and reverse environmental degradation and mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change. This is appropriate because environmental sustainability is consistent with our values, because our visitors are high consumers with societal influence, and because we have technical knowledge and skills that could be applied to solving problems and providing solutions for a more sustainable planet. In addition, of course, many of BGCI’s member gardens are showcasing best practice sustainability on their sites and are changing their practices and interactions with visitors relating to water saving, food, energy, carbon, recycling, and so on.

This Special Issue of Sustainability will focus on the work of botanic gardens in influencing visitor behavior in areas such as energy use, water consumption, food, responsible sourcing, waste, and recycling. In addition, more broadly, we will showcase contributions that botanic gardens make to the Sustainable Development Goals through research and practice related to the conservation and use of plants. Our main purpose is to share some of the best practices in the botanic garden sector (and outside it), then mainstream and scale up such approaches. This issue will complement the work already carried out by BGCI and its partners in gathering case studies from botanic gardens (see https://climatetoolkit.org/ and https://www.bgci.org/news-events/bgci-publishes-new-technical-review-on-environmental-sustainability/)

Dr. Paul Smith
Ms. Helen Miller
Guest Editors

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• botanic garden
• SDGs
• energy
• water
• food
• waste
• recycling