Library Climate Action Resources

Library Associations

• BC Library Association Climate Action Committee
• Ontario Library Association Climate Action Committee 
• CFLA Climate Action Committee
• IFLA: Environment, Sustainability, and Libraries Section
• California Library Association Climate Justice Interest Group
• ALA Council Committee on Sustainability
• ALA IRRT International Sustainable Library Development Interest Group
• ALA Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT)
• ALA Task Force on United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals

• Climate Action Week Ideas and Resources and example resources and programs from Participating Libraries
• Open Climate Campaign – A partnership between Creative Commons, SPARC, and EIFL to promote open access to research to accelerate progress towards addressing the climate crisis and preserving global biodiversity.
• Sustainable Libraries Initiative – Created by the New York Library Association and includes member libraries from across the US. Includes a Certificate Program for libraries and additional resources.
• ALA Resilient Communities: Libraries Respond to Climate Change – Programming resources for libraries
• Read4Climate – Rack card and poster designs promoting the many ways libraries can support readers and communities to respond to the climate crisis. Libraries can print and share locally. Created by Fraser Valley Regional Library in partnership with the BC Climate Action Committee and Ontario Climate Action Committee.
• Collection Development and Reading Lists – List maintained by the Ontario Library Association Climate Action Committee
• Resources for the Sustainable California Library Projects grant recipients (useful for other libraries as well)
• IFLA Green Library Award
• ALA and Sustainability – Includes a list of ALA committees and resolutions, as well as a library specific bibliography and links to online resources.
• Action for Climate Empowerment: A Guide for Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums – A guide for GLAM organizations from Curating Tomorrow, which helps museums and the heritage sector draw on their unique resources to enhance their contributions to society and the natural environment, the Sustainable Development Goals, climate action and nature conservation.
• Centre for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science – Partnership addressing “the urgent and interconnected challenges of climate change, cultural places, and food security” through a wide variety of work, including thematic working groups on topics like relationality, data sovereignty, and story-work and knowledge mobilization.

• West Vancouver Memorial Library’s 2024 Strategic Framework and 2023 Business Plan
• Nelson Public Library Strategic Framework (2023)
• SFU Library Strategic Plan 2022 – 2024

Reports, Bench-marking, and Briefing Documents

• OLA Climate Action Committee Benchmarking Survey for Public Libraries (currently in progress)
• Getting Warmer: A Refined Taxonomy For Assessing Public Libraries’ Response to the Climate Crisis (2023) – by Michelle Foggett-Parker
• Navigating Uncertainty: Libraries and the Climate Crisis (2022) – Briefing prepared by McKelle Hansen for the BCLA Climate Action Committee
• Sustainability in Libraries: A Call to Action (2022) – Sustainability Briefing from the ALA Council Committee on Sustainability
• Libraries and Environmental Sustainability: From Acknowledgement to Activism – by Michelle Foggett-Parker
• The Carbon Footprint of Your Library (2020)