Webinar Opportunity: Universities & Municipalities: Working Together for Sustainable and Just Futures

Please consider attending the following webinar on May 19th, 2022, at 2:30pm EST: “Universities & Municipalities: Working Together for Sustainable & Just Futures” presented by Colleen Murphy-Dunning of Yale University’s Urban Resources Initiative and Hixon Center for Urban Ecology

Colleen Murphy-Dunning is the Program Director at the Urban Resources Initiative (URI), a not-for-profit university partnership based at the Hixon Center for Urban Ecology, and a Lecturer in Urban and Community Forestry at the Yale School of the Environment. Faculty, staff, and students can significantly contribute to local environmental conditions. The Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at the Yale School of the Environment has worked in close partnership with the City of New Haven and New Haven residents to address local environmental concerns that they have identified. Colleen will describe some of URI’s projects to address community-led environmental priorities and offer Yale students’ valuable learning opportunities.

Register here for this webinar!

Webinar! Communicating Sustainability in a Changing Climate: Challenges and Strategies

Register now for the webinar “Communicating Sustainability in a Changing Climate: Challenges and Strategies.”

This talk by Dr. Jennifer Carmen, Postdoctoral Associate at Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, will focus on the intersection of sustainability and climate change. It will discuss how climate change adds to new challenges to achieving sustainability, and how action on climate change can support sustainability goals.

Dr. Carmen’s research interest is in how individuals and households can support personal well-being, without harming social and environmental systems, during times of environmental change and stress. Her past projects include research on climate change education in middle school, and research with Detroit community-based organizations on how to support human health during heat events.

The webinar will be recorded and made available after the event.

Date/Time: February 24, 2022, 9:00AM Pacific/12:00PM Eastern
Hosted by ALA Sustainability Roundtable Education & Programming Committee

Sustainability 101 at LibLearnX

What does sustainability have to do with libraries? Why is sustainability an ALA Core Value? Why does ALA have a Sustainability Round Table? To answer these questions, we are hosting a “101” on sustainability at the LibLearnX Conference. In this 15-20 minute “shop talk” session, we’ll dig into the “triple bottom line” of sustainability to uncover why practices and decisions that are socially equitable and environmentally sound and economically feasible are in line with many library and community values.

Webinar: Carbon Neutral Event Planning and the Role of Carbon Offsets

Photo by Athena from Pexels

Jenna Pugliese, Director of Client Strategy at Native, a Public Benefit Corporation and ALA’s conference carbon offset provider since January 2020, will provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities in aiming for carbon neutral events and the role that carbon offsets can play in moving organizations like ALA toward that goal (while recognizing that carbon offsets have their own challenges). This webinar topic is timely with the ALA 2021 Annual Conference Council adoption of the Resolution to Achieve Carbon Neutrality for ALA Conferences.

This webinar will take place on October 13th, 2021, at 1pm EST. To register, click here!

ALA Annual: SustainRT Recap!

Thank you to all who came out and contributed to an amazing ALA annual conference. Britt Fagerheim and the membership committee team provided us with a great social get-together before the conference, and the many accomplishments of the roundtable and its committees were reviewed at our membership meeting. We were very happy to be able to present the Westerville Public Library with the SustainRT Citation for Wellness in the Workplace for their work in bringing pay equity and a living wage to library workers. The slides from our membership meeting are available here, and you can also access a new one page-version of the SustainRT Strategic Plan, as well as the complete SustainRT Strategic Plan

In other good news, the carbon neutrality resolution has passed! A special thanks to Sustainability Round Table Councilor Matthew Bollerman for proposing resolution CD#53. The Roundtable resolution CD#46 has also passed. You can read the recap of this council meeting  from the American Libraries blog.

Missed one of the SustainRT’s programs? We also have the presentation slides, links to resources, and presentation highlights from the following programs:

SustainRT Discussion Group on Measuring Sustainability in Libraries

Library staff and stakeholders are invited to discuss measures, metrics, and systems they’ve used and are interested in using to determine their organization’s sustainability. SustainRT defines sustainability using the triple bottom for libraries to make decisions and take actions that are socially equitable, economically feasible, and environmentally sound. Some measures currently in use in libraries include the Sustainable Library Certification Program, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Green Globes, Living Building Challenge, Energy Star, Net Zero Energy Building Certification, and Passive House.

Measuring Sustainability in Libraries 

Sustainable Choices in Library Prizes & Promotional Materials

Join us for a conversation on addressing social, economic, and environmental sustainability in reimagining the role and utility of library swag with representatives from a variety of library settings and responsible for a variety of library programming and services. The things our libraries provide as prizes, incentives, and thank you’s to our patrons send a message to the people we serve and have an effect on our local and global communities. These exchanges can be an opportunity to build community connections, support local economies, provide experiences, and support people in making more sustainable economic and environmental choices.

  • Mary Callahan (Moderator)

Children’s Librarian

Queens Public Library at Hunters Point

Long Island City, New York

Mary Callahan is a children’s librarian at the Queens Public Library at Hunters Point in Queens, New York City. Mary has worked in the Queens Public Library system for thirteen years and has a special interest in integrating science and nature into library programs for children. She worked for QPL’s innovative Children’s Library Discovery Center, which features museum-style science exhibits and a wide range of STEM programming. Her current library is home to the new Hunters Point Environmental Education Center, which hosts programs on the environment and sustainability for all ages.

  • Marina Marquez

Branch Manager

Cleveland Public Library

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland Public Library’s East 131st Street Branch staff take a non-traditional approach to programming and embracing our core value to be TRANSFORMATIONAL.  Practicing sustainability is embracing the limited resources we have through upcycling/recycling materials on hand that leads to creativity and innovation. 

In addition, the Corlett Volunteens is a teen group that sets the learning agenda for youth at the branch. The Volunteens launched a teen-led book club, garden club, and created unique eco-friendly activities and opportunities (such as the Cardboard Arcade, a Newspaper Fashion Show, and a Puppet Parade) for children in the neighborhood to reconnect with their library.  

Cleveland Seed Bank packets

  • Sarah M. Vital

Business Librarian

Saint Mary’s College of California

Moraga, California

To reduce spending on and waste of minimally useful new plastic items, and to increase reuse opportunities, we’ve switched our “swag” giveaways to what students really want: school supplies! This year’s summer reading program participants will receive a branded canvas pencil bag and simple, often asked for supplies which are useful to the students and easily reused in-office if left over.

Office Supply Grab Bag

  • Teri Markson

Senior Librarian

Los Angeles Public Library

Los Angeles, California

At the urging of the Summer Reading committee and library staff, the Los Angeles Public Library has made a conscious effort to steer away from the practice of buying incentives and prizes that heavily impact the environment such as plastic bags, toys and tchotchkes. Instead, we have elected to purchase fewer and more eco-friendly products manufactured either locally or in North America. 

Sustainable Choices in Library Prizes Teri Markson, Senior Librarian Los Angeles Public Library

Lapl_summer_reading_prizes_flyer

  • Kacper Jarecki

Queens Public Library

Peninsula, Team B

At Queens Public Library at Cambria Heights, we had partnered with our local supermarket to distribute fresh apples and bananas once a month to mostly children, but also to teens and adults. It was a great partnership because the library gave away healthy snacks that everyone enjoyed with minimal waste.

Webinar: Cultivating Sustainable Community in an Academic Library

The University of Denver Libraries Sustainability Committee is committed to working toward a more just and sustainable future. We have focused our efforts on educational outreach, modeling sustainability best practices, and building community within the library, as well as with the greater campus community, and often in partnership with the Center for Sustainability. In this presentation, we’ll discuss some of our successful initiatives, such as Zero Waste Finals, and outline some of the challenges we’ve encountered and lessons learned, especially as we have adapted our work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interested in attending this webinar on June 22nd 11am MT? Sign up here!

Join us: Pre-Annual Social Hour (virtual)

A person smiling while looking at a tablet. Creative Commons licensed image.

Hello, all SustainRT people!

We are gathering virtually for a pre-Annual Social Hour Tuesday, June 22, 4-5pm CST, and you’re invited!

Drop in or stay the hour; share or listen to climate change stories, passions, project updates; learn about SustainRT’s mentorship program.

The registration link is accessible here.

See you “there!” –SustainRT Membership Committee

World Sustainable Development Teach-in Day 2020

World Sustainable Development Teach-in Day 2020 is December 4th!

This initiative has been put together by the European School of Sustainability Science and Research (ESSSR) and the Inter-University Sustainable Development Research Programme (IUSDRP) and led by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). It echoes the previously held event in 2010. The event will go “live” on December 4, and will remain accessible for 24 hours, according to Central European time. To participate, just register for the learning platform at https://dl4sd.org and then enroll yourself to the World Sustainable Teach-in Day. You can browse Online Events links to find a large variety of presentations.

SustainRT’s member Irina Holden, from University at Albany, SUNY, has a presentation under Category C: Education, Communication, and Training on Sustainable Development. Her presentation addresses Sustainable Development Goals 2 (Zero hunger), SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 15 (Life on land). The title of presentation is “U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: Feeding a Growing World Population,” in which Irina addresses the importance of urban agriculture and local food production.

Congratulations to Irina on her presentation, and be sure to register to engage with this great event.

SustainRT Midwinter Sessions

Happy New Year! If you are heading to Philadelphia for ALA Midwinter, we hope to see you at the following SustainRT or sustainability related programs:

1/25, 10:30am in PCC 201 A/B/C, Sustainability Is Now a Core Value. So… Now What? (Event Link)

1/25, 3:00pm in PCC 117, SustainRT’s Member Meeting (Event Link)

1/26, 2:30pm in PCC 117, SustainRT’s Sustainability Programming in Libraries Discussion (Event Link)

Sustainability Round Table Business and Membership Meeting (ALA Midwinter)

Curious about the Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT)? Join us for our midwinter business/membership meeting on January 25th, 2020 at 3:00 pm EST to find out what we’ve been working on! Open to all current and prospective members from any library type or LIS school. Please note: SustainRT offers free memberships to student ALA members.