By Rob Green, Editor Information Professional

11 July 2022

At the start of the year, CILIP launched its latest five-year strategy and Action Plan – We Are CILIP. That plan looks at how the profession is likely to develop over the next five years, identifying what skills will be needed to meet challenges and make the most of opportunities. Rob Green looks at how Sustainability is shaping CILIP’s future.

WE Are CILIP focuses on four key, overarching contexts – Leadership, Digital Transformation, Social Justice and Equity, and Sustainability. These are not exclusive to the information, knowledge and library professions, and their impact will be felt across all communities.

When CILIP’s current five-year strategy has run its course, it will be 2027. That is just three years away from a key date in the journey to Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. According to the UN’s Net Zero Coalition’s calculations, the world must have reduced emissions by 45 per cent in 2030 if targets are to be met.

Those targets are ambitious and the scale of climate change crisis can seem daunting, but libraries are well placed to become part of the solution. CILIP’s action plan is one strand of that, and will help to pull together action being taken across the community.

There are number of initiatives that CILIP is collaborating on, including the recently launched Green Libraries Partnership, and the Green Libraries Manifesto, which was launched at this year’s CILIP Conference and Expo, taking place in Liverpool on 7 and 8 July.

Working together

The Green Libraries Partnership sees CILIP working with Arts Council England, the British Library, Julie’s Bicycle and Libraries Connected, The aims of the partnership are to:

• Discover and harness the existing environmental work going on in libraries;

• Build and support environmental understanding and action within libraries;

• Enable libraries to work with their communities to continue to build environmental understanding and support environmental action;

• Position libraries at the heart of local environmental programmes including those led by Local Authorities.

This pooling of knowledge and resources will allow the partnership to harness the work being done already in libraries across England and use it to develop consistent approaches.

There is also funding from ACE to enable pilot projects and evaluate outcomes, helping to create a hub of best practice that can be shared across the sector.A new online resource sets out the role and aims of the Green Library Partnership, saying: “In the next five years, we want to develop a UK-wide, cross-sector programme focused on the contribution of librarians, information and knowledge professionals to the sustainability agenda. We aim to encourage libraries to actively reduce their carbon footprint and increase awareness of environmental issues for the wider public by providing accessible resources. We have setup this programme and will be inviting individual practitioners to become part of the Green Libraries Network to share knowledge and best practice, promote active engagement, build new connections and support each other’s efforts.”

CILIP Chief Executive Nick Poole said: “I am delighted that CILIP is leading on this exciting and important initiative to support libraries achieve their environmental goals, engage the public and take a lead role in our national response to the climate crisis. Sustainability is a major theme for CILIP over the next five years, and we are pleased to be working with partners such as the Arts Council England, Libraries Connected, Julie’s Bicycle and the British Library to establish this ambitious Green Libraries programme.”

The Green Libraries Partnership is chaired by Emma Noyce, Assistant Director of Culture and Information Services in Hampshire County Council, and a Trustee of Libraries Connected (you can read an interview with Emma here). She says: “Through the Green Libraries Partnership we have a real opportunity to make a difference; to understand better the role we can each play and to translate this into meaningful action.

“Together we can do more, we can be more, so join the Green Libraries Network and help us create a better future for people and planet.”

Get involved

As part of the partnership, a Green Libraries Manifesto for the sector is being developed and will be launched at a session at this year’s CILIP Conference and Expo. Maja Maricevic, the BL’s Head of Education and Science, is drafting the manifesto and she said: “Librarians and information professionals have a central role to play in ensuring sustainable ¬environmental future of our planet, helping their users and communities to confront the realities of climate crisis and to take urgent, evidence-based action to avert it.”

The sustainability strand of CILIP’s Action plan, states: “Our members will help their users, communities and organisations create a more sustainable world by making informed decisions and being accountable for their use of resources.”

The new manifesto will help CILIP members and the wider information community to deliver meaningful change – both to their services and for their users.

As the Partnership develops, there will be plenty of opportunities to get involved – either as an individual or as an organisation.

As well as launching the Green Manifesto at CILIP Conference, there will also be a session looking at how libraries and information and knowledge services can work towards Net Zero. Emma Noyce will be joined by representatives from the corporate and the academic sector who will share their experiences before handing over to round-table discussions.

The Youth Libraries Group Virtual Conference 2022, which takes place from 12 to 14 September, has a theme of The Reading Planet: Libraries in a Changing Climate, and will feature a session from the Green Libraries Partnership with Rabeea Arif on Working together for people and planet.

Elsewhere the Green Libraries Partnership offers resources through its website, including toolkits and case studies. There is also a chance to suggest and share ways to reduce environmental impact through the CILIP Ideas Portal at https://cilipideas.org.uk.

As part of the partnership, the Green ¬Libraries Partnership has created a new Green Libraries Fund, with a starting investment of £40,000 from the Arts Council England to help library and information services deliver and evaluate sustainability projects.

Find out more about the Green Libraries Partnership and the many ways to get involved here.

CILIP Scotland

CILIPSGoGreen was launched in Scotland as part of CILIPS’ response to the Cop26 event, which took place in Glasgow in October and November last year. As world leaders gathered to discuss action plans and set targets for cutting greenhouse gases, CILIPS was busy looking at its own impact on the environment and looking at how library and information services in Scotland could deliver positive change. CILIPSGoGreen was the first step, sharing resources and identifying best practice to support information professionals. It points out that “it has never been more vital for our profession to play its part in encouraging change, combating misinformation about the stark reality of the climate crisis, and embedding sustainable practices into our ways of working.”

CILIPS has also produced a Carbon Neutrality Plan, setting out areas where it can cut its carbon footprint and reviewing progress as it goes, with particular focus on enhancing the sustainability of the CILIPS 2022 Annual Conference (www.cilips.org.uk/cilips22-green). A Carbon Neutrality Plan template for other organisations to adapt and use is also available through the CILIPSGoGreen website.

A digital choice

Information Professional has taken steps to reduce its impact on the environment. Last year it ensured that all paper is sourced from sustainable forests, managed to FSC Standards - a set of internationally recognised criteria that help protect wildlife, deliver social and economic benefits to local workers and communities, and sustainability.

At the start of this year Information Professional switched from recyclable plastic wrapper to an FSC paper wrapper, making it even easier to recycle in kerbside collections.

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