Knowledge Matters blog

Behind the scenes at the British Library

08 October 2024

Our new Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy

A view of the solar thermal tubes installed on the roof of St Pancras which harness sunshine to create hot water.

Today marks the formal launch of our new Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. You can read the summary (PDF 5mb), or for all the details view our full strategy (PDF, 4mb).

We hear from our Sustainability Manager, Catherine Ross, about the Library's journey to this point.

Why is sustainability important to the Library?

Climate change is real, urgent and serious. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. It’s easy to think it’s still a problem of the future, but we know from our international partners that they already experiencing the impacts of climate change. We’ve seen 40°C days in London. We know the Library needs to build our own resilience, and that we have a role to support society’s efforts to adapt to and address this crisis.

At the start of the new strategy, our Chief Executive, Sir Roly Keating, puts it very powerfully,

At the British Library, we are charged with safeguarding the national collection for generations to come. This naturally leads to long-term thinking about climate change. It is widely recognised that the scale of change ahead amounts to a planet-wide emergency, with devastating impacts. Our strategy reflects a sense of determination about our role; these are global challenges and, as one of the world’s great libraries, and proud signatories to the Green Libraries Manifesto, we are determined to play our part.

Is the Library starting from scratch?

Far from it. Here are just a few examples of things we have already done:

  • Using heat pumps to get heat from the ground and air, reducing our use of gas
  • Using sunshine to warm the water you wash your hands with in St Pancras
  • Using less new materials to build our exhibitions
  • Boosting re-use and recycling, sending nothing to landfill
  • Working with suppliers to become more sustainable
  • Offering greener choices in our cafés and shops
  • Supporting new sustainable businesses
  • Telling climate stories through our exhibitions, events, learning programmes and collections.

What is the sustainability strategy for?

This is our first sustainability strategy, and it is all about coordinating our efforts and aiming even higher. We were already doing a lot, but the new strategy pulls it together in one place.

When you read it, you’ll see the practical things we can do as the national library. It covers how we will get our own house in order, by reducing the environmental impact of our buildings and operations, while also showing how we will inform and inspire others, through our wider purposes.

What aims has the Library set?

In the strategy there are detailed aims under four broad headings:

Sustainable places

We aim to continue decarbonising our buildings and embedding best practice in environmental performance in our new spaces

Sustainable purposes

We aim to collaborate with people to open up the collection in new and interesting ways, to support work on solutions to the environmental challenges we face – from climate research and enabling sustainable business and enterprise, to engaging people through events, exhibitions and learning, and increasing climate literacy and visibility of climate science

Sustainable partnerships

We aim to embed partnerships across the sectors we work in to support wider change, share and encourage climate action, best practice and learning

Embedding sustainability

We aim to embed sustainability in how we work; our culture, policy, processes, governance, planning, collections and communications, ensuring it is seen not as an add-on, but as how we do everything we already do. This includes incorporating climate-related risks into our risk management, governance and conservation policies.

Who wrote it?

The strategy has been written by staff from across the Library. It’s been a real team effort, over the course of nearly a year.

We formed two working groups; one on our places and one on our purposes. There were members from Estates, our People team, Public Engagement, Collections Management, Supply Chain Management, Finance, Communications and Marketing, Technology and more. It was my role to coordinate this process. Both working groups reported in to the Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group, chaired by our Chief Librarian.

How will the Library make sure it is actually implemented?

We are determined this new strategy leads to action, not just words. We have also created an action plan which will be monitored by the steering group twice a year, with annual reports to Direction Group and Board.

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