Green Libraries Conference 2025: Programme

Keynote 1 | National Librarian and Chief Executive of the National Library of Scotland

Amina has nearly 30 years' experience in the cultural sector, including senior positions in public and academic libraries, third sector and the arts. She has a strong interest in diversity and inclusion and the role libraries, literature and culture play in empowering individuals and communities.

She is a Visiting Professor at Robert Gordon University, former President of CILIP, and holds advisory positions at several UK institutions, including the British Library and University of Dundee.

Keynote 2 | Scottish AI Alliance

Gordon is a communications and marketing professional currently working in AI ethics. He advocates for trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI. Outside work, he’s active in Scotland’s creative scene as a musician, event organiser and speaker.

Chair of the Green Libraries Campaign, British Library

Maja is Director of Science and Innovation at the British Library. She’s interested in digital transformation and climate change. She sits on the Board of Knowledge Quarter and the UKRI programme Building a Greener Future. She previously worked at PwC, in universities, and in government.

CEO at CILIP

Louis is responsible for championing CILIP members and the profession, and ensuring the talented CILIP team keeps performing and evolving to meet our members' needs across all sectors. He is passionate about helping members to inform decision-making at all levels and in all sectors of society, to support people to learn, and to enrich our culture.

Lead Curator in the British Library’s Printed Heritage Collections

Maddy is responsible for British material printed between 1601 and 1900. Alongside her co-curators, she was the curatorial lead for Unearthed: The Power of Gardening, an exhibition celebrating the importance of gardening that ran this spring at the British Library. The exhibition was specifically designed with sustainability in mind and we hope that it sets a blueprint for how we approach exhibition planning and design going forward.

Head of Sustainability, V & A

Melissa leads the V & A’s strategy to reach Net Zero by 2035. She has 25 years of experience across sectors in the UK and Australia. Her work spans waste, water, energy, biodiversity and travel. She’s also on the executive group of the London Climate Ready Partnership.

3D Designer, V & A

Sharon has worked on exhibitions including DIVA and Making Egypt. She has a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka, Aotearoa, and has worked in architectural design in Hong Kong and London. Her writing has appeared in places such as e-flux, Disegno, and The Architectural Review.

Climate Change and Sustainability Specialist, Julie's Bicycle

Tenaya works on projects at the intersection of arts, climate action, community resilience and justice. She is supporting the upcoming Green Library Hubs project and has worked with museums, libraries, and arts organisations worldwide to transform their approach to sustainability.

Senior Lecturer in English Literature, UWE

Ann specialises in children’s and YA literature. Her research now focuses on climate fiction. She recently led a project on microplastics, literature and science with Bristol schools and UWE.

Associate Professor, English Literature, UWE

Sarah’s research focuses on the US South, especially Appalachia. She’s worked on fossil fuel extraction and climate fiction. Since 2022 she has run a climate lit book club and is writing about its impact.

Chief Executive, ASCEL

Tabitha leads ASCEL, a charity supporting library leaders in children’s and schools services. She has over 20 years’ experience in public libraries. Tabitha is on the Board for the Green Libraries Campaign.

Environmental Sustainability Manager, GLAM, University of Oxford

Jon leads carbon reduction and biodiversity initiatives across the University of Oxford’s gardens, libraries and museums. Previously, he developed Wiley’s Net Zero strategy and sustainability plans.

Knowledge Specialist, Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Lucy has over 25 years’ experience working in NHS and academic healthcare libraries and has been a Knowledge Specialist at Hampshire Hospitals Library Service since 2019. A dedicated recycler at home, Lucy’s passion for sustainability naturally extended into her professional life. In 2021, she launched a monthly current awareness bulletin titled Sustainability in Healthcare, in response to a need for collating research in that area. This initiative supports NHS Trusts in their collective efforts to achieve the goal of becoming the world’s first net zero national health service. Lucy is Co-Chair of the Community of Practice for Sustainability in NHS Knowledge & Library Services. Her involvement has since led to a project backed by NHS England to develop a Toolkit for Sustainable Procurement in NHS Libraries, further cementing her role in driving eco-conscious change within the NHS knowledge and library sector.

VP, Sustainability and Climate Action Officer, Springer Nature Group

Since 2017, Thea has led sustainability strategy and reporting for Springer Nature. She’s focused on tracking, improving and communicating the publisher’s environmental and social impact.

Library Services Manager, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Adam is Library Services Manager at The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, co-chair of the Sustainability in NHS Knowledge and Library Services Community of Practice and co-lead on sustainability for CILIP's Health Libraries Group. Adam is on the Board for the Green Libraries Campaign.

Projects and Programmes Manager, CILIP

Yvonne leads the Green Libraries Campaign and will present the Self-Assessement Tool, which is incremental with four levels and is mapped to the Green Libraries Manifesto. The tool is being developed to enable libraries to conduct a light touch self-audit of their green progress, and to allow the Green Libraries Campaign to garner a more accurate picture of the changes taking place across the sector, and successes and challenges encountered along the way. The Green Libraries Campaign brings together all types of libraries - public, academic and research-focused, health, school, and any other specialism. They will all be green in their own way - building on their unique strengths and the communities they serve. We hope that together we can embed environmental responsibility into all libraries in future - and that one of their core values and strand activities will be to support positive climate action.

Head of Libraries at Blackpool Council

Vicky is Head of Libraries at Blackpool Council. She works closely with the Council’s Climate Action and Policy team, a national green charity, Natural England and a Lancashire energy saving hub to ensure Blackpool’s libraries play a key role in delivering on the town’s net zero promise. As a partnership they have opened the country’s first Library Eco Hub. Vicky is on the Board of the Green Libraries Campaign.

Head of Preservation and Conservation at the Library of Trinity College Dublin

Sarah chair’s the Library’s Sustainability Committee. She’s worked as part of sustainability initiatives and collection storage/display building retrofit in the museums and archive sector over the last 15 years.

Sustainability Officer, Whipps Cross and Mile End Hospitals

George joined Barts Health NHS Trust in July 2025 as a Sustainability Officer, working across Whipps Cross and Mile End Hospitals. Most of his time is focussed on improving waste segregation and rolling out dry-mixed recycling across the hospital estates, recently rolling out reusable sharp containers in their clinical waste disposal streams. This year, George has worked closely with the Trust's Sustainability Programme Manager to gather and collate data from their green clinicians to inform their Green Plan refresh.

School Librarian at Abbeyfield School, Chippenham

Gareth has built a vibrant, inclusive Learning Resource Centre over the past eight years. Passionate about reading, digital access and sustainability, he leads the school’s Green Libraries initiative, developing an e-library, running environmental events and creating a sustainable model through partnership with the local community bookshop project called: Swindon Storyshed. His work has been nationally recognised, and he is shortlisted for the School Library Association’s Secondary School Librarian of the Year Award for 2025.

Founder and Editor, Pebble Magazine

Georgina is a seasoned editorial and comms strategist. She uses storytelling to spark climate action. Over the past 7 years, she’s focused on purpose-led content and community building for sustainability.

Society of Authors

Piers Torday’s award-winning, best-selling Last Wild series examines themes of biodiversity loss for young readers, and his latest, The Wild Before, was a showcase attempt at publishing a sustainable book commercially. Other books include There May Be A Castle, The Lost Magician and Midnight Treasure. His latest book is Wolf Crown. His plays The Box of Delights (RSC), The Child in the Snow, and The Wind in the Wilton’s (Wilton’s Music Hall) were produced to the sustainable standards in the Theatre Green Book. He has been a judge for the British Book Awards, the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award and the Sustainable Story Award. Piers is also the first Chair of the UK Society of Authors Sustainability Network Steering Committee and was involved in launching the Society’s Tree to Me campaign on sustainability in publishing, a subject on which he writes, broadcasts and campaigns regularly.

Programme Director, Libraries Connected

Sarah is Programmes Director at Libraries Connected, an independent charity that supports, promotes and represents the public library sector and works with partners to develop projects, such as the current Culture Nature programme working in partnership with Natural England. Sarah is on the Board for the Green Libraries Campaign.

Projects & Finance Administrator, Libraries Connected

Emma supports on a range of exciting projects across the sector. Emma was recently seconded to a Project Manager role as part of the Culture Nature England project which was delivered in partnership with Natural England. She has a passion for sustainability and awareness around the environmental impacts of the incredible work that public libraries do.

Senior Specialist for Public Engagement, Culture Nature England

Cordelia is Natural England's Senior Specialist for Public Engagement. She works on a wide number of projects nationally to find novel and creative ways to connect diverse audiences to Nature and empower often underheard voices in environmental issues, and is currently working with Policy Lab, the Environment Agency and Libraries Connected on national partnership projects. Before joining Natural England Cordelia worked full time as a professional Artist and has worked with many community, science, communication and Arts based organisations. She is an avid reader and for her MA wrote her first novel.

Stock and Reader Development Manager, Brent Libraries

Sarah’s work championing diversity in children’s literature is recognised in the production of Diverse Voices in 2014. She is a book review judge for Read for Empathy Collections Empathy Lab and a reviewer for the best inclusive children’s books, all in one place. Sarah was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to public libraries 2020 and in 2023 she was named one of CILIP 125: The next generation of leaders - CILIP: the library and information association. She is Chair of London branch of the Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians.

Development manager, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust

Sue Antrobus is an ecologist, working across Teesside with the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. Her work specialises in connecting people with nature, empowering communities in urban areas to take action on environmental issues that are important to them. She is the author of the Wilder Community Green Spaces – a practical toolbox for communities improving their green spaces. She is a coach and trainer in creative ways in engaging diverse audiences. Sue is currently managing Naturally Active Libraries, an initiative to embed active lives through nature in library services in South Tees.

Community Hubs Manager, Hartlepool Borough Council

Jamie is responsible for the library service in Hartlepool. His team were recently part of the Culture Nature England project, delivered by Natural England and Libraries Connected. Within his service area is an outdoor community allotment, an urban growing garden and a number of seed libraries across their venues. His team also works closely with Hartlepool Food Partnership to explore sustainable food offers which promote growing, cookery skills and reducing food waste.

Machine Learning Operations Engineer at the Met Office

Shohail's work focuses on equitable technology and addressing climate change. He was named an ‘Engineering Leaders Scholar’ at the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2024 for his work on cross-regional energy market interoperability and has contributed to White Papers on AI ethics at the Council of Europe & League of Arab States. Outside work, Shohail leads community initiatives to curb digital exclusion, counter misinformation, and support youth engagement in sustainability

Maps Reading Room Manager, National Library of Scotland

Laragh is Maps Reading Room Manager for the National Library of Scotland and Programme Lead for the Library's Climate Action Plan. She has led a project team to develop a Carbon Literacy for Libraries Shareable Course. Laragh is on the Board for the Green Libraries Campaign.

Sustainability Engagement Officer at UCL

Dan is leading on engagement programmes for the university’s community of more than 65,000 students and staff. He coordinates a network of more than 500 staff ‘Green Champions’ in completing the Green Impact programme, leads on campaigns such as the ‘Switch Offs’, and delivers events such as Student Sustainability Forums, the UCL Sustainability Leadership Conference, and the UCL Sustainability Awards Ceremony. Previously, he was Outreach Officer for the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He also has positions with various climate-related organisations such as Football For Future, Our Youth For the Climate (OY4C), and Net Zero Tracker.

Site Libraries Manager and Senior Librarian at the UCL School of Pharmacy

Michelle oversees the library site services across six libraries: the Institute of Archaeology, the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, the Institute of Education, Language and Speech Science, the School of Pharmacy, and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. A member of the UCL ‘Library, Culture, Collections & Open Science’ (LCCOS) Leadership Team, she also chairs the LCCOS Sustainability Committee. Michelle is a member of the M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries Steering Group, sponsoring the recently established M25 Sustainability Working Group, and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the European Association for Health Information and Libraries.

Globally recognised expert in Digital Decarbonisation and Information and Knowledge Management

Professor Jackson is a globally recognised expert in Digital Decarbonisation and Information and Knowledge Management, based at Loughborough Business School. He co-leads the Digital Decarb Design Group and is widely acknowledged as the co-founder of the Digital Decarbonisation movement, pioneering research into the hidden environmental costs of data, algorithms, and digital infrastructure. Tom previously served for 7 years as Editor-in-Chief of Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) and has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers. His earlier research includes the development of EMOTIVE, the world’s best-performing system for fine-grained emotion detection, as well as seminal work on information overload and the impact of email and workplace interruptions, earning him the nickname ‘Dr Email’ by the BBC.

Executive Director, Research Libraries UK

Since March 2010 David Prosser has been the Executive Director of RLUK, the representative body for the UK's leading research libraries. Before moving to RLUK, he was, from 2002, the founding Director of SPARC Europe, an alliance of over 110 research-led university libraries from 14 European countries advocating new models of scholarly communication. David is on the Board for the Green Libraries Campaign.

Sector Development Manager, CILIP Scotland

Kirsten MacQuarrie MCLIP is Sector Development Manager at CILIP Scotland and Moderator of the Green Libraries Network. She is also editor of an upcoming book about Feminist Librarianship (Facet, 2026), which includes her chapter on 'World-Changing Work: Planting the seeds eco-feminism needs to flourish in libraries'

Professional Registration Assessor

Elizabeth (Libby) Tilley (MA Cantab, FCLIP) spent the majority of her library career at the University of Cambridge, initially in subject libraries and latterly at the University Library in a management role. Libby’s focus with libraries has always been broadly based on user services, but also supporting staff professional development. Initially having trained and worked as a teacher, these skills also proved useful in the context of academic libraries. Now, retired and based in Sheffield, Libby is supporting assessment as a member of CILIP’s Professional Qualifications Assessment Panel and as external examiner for modules on the UCL Librarianship MA.

Interim Director Library and Student Services and Head of Archives and Resource Management, De Montfort University (BA, MSc, PhD, FCLIP, FHEA)

Alan Brine is responsible for library services, teaching and learning support, student welfare and careers at De Montfort University and manages the team delivering content, planning, archives and library systems at De Montfort University Library and Learning Services. He was Manager for Information Science at the Learning and Teaching Support Network Centre for Information and Computer Sciences at Loughborough University, supporting departments across the UK delivering teaching and research in library and information science the UK. He is a Fellow of CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals) and the Higher Education Academy and serves on the Cilip Professional Registration and Accreditation Board.

Professional Services Officer, CILIP

Emily Cross BA (Hons) MA is a qualified librarian and English graduate currently working at CILIP. In her role as Professional Services Officer, Emily is passionate about supporting professional registration candidates to compile their submissions with confidence. Emily works closely with both the panel of assessors and the professional registration support officers.

Associate Project Manager, CILIP

My role as the Associate Project Manager is to support the Research and Development Team in organising all activities necessary to drive forward a variety of projects for CILIP and the library sector. Hinna leads the campaign work on Green Libraries Week and the supports the planning for the Green Libraries Conferences.

Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, The Reading Agency

Sue worked in public libraries in a variety of roles for 25 years., finishing her operational career as Head of Library Services for St Helens Borough Council. She then took on the strategic role of Director, Libraries for Arts Council England. In that role, she initiated and chaired the English Public Libraries Strategic Working Group, supporting the growth of strategic sectoral partnership and work on major projects such as Accreditation, the Single Digital Presence(LibraryOn) and the CILIP led projects on Working Internationally and Green Libraries. For her services to Public Libraries, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours.

Following retirement, Sue has continued to serve libraries as VP and then President of CILIP from 2023-4 and is currently a CILIP Trustee. She is also Vice Chair of the Board of The Reading Agency. Sue believes passionately in the role that public libraries can play in supporting key agendas, particularly around reading, health, intellectual freedom and information provision which develops critical thinking in areas such as climate change, fake news and data analysis.