#3 Inspiring ideas to promote sustainability
Maria Zaheer, Senior Library Assistant, Bradford District Care Foundation Trust
Firstly, I would like to say thanks to NHS England and CILIP for granting me a full bursary to attend the Green Libraries Conference. I was nervous and excited when I got an email that I had been awarded with a full bursary to attend this conference as this would be my first conference in UK.
The keynote speech by Baroness Natalie Bennett was an excellent way to start the conference. Her saying that ‘ it’s not only the climate emergency or nature crisis but it is more than this’ was thought provoking for me.
In the parallel session “From the ground up: greener procurement, collection creation and care” I liked that the three presenters in this panel all presented different levels of passion to promote sustainability and how they all are working in their own way to achieve a collaborative goal in this climate of emergency. Jon Ray shared significant points to be considered when libraries are procuring resources from the publishers and how they can work together to reduce the carbon footprint. A point worth mentioning during the discussion was consideration of digital footprint as well as carbon footprint of physical resources. A speech by Nicky Philpott was amazing as working in an NHS library it gave insight into how enthusiastically NHS England is working to support environmental sustainability.
Yvonne Morris’s speech on the Green Libraries Self-Assessment Tool was informative as it would be helpful for other libraries to step up in promoting sustainable environment. Signing up for the Green Libraries Manifesto on behalf of BDCT library is on my list of discussion with my manager. The presentation by Vicky Clarke on Blackpool's very own Eco Hub Library was very inspiring. The development of a customized carbon literacy programme for libraries by National Library of Scotland is significant step to help fellow librarians to promote and raise awareness at their work setting about carbon literacy.
In the afternoon parallel session on ‘The power of public library partnerships’, Cordelia Spalding and Rachel Palfrey from Natural England shared the excellent work they are doing in Bradford and other regions. Cordelia’s idea of The ‘CNE’ Dinner Party was fascinating. The activity of sharing your sustainable projects with the person sitting next to you was a great way to know what other organisations are doing to attain a goal of going green. Presentation by Rachel Palfrey was captivating. Sue Wilkinson’s story of revamping Manningham Library into an interactive and engaging place was astonishing. It was impressive how she helped the community to connect with nature through different interactive activities. Her plans for the transformation of other public libraries would be an excellent way of engaging a wider audience from different backgrounds and age groups.
A talk by Piers Torday was an inspiration for all conveying that it’s never late to start thinking and working towards a sustainable practice no matter what profession you are in. The publication of his book using eco-friendly elements is a great achievement and inspiration for authors and publishers.
Lastly, it was great to network with fellow librarians at the event and learn about how they are working to save the planet. It was pleasant to explore the variety of exhibitors; toolkits from ‘roundview’ were very attractive and accessible way of learning and thinking about sustainability. The idea of sustainability snap was fun and interactive way to get engaged with fellow attendees.
Overall, the day was a fantastic experience, with lots to take away for me and to share it with my team.