On Oct. 30, 2025, the British Library hosted a webinar, Libraries and Positive Climate Action: Inform to Transform. Moderator Maja Maricevic, director of science and innovation at the British Library, introduced the four speakers: This webinar was designed to focus on climate literacy in honor of Green Libraries Week in the U.K., Maricevic said.
The Europe Challenge’s Green Projects
Rok’s presentation, “Libraries for Just and Green Transition,” explained the European Cultural Foundation’s partnership with libraries—its goal is empowering communities to shape a shared future, so it makes sense that working with libraries is a priority, she noted. There are 64,000 libraries across Europe that the foundation wants to develop into a dynamic network for sharing programming, including climate literacy. Rok works on The Europe Challenge, a project that has brought together 160 teams from 32 countries since 2020—37 teams have had a green focus—to attend meetings and showcase their solutions for solving Europe’s challenges.
Rok encouraged attendees to visit the challenge’s Initiatives page to learn about the projects. She discussed a few; see the screenshot below for photos of the Creating a Buzz: Bringing Bees to Libraries, Books ’n’ Bogs, Library of Things, and ZelenGrad—The City of the Future projects.
The foundation has observed the following, Rok noted:
- Start with librarians; they should be at the heart of green projects
- Connect with climate actors, including your municipality’s energy department and other relevant departments
- Let people do things; make activities communal and fun so people will want to engage with climate information
Agro Libraries Spreading Across Turkey
Yavuzdemir’s presentation, “Rural Libraries and Climate Literacy: From Local Seeds to Sustainable Futures,” emphasized Turkey’s “green transformation” in all of its sectors. The country has 1,301 public libraries, which Yavuzdemir called local sustainability hubs where people can learn about topics such as clean energy and recycling. She discussed the Agro Library model, which “integrates sustainability, rural development, and community learning,” according to her slide (see the screenshot below). “[I]t combines traditional knowledge with modern environmental practices. The library hosts a Seed Library, community workshops, and eco-friendly initiatives such as permaculture and rainwater harvesting.” Yavuzdemir noted that something like sharing seeds helps communities discover the value of cooperation and gives them a sense of shared ownership. It also ensures that libraries are part of learning moments, she said. Momentum for the Agro Library concept is building across Turkey.
Prioritizing Sustainability at the National Library of Finland
Eklund’s presentation, “Empowering Sustainability at the National Library of Finland,” detailed the library’s plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. The sustainability working group wanted to empower the entire staff, so they organized mandatory workshops in 2022 and 2023 that catered to each operational unit of the National Library of Finland. Ekland noted on a slide, “Considering and promoting sustainability and responsibility was felt to be more important after the workshop than before the workshop” and “The staff's perception of their own influence opportunities improved.” Eklund went into more detail about the survey that measured the impact of the workshops.
The library infuses sustainability into its digitization program, its responsible conservation practices for physical materials, and its flagship digital infrastructure, Finna. Finna is an open source repository of Finland’s cultural and scientific material, Eklund said. There are three sustainability themes in Finna (see the screenshot below):
- Equal access to open, reliable information
- Sustainable digital infrastructure for the benefit of society
- Ecological sustainability of our operations
Eklund shared that Finna has curated content to support climate literacy, including OERs for the classroom. She also mentioned the library’s ROOT project, which is designed for creating “resilient youth through local heritage.”
Charting a Carbon Course at the National Library of Scotland
Quinney’s presentation, “National Library of Scotland: Carbon Literacy for Libraries,” shared how she built on a course from the Carbon Literacy Trust to tailor it to National Library of Scotland staff. The trust’s goal of relevant climate change learning for everyone manifested as a 1-day course that empowered participants to decrease their carbon footprints. The National Library of Scotland had developed a climate action plan in 2021, Quinney said, but the staff wasn’t content with the options they had for carbon literacy training. The library purchased the rights to the trust’s course and made it specific to libraries. The course has four modules (see the screenshot below):
- Module One consists of the topics climate science, international picture, and impacts of climate change.
- Module Two has role of libraries, climate justice, benefits of taking action, and library case studies.
- Module Three has UN Sustainable Development Goals, national/regional policies and targets, carbon footprints, and more library case studies.
- Module Four has green carbon handprints, taking action, conversations about climate.
Quinney added that the course can be flexible—online or in person, during a single day or across multiple days, etc. Trainers—i.e., the librarian(s) leading the course—can select the case studies that would be most relevant to their library. The course is a ready-to-deliver presentation, with notes for the trainers and handouts. Quinney provided examples of case studies, including a library with a lend-and-mend hub and a library that needed new shelving, so it bought second-hand shelves and donated the old ones to an archive. She said she hopes libraries will create versions of the course in their own countries.
Coming Up
This webinar focused on climate literacy, and there are two more related sessions: on citizen science (Dec. 11, 2025) and on circular economy (Feb. 26, 2026).
