From Digital Transition to Low-Impact Museums: A Strategic Planning Framework for Sustainable Museum Transformation

Museums are increasingly required to combine digital transformation with sustainability goals under conditions shaped by ecological pressures, resource constraints, and long-term heritage responsibilities. This paper examines museum digital transition as a problem of strategic governance rather than merely technological adoption. Drawing on an exploratory qualitative case study based on the Italian ECO ART programme, the research analyses participatory activities, best practices, and project materials related to green and digital transition in the cultural sector. The findings show that the main barriers concern governance, process design, skills continuity, and monitoring, rather than technology alone. In response, the paper proposes a strategic framework composed of a Sustainability Matrix and a Roadmap. The matrix connects technologies, processes, and people with the cultural, social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, while the Roadmap structures digital planning from diagnosis to monitoring. This work argues that digital transformation can support sustainable and resilience-oriented heritage management only when it is planned as a low-impact, inclusive, and long-term organizational process.