Climate action requires a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions combined with increasing community resilience, all through a lens of climate justice. Join this webinar to find out where your time and energy can be best spent in the face of the overwhelming nature of climate action. Learn from library practitioners who have been early adopters of climate action through the award-winning Sustainable Library Certification Program, to help organize your own thinking on how to implement a climate action plan at your library that will have the biggest impact locally and globally.

Presented by: Rebekkah Smith Aldrich (MLS, LEED AP), Executive Director, Mid-Hudson Library System (NY), Co-founder/Current President, Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI), and author

Access recording

• View Webinar Recording (You will be prompted to login to our free Course Catalog.)
  

Webinar attachments

• View slides (pdf)
  
• View chat (xls)
• View captions (txt)
  
• Series Learner Guide (doc) Use alone or with others to extend your learning.
• Climate Action Plan Template (doc)

Related resources and links

• C40’s Climate Action Planning Framework
• Carbon Neutral/Carbon Offset FAQ (pdf) from the ALA Council Committee on Sustainability
• Desmond-Fish Public Library program, Electric Cars 101, YouTube
  
• Center Moriches Public Library Waste Audit video
• The Zero Waste Heirarchy 8.0
• EPA Target Setting
• White House Fact Sheet: President Biden Sets 2030 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Target
• Native’s climate projects
• US Climate Resilience Toolkit and Case Studies
  
• FEMA National Risk Index
• CDC’s Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework
• Climate Resilience Hubs
• UC Center for Climate Justice
• The Climate Gap and the Color Line — Racial Health Inequities and Climate Change, New England Journal of Medicine
• Measures Matter: Ensuring Equitable Implementation of Los Angeles County Measures (pdf), Program for Environmental and Regional Equity, University of Southern California, January 2018
• Sustainable thinking : ensuring your library's future in an uncertain world, Rebekkah Smith Aldrich
• Libraries in the Doughnut Economy (pdf) - Rollins Scholarship Onlin, 2022
• Examples of Climate Action Plan Structures, Second Nature
  
• Concord Free Public Library, Sustainability Plan (pdf)
• ALA’s Resilient Communities: A Programming Guide for Libraries (pdf)
• Urban Sustainability Directors Network Resilience Hubs
• Library of Local
  
• Additional links shared in chat
• Valencia College Library, Sustainable Libraries Certification Presentation, for good example of academic library doing this work
• AASHE has higher education Climate Action Plans
• Ontario Library Association, Climate Action Committee
• British Columbia Library Association, Climate Action Week
  
• Energy Star Emissions Calculator
• West Vancouver Public Library - Climate Writer in Residence
•  Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation
• Fraser Valley Regional Library loans out Solar Panels and Thermal Leak Detectors
• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• WebJunction webinar on Repair Cafes
• Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, which is all about upcyclable materials and the book itself isn't made out of paper and can be upcycled.
  
• About the LEED Rating System
• Northeast Virtual Summit on Resilient Library Facilities, November 8, 2023
• Toile Ocean: The first book cover made from recycled ocean-bound plastic

• Sustainable Libraries: Resources and Webinars for Climate Action
• Read Sustainability 101, the first article
  
• Read Getting Started with Climate Action Planning, the second article
  
• Read Disaster Preparedness and Community Resilience, the third aricle
• Read Climate Justice, the fourth aricle
• Read Programs that Walk the Talk, the fifth article
  
• Reading Lists on WorldCat.org compiled by Sustainable Libraries Inititative
• Essential Reads
• Environmental Justice
• Eco-Literacy for Kids
• Books for Youth Climate Activists
• Climate Fiction Starter Pack
• OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series with Rebekkah Smith Aldrich: Sustainability—A Call to Action for the Library Community
• Road Map to Sustainability
• eNewsletter of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative
• Sustainable Library Certification Program
• Final Presentations from the Sustainable Library Certification Program
• Resources from the Sustainability Round Table of the American Library Association
• Sustainability and Libraries: ALA and Sustainability

Other webinars in the series

Sustainability 101
Recording now available

Climate Action Planning (Part 1): An Introduction
Recording now available

Climate Action Planning (Part 2): Disaster Preparedness and Community Resilience
Recording now available

Climate Justice
Recording now available

Living Our Values Out Loud: Programs that Walk the Talk
Recording now available