Adam Tocock, Librarian, Whittington Health NHS Trust
Climate change continues to be one of the defining issues of our age, exacerbating all the many crises facing the world right now. It is causing worsening meteorological events, with India, Nepal and Bangladesh experiencing massive flooding; Storm Beryl having just wrought havoc in the Caribbean and America; and closer to home, extreme weather interrupting training camps, fans’ travel, and Germany’s last-16 game in the Euros.
It’s hurting the patients that our parent organisations care for, it’s negatively impacting on the operationality of our organisations and it’s going to get considerably more impactful.
In response, all kinds of organisations, including local authorities and higher education institutions have declared climate emergencies.
The NHS is now required by legislation to reduce its emissions, and all Trusts now need a green plan in place to state how they’ll do this. A look at the Greener NHS website will show you every department in the NHS is making steps towards this goal, and healthcare libraries need to do the same.
To this end, NHS England established the Sustainability in NHS Knowledge and Library Services Community of Practice to help colleagues spread ideas and best practice. You can join today by heading to https://future.nhs.uk/SustainabilityinNHSKnowledge or emailing adam.tocock@nhs.net. Sustainability is also a guiding principle of Knowledge for Healthcare (see p63) the framework that is meant to underpin all the work that NHS libraries do.
Libraries’ professional associations too have realised the need to ensure libraries and the organisations and communities we serve are able to adapt to the climate crisis and mitigate any harm that we may be causing. IFLA have a Sustainable Development Goals pledge that libraries can sign to show their commitment towards meeting the UN’s former Millenium Development Goals. In the USA, the MLA’s Sustainable Libraries Initiative have embedded sustainability into their quality assurance framework, and support their membership to meet these goals via training that you can sample for free from the inspirational and informative “Sustainability 101” webinar at https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/sustainability-101.html.
Here in the UK, NHS England’s Knowledge and Library Services have just awarded NHS Green Libraries Grants to 17 projects, inspired by the work of CILIP Scotland’s Green Libraries Scotland Grant Fund, and CILIP’s Green Libraries Partnership has just announced the date and venue for their 2nd Green Libraries Conference as 25/10/24 at The British Library, right in the middle of the 2nd ever Green Libraries Week.
So the rationale for work in this area is clear, but what even is this “net zero” that we should be aiming for? How will it make any kind of dent in what’s to come? How can libraries position themselves to help the most in this area? And what on earth does this have to do with bananas?
To help answer these questions, HLG has organised online training sessions on 25/9/24 and 8/10/24 titled, “How Bad are Bananas? Carbon Literacy for Beginners!” Totally free, and exclusive for HLG members, these interactive, game-based workshops are focused on increasing your understanding in this area (your carbon literacy), and will help you to know your own carbon footprint; to recognise the environmental impact of actions, products and services; and will get you brainstorming actionable steps to reduce your impact.
The workshops are designed and delivered by Future We Want, an award-winning, female-led organisation focused on making climate learning fun, engaging and scientifically underpinned; and these sessions will see you work collaboratively with other participants in an enjoyably accessible way!
Head to the following pages to book your place now:
Health Libraries Group 