Green Libraries Week 2025

Blog series Knowledge Matters

Seeds of change at the Library

We’re looking ahead to this year’s Green Libraries Week (27 October – 2 November), a celebration of libraries across the UK with a focus on sustainability and the climate. We’ll be taking part by hosting a full programme of events and activities here at the Library.

Events and activities

Throughout the week, you’ll find a wide variety of bookable events at the Library, including the launch of Stories from the Environmental Movement, as well as lectures on Print Culture in the Age of Climate Change, Romantic Ecology, and the lived history of air pollution. You can also enjoy webinars on the circular economy and libraries and positive climate action, and we’ll be celebrating green businesses with our Start-up Stars event.

We also have a variety of drop-in events and activities, including our Entrance Hall display, Stories from a Sustainable Future,which explores how our collections reveal the story of our changing planet – from early weather records and scientific breakthroughs to personal experiences and creative responses. There will also be collection displays in the Business & IP Centre and Science Reading Room (which you can access with your free Readers Pass).

On the Upper Ground Floor gallery, there will be coffee tastings from Origin Coffee (27 – 28 October and 1 November, 9.30 until stocks last) and a sustainable food showcase from our caterers Graysons (28 October, 11.00 – 14.00). Stop and chat to the team from Re-Roasted who make ceramics from coffee grounds (31 October – 2 November, 10.00-14.00).

Celebrating progress

This is also a chance to reflect on our progress since last year’s Green Libraries Week, when we launched our first ever Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy (PDF, 4.9MB).

We’ve been busy since then, with teams across the Library all playing their part, including our estates, exhibitions, research and learning teams. Below are a few examples of the progress we have made on all four of our strategic priorities:

Sustainable places

• We’re continuing the construction of a new passive storage building on our Yorkshire site, plus the delivery of a £2.5 million grant to install air source heat pumps and solar panels
• We’re embedding stretching environmental goals in the design of our St Pancras extension
• We’ve withdrawn single-use cups from staff catering outlets.

Sustainable purposes

• Unearthed: the Power of Gardening was our most sustainable exhibition ever. The exhibition itself spoke about the impact of gardening on the planet, and all loan items were from the UK. It was built from reused and natural materials, and at the end of the exhibition we gave away to local groups or recycled nearly all the build materials
• We created a new learning module for schools, launching this month
• We created a post-doc fellowship and two PhD placements on different aspects of environment and sustainability
• We published a new sustainability industry guide.

Sustainable partnerships

• The touring version of our Unearthed exhibition continues to inspire events and activities in libraries around the UK, through the Living Knowledge Network
• Aspart of Unearthed, we worked with local charity Global Generation to plant a wildflower meadow on the Poet’s Circle on the Piazza
• We’re working with partners to research the impact of digital vs physical items through the ReVerDi project, and have created a new Sustainable Collecting Group
• We’re delighted to be part of CILIP’s Green Library Hubs programme, thanks to a grant from the Lottery Climate Fund which is funding ten green library hubs across the country, including here in Camden, where we will be able to run climate-related community activities for the next three years.

Embedding sustainability

• We embedded sustainability in our updated procurement policy and in the procurement of key contracts
• We’re updating our approach to climate risk, after carrying out an assessment on the impact of a changing climate on the Library
• We achieved accreditation as a Carbon Literate – Bronze organisation for our commitment to staff training and embedding climate action.

Want to know more? You can read our full sustainability report within our annual report and read our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy (PDF, 4.3MB).