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Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy 2024–2030 Reducing our carbon impact and collaborating with partners to create a more sustainable future. “The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived… Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. It is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C [above pre-industrial levels], and avoid the very worst of climate change. But only with dramatic, immediate climate action.” António Guterres, UN Secretary General “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.” Sir Roly Keating, Chief Executive, the British Library Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 2
Contents Introduction from the Chief Librarian....................................................................................... 7 Defining terms......................................................................................................................... 8 A planet-wide emergency in need of a vital response ............................................................ 9 Our starting point .................................................................................................................. 10 Our strategic drivers and priorities ........................................................................................ 11 Focusing our efforts .............................................................................................................. 12 Priority 1. Our places........................................................................................................... 15 1.1. Measuring our progress towards net zero carbon .................................................. 15 1.1.1 Measuring our core emissions – as reported now (scopes 1, 2 and specific parts of 3) ....................................................................................................................................... 15 1.1.2 Measuring our wider scope 3 emissions............................................................... 17 1.1.3 Setting carbon emission targets ........................................................................... 18 1.1.4 The role of offsetting............................................................................................. 18 1.2. Energy use of existing buildings ............................................................................. 19 1.3. Our new spaces ...................................................................................................... 21 1.4. Collection management .......................................................................................... 23 1.5. Technology infrastructure ....................................................................................... 24 1.6. Transport and travel................................................................................................ 25 1.7. Waste, materials and water .................................................................................... 27 1.8. Commercial (catering, retail and events) ................................................................ 30 1.9. Green spaces and biodiversity................................................................................ 31 1.10. Risk, adaptation and resilience ............................................................................... 33 Priority 2. Our purposes ...................................................................................................... 35 2.1. Custodianship and research: Opening up the collection in new and interesting ways, including supporting climate research............................................................................... 36 2.2. Public engagement: Engaging people through culture and learning, including increasing climate literacy and the visibility of climate science........................................................... 38 2.3. Enabling sustainable business and enterprise..................................................... 40 2.4. International collaboration ..................................................................................... 41 Priority 3. Our partnerships ................................................................................................. 43 Priority 4. Embedded in our work........................................................................................ 46 4.1. Leadership, governance and reporting ................................................................... 46 4.2. People..................................................................................................................... 47 4.3. Communications and marketing ............................................................................. 48 4.4. Procurement ........................................................................................................... 49 Funding the strategy ............................................................................................................. 51 Tracking progress and future review..................................................................................... 52 Appendix 1: UN Sustainable Development Goals ................................................................ 53 Appendix 2: Green Libraries Manifesto................................................................................. 54 Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 3
Executive summary The British Library is committed to reducing our carbon impact and collaborating with partners to create a more sustainable future. This will see us take action across four broad areas. 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 to enabling sustainable business and enterprise, and engaging people through events, exhibitions and learning, to 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. Key aims in 2024–2030 for reducing the environmental impacts of our places Energy and carbon emissions • Carbon: Meet or exceed the Greening Government Commitments and UK carbon reduction targets (a 78% reduction by 2035 against 1990 levels for our currently reported greenhouse gas emissions and net zero carbon by 2050 for all emissions, scopes 1, 2, and 3). Fully realise the benefits of the major Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme- funded projects at St Pancras and Boston Spa. Offsetting to be used for no more than 10% of the Library ultimately achieving net zero • Energy: Take a more zero, less net approach, targeting an average real reduction in energy use of 4% each year, despite the annual growth in our collection, through applying the energy hierarchy and seeking opportunities for solar generation and other renewables • Scope 3: Begin to measure and report the emissions generated by our wider supply chain • Collection management: Continue to review environmental parameters, seeking solutions better for our collection and saving energy. Research sustainable collection management including more passive techniques, and the complex trade-offs between digital and physical. Our new spaces • Embed best practice in environmental performance in our three new capital projects, including reducing their whole-life carbon, being nature-positive and climate resilient. Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 4
Waste, materials and water • Continually seek out sustainable suppliers and partners for our retail outlets and work with catering, events and retail partners to continually improve our operations • Reduce our use of non-renewable resources, minimise waste and increase the use of re used, recycled and environmentally responsible materials across all our operations • Embed sustainable working in our exhibitions programme, starting with our gardening exhibition in 2025. Risk, adaptation and resilience • Review climate risks to operations and collections. Create a climate change adaptation plan, and review business continuity, maintenance and conservation plans. Key aims in 2024–2030 for enabling others to act through our purposes • Create a content development plan for climate change and sustainability and create new collection resources for our users, raising awareness of what we hold in this area • Embed the theme of sustainability within public engagement, exhibitions, and events, including a new strand of programming on climate literacy for adults and young people • Ensure awareness and action on sustainability is a core part of our business offering • Continue to support and amplify the voices of international libraries and their communities already at risk of climate change. Key aims in 2024–2030 for supporting sustainability through our partnerships • Support the work of the Green Libraries Campaign with the aim that every library in the UK becomes a green library. As part of this, amplify and engage with Green Libraries Week • Embed sustainably in the work of the Living Knowledge Network and contribute to local neighbourhood partnerships in Camden and the wider West Yorkshire region. Key aims in 2024–2030 for embedding sustainability at the Library • Bring environmental sustainability to the heart of decision-making, through embedding it in our other strategies, policies and processes, as they come up for review • Ensure that all Directors have at least one relevant performance objective against which they report and that sustainability KPIs are strengthened • Understand learning needs, develop and deliver customised learning, including Carbon Literacy training, and becoming a Carbon Literate organisation • Formulate and implement an external and internal communications plan • Ensure a sustainable recovery from the October 2023 cyber-attack, embedding sustainability into the Rebuild and Renew change programme and into our new digital strategy • Embed sustainability in Supply Chain Management policy and guidance. This includes a minimum sustainability criterion of at least 5% for larger contracts, with these suppliers asked to commit to carbon reporting and providing a carbon reduction plan. Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 5
Reporting progress Progress against this strategy will be tracked through the actions in the associated action plan. The Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group will review progress every six months, with an annual report to Direction Group and Board. The strategy itself will next be updated in 2027. We will have learned much by then, both from our successes and our failures in implementing this, our first Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy. A note of thanks to the many people from across the Library who have contributed to this strategy, from their own specialist areas. It is truly a co-created document, with ownership across multiple teams, coordinated by the Places and Purposes working groups, and overseen by the Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group. Thanks also to 3Adapt and to our external peers and partners; your valuable feedback has strengthened our approach in many ways. Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 6
Introduction from the Chief Librarian Who we are We are the UK’s national library. We hold one of the largest collections of printed material in the world featuring almost every known language, and we care for over 170 million items from books, maps and stamps to sound recordings and even a copy of every UK domain website. At the time of writing, we’re accelerating the renewal of our systems and ways of working after 2023’s unprecedented cyber-attack, with its many consequences. We are committed to doing so in as sustainable a way as possible, but conscious of the complex trade-offs due to the need to move at great pace, within budgetary constraints, and ensure future resilience. Our priorities for sustainability and climate change We recognise the urgency of the climate crisis and the impact it will have on our operations and collection, and we want to support the library sector to lead the way on sustainability. In our recent strategy, Knowledge Matters, we have set out our commitment to sustainability, covering both our own estates (“our places”) and our wider role in informing and inspiring positive climate impact through the Library’s many communities and partnerships (“our purposes”). In terms of our own operations, we are best known for our landmark, purpose-built, Grade I listed site at St Pancras, but we also have our 42-acre facility at Boston Spa, one of the great library infrastructure centres of the world. In addition we have a growing our presence in Leeds, and we act as the hub for two national networks; one of Business & IP Centres and one of major public libraries and library authorities. Around 70% of our print collection is at Boston Spa, in a variety of buildings including bespoke high-density storage archives – the next of which will be fully passive (not actively heated or humidified). Through our research, business support, cultural and learning programmes and international work we reach a wide and varied audience. We will put our user communities at the heart of our sustainability work, inspiring them and supporting choices to take positive climate action. Often this will be through collaborating with other organisations (“our partnerships”) and through making sustainability an intrinsic part of how we work (“embedded in our work”). Crucially, our staff are at the centre of this transformative journey. We understand that meaningful change requires the collective efforts of every individual within the British Library community. As we embark on our sustainability endeavours, we will not only reduce our carbon impact but also empower and engage our staff in this vital work. Our challenges This is our very first Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy and we have much to learn. We have unique challenges and it will take us time to develop the right solutions. For example: • finding technical solutions for heating and humidity that safeguard the national collection through low-carbon options • balancing the ongoing growth of our collection, as required through statute, with year-on year reductions in our energy use and ultimately net zero carbon • developing our unique role in using the national collection to inform climate action for our varied audiences (including the complex interplay of climate impacts and social inequality). Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 7
The other clear challenge, common to all in our sector, is funding. Our strategy reflects ambitious aims on many fronts. While much can be achieved through existing budgets, low-cost quick wins, and invest-to-save business cases, we know that some of our aims require us to raise funds, in a very competitive marketplace. This is especially true of the capital works needed to make further energy savings. We will prepare plans to enable us to make strong applications, but the practical reality is that the pace of change will be determined by whether we are successful. Implementing this strategy: This strategy document sits alongside the Sustainability and Climate Change Action Plan. The action plan contains specific actions for 2024–27, against each for the four themes in bold above. While we don’t expect to update this strategy until 2027, the action plan will be a living document. Performance against it will be reported every six months to the Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group, which I chair and is made up of senior managers from across the Library. Overall we are committed to reducing our carbon impact and collaborating with partners to create a more sustainable future. Liz Jolly Chief Librarian and Chair of Sustainability and Climate Change Steering Group Defining terms Throughout this strategy we use the terms sustainability and climate change. By this we mean: • Sustainability – A broad view of all of our environmental impacts, based on the need for the current generation to use the world’s resources at a sustainable rate, not at the expense of future generations. This covers fossil fuels (used for energy and transport), water use, building materials, exhibition materials and waste. Sustainable procurement is critical here. Sustainability also covers our impact on nature, through the actions we can take to reverse the decline of nature and boost biodiversity and abundance. Note: We are not directly addressing in this strategy social or economic sustainability, although there are co-benefits. • Climate change – Here we refer to the impact of humanity’s use of fossil fuels and other sources of greenhouse gasses on the Earth’s climate, in terms of the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, rising average temperatures, and the impacts this has on food and water, infrastructure, migration, poverty and health. Our focus here is on: o Climate mitigation – taking action to reduce climate change, through reducing our use of fossil fuels and, over time, achieving net zero carbon o Climate adaptation and resilience – preparing for a changing climate, and the impact it will have on our operations and collection o Climate action – informing and inspiring others to act, in an inclusive way which supports a fair transition to a lower carbon world. Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy_2024_Final Issued.docx 8