Tag Archives: sustainability

Take Part in World Environment Day 2022: Build and share your Earth Action Number

On World Environment Day (June 5), the Only One Earth campaign calls “collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet”. This campaign, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and hosted in 2022 by Sweden, is the largest international day focussed on the environment.

This year’s call to action echoes the outcomes of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), which culminated in the urgent message that now more than ever, leaders must take increasingly ambitious steps to mitigate the climate emergency.

However, this is not the role of government and policymakers alone. The Only One Earth campaign stresses collective action. A full spectrum of stakeholders – from governments, to cities, financial institutions, businesses, NGOs, academia, civil society, and individuals can – and must – take part.

This campaign highlights that climate action is a common goal, and all people have a vital role to play if we are to make a meaningful difference. Libraries are a part of this solution.

Libraries Empowering Climate Action

Libraries are learning institutions and trusted community spaces that can help educate, empower, and mobilise their community to take action for the environment.

Libraries connect people to knowledge, ideas, skills, and opportunities. Their collections, and expert staff who help make material discoverable, connect us to the past and to one another, and inspire innovation.

Interested in learning more?

 Review IFLA’s brief on Libraries and the Glasgow Work Programme on Action for Climate Empowerment  for more on how libraries can empower climate action through education, access to information, and public participation.

Watch the recent webinar from IFLA’s Environment, Sustainability, and Libraries Section (ENSULIB), Climate equity: A manifesto for libraries, which explores how libraries can be proactive in bringing climate equity to the fore in their communities.

Share your Impact on World Environment Day 2022

For World Environment Day 2022, the Only One Earth campaign calls on all stakeholders to calculate their Earth Action Numbers. These are numeric goals that help celebrate, protect, and restore our planet.

The campaign is creating an interactive map of Earth Action Numbers from around the world. This global perspective shows how many small actions – 2,754 and counting – can add up to a major movement.

Explore Earth Action Numbers from around the world here.

It only takes a few minutes to build your library’s Earth Action Number, add it to the map, and share your impact with the world.

Start here: Build Your Earth Action Number

Step 1: Plan Your Response

 Your library’s Earth Action Number is a specific, quantifiable example of your planned impact.

To build an Earth Action Number for your library, you will be first asked to identify the type of action you will take, or already are taking, through your library’s sustainability-related programmes, campaigns, or initiatives.

This may fall in the following action areas:

Climate Action

Your programme or initiative is addressing the causes of climate change and helping your community find ways to adapt.

A library example: The Oulu City Library project “A Responsible Library as Promoter of Environmental Awareness”, Finland (6th Green Library Project Award Winner) worked towards the goals of promoting environmental awareness among customers and library staff, reducing the environmental impact of library operations, and creating a library action plan for sustainable development.

Nature Action

Your programme or initiative helps preserve nature through sustainable resource consumption and the modelling of sustainable behaviours.

A library example: Lambaye Learning Center – “An Ecological Learning Center” , Senegal, (5th Green Library Award Runner-up) reaches out to their rural community with practical community-oriented programmes. Green thinking permeates all aspects of physical infrastructure, including rainwater collection, a waste disposal system, and use of solar panels.

Chemicals and Pollution Action

Your programme addresses the prevention and management of pollution of all kinds.

A library example: The revitalisation of the Edmonton Public Library, Canada, (6th Green Library Award winner) focussed on diverting waste from landfills during demolition by recycling and reusing as much of the existing materials as possible. It further promotes sustainable transportation by adding bike racks, car charging stations and better access to the light rail transit system.

Step 2: Specify your Action

Once you click on the relevant type of action, you will be able to choose from a list of specific actions that your library may be taking.

Specific actions in your library that you may want to feature could include:

  • improving waste management
  • banning single-use plastic
  • increasing energy efficiency
  • supporting environmental events, campaigns, and advocacy 

Step 3: Describe your action

You will be asked to share a short description of your planned activity – with a quantifiable goal.

For example, you plan to plant 10 bee-friendly plants on your library’s grounds.  Or you plan to use 0 single-use plastics within your library’s premises.

You will then be asked to share a short, specific description of how you plan to achieve this goal. This could be, for example, through 2 planned environmental programmes involving your library’s community, or through the installation of 1 solar panel.

That’s it! Your Earth Action Number has been built! You can do this multiple times to reflect a range of different actions at your library.

Step 4: Share your Impact

Once you build your Earth Action Number, you will receive a set of personalised graphics to promote your action.

Download these personalised graphics and share on social media to help demonstrate the impact that libraries have on inspiring, educating, and leading on climate action.

Join the global conversation by using the hashtags: #OnlyOneEarth and #WorldEnvironmentDay.

Learn how to do more

 Community Organising

The degradation of ecosystems affects all regions of our planet. Results such as extreme weather events and biodiversity loss are devastating to the environment and negatively impact human health and economic well-being.

Meaningful action to prevent degradation and restore ecosystems can happen at the local level in all types of communities. Libraries can have an important role in mobilising this local action.

To help, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has created a Community Organising Toolkit to equip change-makers with tools to mobilise action to restore healthy ecosystems.

In this toolkit, you will find a wealth of ideas for community-led projects and events, as well as practical steps to organising grassroots action.

Find out more and download the toolkit here: IUCN Community Organising Toolkit

Ecosystem Restoration

Restoring healthy ecosystems is a critical aspect of sustainable development, and without action we will not be able to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set out in Agenda 2030.

Again, meaningful action can happen within our own communities. As a part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), the UNEP has produced an Ecosystem Restoration Playbook to help raise awareness on ecosystem restoration and share ideas for local, on-the-ground restoration that can make a major impact.

Use this playbook to start conversations on ecosystem restoration in your library. Identify actions and opportunities to mobilise your community and raise your collective voices in support of your local ecosystems.

Find out more and download this resource here: Ecosystem Restoration Playbook

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IFLA continues to help the global library field engage in climate action. Follow the work of IFLA’s Environment, Sustainability and Libraries (ENSULIB) Section for more.

IFLA is proud to be a member of the International Steering Committee of the Climate Heritage Network.  Over the course of 2022, IFLA will work with CHN to bring the voice of libraries, and voices from across the culture sector, into the global climate change debate. We are already setting our sights on preparation for COP27, to be hosted in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022.

Stay tuned for more, or get in touch: claire.mcguire@ifla.org

 

The 10-Minute International Librarian #79: Think about how to green your library

In November of last year, governments made new commitments to reducing emissions in order to limit climate change.

While many have suggested that not enough was promised, it will be worse still if even this is not delivered.

Crucially, mitigating and adapting to climate change requires work at all levels.

It is about changing practices and behaviours, not just policies.

Amongst our New Year’s Resolutions, it is therefore important to think about how we can be more sustainable, and use the place of libraries within communities to do the same!

So for our 79th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think about how to green your library.

You could think about any or all of your buildings, your operations, your collections and your programming.

Are there renovations that could make a difference? Could you use less energy? Could you share more works explaining the issues around climate change and greener living? Could you work with other organisations to promote sustainability literacy?

All have the potential to have either a direct impact on reducing emissions, to inspire others in your community to do the same, or both!

You could take a look at the Green Library Checklist, prepared by what is now the Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section.

Or you could seek ideas from the work of other libraries, as set out for example in our blog, or in our article summarising papers submitted to our World Library and Information Congress.

Let us know what ideas you have in the comments box below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 2.3: Develop standards, guidelines, and other materials that foster best professional practice

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the com

 

Amplifying Library Stories: How Libraries are Taking Climate Action

In the leadup to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), IFLA asked the Standing Committee of the Environment Sustainability and Libraries Section (ENSULIB) to share examples of libraries educating, connecting and empowering their communities to take climate action.

We were happy to share some guest articles on IFLA’s Policy and Advocacy blog to highlight library initiatives that promote climate action and empowerment in their communities.

 Green FUBib: Sustainability at the University Library

This article offers a look at the GreenFUBib group, a permanent working group that is committed to promoting sustainable action in everyday library life at the University Library of the Freie Universität Berlin.

“GreenFUBib wants to contribute to filling the strategic terms of sustainability and responsibility with life in everyday library activities. In line with the 17 global sustainability goals, it keeps not only the ecological, but also the economic, social and cultural dimensions in mind.”

The working group seeks to address the following questions through their activities:

  • Where can something be done for sustainability and climate protection in the everyday work at the library?
  • Which measures are low-threshold and effective?
  • Which ideas can be implemented for all, or at least most, library locations?

Readers can find an overview of activities carried out by the GreenFUBib group, including choosing more sustainable library practices, like finding plastic-free options, organising educational events, and establishing a library garden. The author also offers a look at future plans on the group, and partners within the university community with whom the working group cooperates to achieve their goals.

This article could be a helpful reference for those who might be interested in establishing similar working groups in their libraries, or in implementing more sustainable everyday library practices.

Contributed by Janet Wagner, Librarian at the Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin (Germany).

Read the full article here: Green FUBib: Sustainability at the University Library

Climate Change in the Spotlight of RECIDA, the Spanish Network of Green Libraries

This article offers a glimpse into recent actions of the Spanish Network of Green Libraries (RECIDA).

This includes participation in the 12th Seminar of Environmental Documentation Centers and Protected Natural Areas, held in October 2021. This Seminar brought together state and regional institutions, universities, researchers, representatives of natural spaces and NGOs in a multi-stakeholder forum for collaboration and exchanges through the RECIDA network.

RECIDA, the Spanish network of green libraries, has been working for sustainability for 20 years. Included in RECIDA’s Action Plan are actions to raise awareness and mitigate climate changes and work towards impacting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Some experiences highlighted by the RECIDA network during this conference which implement their Action Plan include:

  • Establishing reading clubs in environmental information centers which introduce environmental reading material to the public and raise awareness of the climate emergency
  • The initiative Literary Ecomenu, which encourages users to read, gaze, feel and marvel at nature through words and books.
  • Creation of educational materials for eco-social education aimed at addressing social, economic and ecological challenges

Readers may be interested in the approach of this network, which highlights how library and information professionals can have an impact on climate empowerment. In addition to ideas for action, this article also provides resources shared during the RECIDA network’s recent conference. Further, it provides an example of a multistakeholder approach to integrating libraries in climate action – especially through establishing relationships with academia, other NGOs, and government agencies, especially representing national parks.

Contributed by Rosario Toril Moreno, Documentalist at the National Center of Environmental Education, (Spain).

Read the full article here: Climate Change in the Spotlight of RECIDA, the Spanish Network of Green Libraries

Green Library Awards

During IFLA’s engagement in COP26 (read more on that here), we also drew inspiration from recent winners and runners-up of the IFLA Green Library Awards.

Although we only had time to share a few during COP26 events, we invited the audience to explore the many more examples of excellent library initiatives available on our website.

Have you revisited the Green Library Awards lately? Find inspiration here: IFLA Green Library Awards.

Do you have a similar example to share? Please reach out: claire.mcguire@ifla.org

Guest Article: Green FUBib: Sustainability at the University Library

In the leadup to COP26, IFLA asked the Standing Committee of the Environment Sustainability and Libraries Section (ENSULIB) to share examples of libraries educating, connecting and empowering their communities to take climate action. 

Below is an article contributed by Janet Wagner, Librarian at the Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin (Germany) to give insight into sustainability at the University Library. 

Logo Green FUBib

The GreenFUBib group is committed to sustainable action in everyday library life at Freie Universität. What have we already changed, and what do we still plan to do?

“The idea of sustainability is neither a brainchild of modern technocrats nor a brainwave of eco-freaks of the Woodstock generation. It is our most original world cultural heritage.” (Grober, Ulrich: Die Entdeckung der Nachhaltigkeit – Kulturgeschichte eines Begriffs, Kunstmann, 2010, p. 13)

Everywhere on this planet – no longer somewhere far away, but also on our own doorstep – severe changes are taking place in nature and the climate. The environmental guidelines of Freie Universität Berlin, have included responsible action and personal responsibility of all people in research, teaching, studies and at the workplace both as a commitment and an appeal for many years. The university library with its 13 locations has also specified in its strategy document that sustainability and responsibility should guide cooperation as one of seven values.

A workshop on “Sustainability in the Library System” in summer 2020 kicked off various working groups that dealt with sustainable digitisation, usage services, mobility and procurement. In the beginning of 2021, the permanent working group GreenFUBib was founded.

GreenFUBib wants to contribute to filling the strategic terms of sustainability and responsibility with life in everyday library activities. In line with the 17 global sustainability goals, it keeps not only the ecological, but also the economic, social and cultural dimensions in mind. Against the background of the climate emergency declared by Freie Universität in 2019, it is aware that only joint efforts can lead to the desired goal of climate neutrality in the university sector by 2025.

The GreenFUBib working group is concerned with the following questions: Where can something be done for sustainability and climate protection in the everyday work at the library? Which measures are low-threshold and effective? Which ideas can be implemented for all, or at least most, library locations? Among other things, the following changes have taken place in recent years:

  •  Introduction of reusable library baskets instead of plastic bags
  •  Exclusive use of 100% recycled paper
  •  No receipt slips for borrowing and returning books
  •  Book transport between library locations by e-transporter
  • Climate-neutral delivery by local bookshops by bicycle, public transport or e-car
  • Setup of an electricity-generating bicycle ergometer for more exercise in the learning environment at the Philological Library
  • Establishment and maintenance of a library garden in the Library of Social Sciences and Eastern European Studies, including a thermal composter for organic waste
  • Re-use of furniture in the Geosciences Library
  • Binding agreements on plastic-free book deliveries with a number of domestic and foreign bookshops
  • Annual participation in climate-neutral commuting as part of the city cycling campaign
  • Regular expert discussions with the trainees on the topic of “Green Library”.

 

The following projects are in preparation:

  • Sponsorship of a flower meadow in front of the University Library
  • Examination of a drinking-water dispenser concept at the individual library locations
  • Planning a campus tour around sustainability via app
  • Scanning instead of copying: Scan tents as an environmentally friendly alternative to copying and printing.

For optimal inter-department and inter-house communication and networking, the GreenFUBib working group works closely with the following partners:

The regular documentation and dissemination of sustainability activities and topic-related training via newsletters, wikis, biblioblogs, websites as well as events for library staff are important to us. Starting this year, a library colleague has been working partially in the field of sustainability and its communication.

Text by Janet Wagner

https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/sites/ub/ueber-uns/team/wagner/index.html

 

Guest Article: Climate Change in the Spotlight of RECIDA, the Spanish Network of Green Libraries

In the leadup to COP26, IFLA asked the Standing Committee of the Environment Sustainability and Libraries Section (ENSULIB) to share examples of libraries educating, connecting and empowering their communities to take climate action. 

Below is an article contributed by Rosario Toril Moreno, Documentalist at the National Center of Environmental Education, to give insight into some actions of the Spanish Network of Green Libraries (RECIDA). 

Logo RECIDAFrom 20 to 22 October 2021, the twentieth Seminar of Environmental Documentation Centers and Protected Natural Areas was held. This year it has been coordinated by the National Center for Environmental Education (CENEAM) of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and the Center for Documentation and Resources for Environmental Education of Cantabria (CIMA).

After the COVID-19 pandemic, we resumed our in-person annual meeting in Valsaín, Segovia (Spain).This year, it has also been possible to attend the meeting online, since, for the first time, it has been held in a hybrid way. Ninety participants were registered, among whom were heads of centers, experts and professors from universities in the seventeen regions of Spain and thirteen national parks, in addition to other natural areas.

Attendees at Seminar

On the days when the Seminar was held, the heads of the institutions represented (state, regional, universities, research, natural spaces and NGOs), told us their news and experiences in the different cases and settings, as well as their collaboration and exchanges through the RECIDA network.

We began the meeting with Petra Hauke, Secretary of IFLA’s Environment, Sustainability and Libraries Section (ENSULIB), who informed us of its organization and activities, as well as of the German Green Library Network, of which she is a co-founder.

RECIDA, the network of green libraries, which has been working for sustainability for 20 years,  was present at COP25 in Madrid with a stand in the green area. In the RECIDA’s Action Plan is to keep carrying out actions to raise awareness and mitigate climate changes and reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In this area, we can highlight experiences such as:

  • Reading Clubs in environmental information centers that allow citizens to bring environmental readings closer to the public and raise awareness of the climate emergency
  • Parks and libraries, which raises the need of awareness and education for the better preservation of surrounding natural and cultural heritage within the framework of the public library and natural parks
  • Literary Ecomenu, which encourages users to read, gaze, feel and marvel at nature through words and books. Reading and nature linked in a restaurant menu card.
  • Resources for a sustainable diet
  • Educational materials for eco-social education aimed at solving social, economic and ecological problems
  • Application of nature-based solutions for local adaptation of educational and social buildings to climate change
  • Environmental education in waste management
  • Interviews on YouTube for the dissemination of books and environmental projects that sensitize all citizens
  • The creation of a Climate Library
  • Natural Areas Conservation Experiences
  • The 2030 School Agenda based on the SDGs, the purpose of which is to develop skills, knowledge, attitudes, motivation and commitments to take part in the eco-social transformation.

We also got to know the magazine “Salvaje” thanks of its director. This publication focuses on the natural and rural values, giving voice to the new initiatives that are revitalizing the rural environment. And we participated in the live broadcast of the videoblog on Twitch “En plan Planeta: Educación Ambiental en la trinchera”.

Representatives of some of our strategic alliances were also present, such as the Association of Environmental Journalists (APIA), which deals with accurate reporting, IAIA with its SDGs wool books. These books are made by elderly, people with mental illness, intellectual disabilities or women in prison. These stories are used in educational centers and libraries in environmental awareness workshops (Bees, Climate change, Wool), so that children learn through experiences with wool; Teachers for Future Spain with its Plan 28,000 for the climate, or The International Network of SDGs Promoters with its awareness, dissemination, communication and promotion actions of the SDGs aiming at social transformation and citizen participation.

We learned free access information sources to use on social networks, as well as how the digital magazine “Actualidad Jurídico Ambiental” is managed; the news of the updating of the ISBD standard for the bibliographic description; and about the environmental bibliographic resources of the Ministry of Defense.

Workshops on content creation with light metadata, a first contact with Scimago Graphica and how to make tables that represent communicative efficiency in the visualization of data. The exchange of ideas in the working groups and the new commitments for the next Action Plan closed this meeting.

It should be noted that the presentations made have shown the optimal use of RECIDA resources on the Internet and the ability of managers to innovate in difficult situations either because of the pandemic or because of the limited resources, developing methodologies and using technology in the most efficient way possible, always with the aim of giving the best support to environmental education and promoting the best use of the natural resources of our environment and the planet.

 

Not Victims but Vectors of Change: Libraries, Climate Action and Peace

Climate change, if left untackled, risks not only being felt in an an ever-more-frequent series of extreme weather events, but also in a growing pressure on our socieites.

These pressures – less land, fewer resources, higher migration – have in the past been the cause of conflict. Without action, there is a justifiable fear that this could happen again.

As the United Nations Secretary-General sets out in his introduction to this year’s International Day of Peace, this is why it is important to address climate change in order to increase the chances of peace.

For libraries, both conflict and climate change can all too easily be seen as externalities – things that happen to our institutions without any possibility to respond. It is certainly true that it is hard to forget images of roofs blown off – by winds or bombs – and collections waterlogged or burnt.

However, libraries are far from powerless. For the reasons set out in this blog, they are not victims, but rather vectors of progress, helping to tackle climate change, and so preserve peace.

 

Better Prepared: Supporting the Reseach that Saves Lives

Clearly a core role of libraries is to support the production of, and access to, research. It is only thanks to the possibilty for experts to draw on evidence from the past, and to work together, that we have the understanding we have today of climate change and its impacts.

Libraries have of course done this for centuries, making it possible for scientists to take the work of those who have gone before, and go further. This has happened at a giant scale in climate science.

There is also a realisation that a complete understanding of climate change will also rely on bringing research in different disciplines together. Knowing what is going on is not just a question of meteorology, environmental science or any other single field, but will require insights from many different areas.

Libraries are already looking to do this, for example through their support to public health, or in realising the potential of old travel reports and maps in showing how our world is being altered over time. Open access will facilitate this significantly, as highlighted in the UN Global Sustainable Development Report.

Through this work, governments are better able to see what action is needed in order to relieve or reduce the pressures that can lead to conflict.

 

Behaviour Change, not Climate Change

Of course the fact that governments know they should be doing something does not mean that they will do it. A key means of ensuring that they do – as well as of reducing the factors that can drive unrest within communities – is by acting at the local level also.

Libraries have a key role to play here also. As set out in IFLA’s paper on libraries and sustainability, two key roles of libraries are as examples and educators, building understanding of the issues among citizens, and helping them to learn how to change their own behaviour.

This can be a key trigger, and support, for government action. Meanwhile, the support the libraries provide for the development of new technologies and new ideas will feed into the creation of new businesses and new jobs in future, as well as offering new ways of carrying out more traditional professions – such as farming – in a changed world.

This complements other work that libraries carry out to create a culture of peace, as highlighted in our previous work in this area in 2017 and 2018.

 

Libraries, therefore, are far from powerless faced with climate change and conflict. Instead, through acting on the one, they have a real contribution to make to efforts to reduce both, and in doing so, to build a more peaceful, more sustainable world.

What Makes Libraries Unique in Achieving… SDG13

DA2I means understanding how to address climate change, from the individual to the global levelsThe fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) up for review at the 2019 High Level Political Forum is SDG13 – Climate Action.

It underlines the need to take urgent action to tackle climate change and its impacts, with progress needed from the planetary to the individual levels. This is perhaps the clearest example of an issue that requires a truly global approach, as well as the one that poses the most obvious threat to the future of humanity.

Within the library field, the green library movement has for years promoted the contribution that our institutions can make to reducing their own impact on the environment, as well as promoting more sustainable behaviour elsewhere – see our article “Sustainability is Libraries’ Business” on this topic, already translated into seven languages.

But how to explain this role effectively to politicians? Here are three arguments why libraries are unique in achieving SDG13:

  • Because we need research at the global level: the first step in tackling the climate crisis is to understand it. Research collaboration between experts around the world has helped show what is happening, and how this is already impacting lives in different parts of the world. This effort needs to continue, as does sharing of practices on how to mitigate this. Libraries are essential to support this research, including by facilitating sharing across borders, and promoting open access.
  • Because everyone has a role to play: SDG13 underlines the role that individual behaviour change will play. In all countries, there will be need to be more efficient and less wasteful in the way we live our lives. Libraries have a unique reach into their communities, and can act not only as examples to their users by adopting sustainable practices, but can also be an access point for wider information about how to live more greenly.
  • Because the sharing economy helps reduce consumption: a key driver of climate change is over-consumption of manufactured goods. Yet it is not efficient for everyone to have one of everything, for example tools or even household appliances. Libraries are an early example of the sharing economy, with a focus on books, but are not lending out other items which people would otherwise need to buy. In this way, they limit the need to produce new goods, and so create further emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.

For more, see the chapter on SDG13 in the 2019 Development and Access to Information (DA2I) Report by Karl Falkenberg.