The American Library Association (ALA) and the Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI) have announced the new National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries (NCAS) and created an implementation guide to help libraries incorporate climate action locally into strategic and facility plans.

The strategy was developed to help accelerate adoption of climate action in libraries across the country. The implementation guide works to address some of the key barriers identified through a national study conducted to get feedback from the field about what is standing in the way of libraries getting more serious about adopting climate action as a priority.

THE STRATEGY

The strategy itself is straightforward and only one page long. To the point, it lists three categories of effort and specific actions to prioritize at your library:

1 | Climate Change Mitigation

Libraries align greenhouse gas emission reduction goals with those that international climate scientists and policy makers have indicated are necessary to prevent catastrophic cascading effects. This strategy recommends a goal for all libraries to reduce their institution’s greenhouse gas emissions by 43% from 2015 levels by 2030 and to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

2 | Climate Change Adaptation & Contributions Community Resilience

Libraries adopt both internal disaster preparedness plans and strategic goals that speak to the most likely climate hazards facing their area to contribute to their community’s resilience.

3 | Climate Justice Work

Libraries harness the transformative power of education for climate justice and develop relationships with local community organizations working on climate justice to embed a deeper awareness of the intersection of human and civil rights with climate stewardship than is presently found.

THE IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE

The implementation guide is now available and helps unpack each area of the strategy, introducing library leaders to core concepts; making the case for libraries’ involvement in this work; and offering simple steps to get started, resources, examples to help accelerate work in these areas.

A key finding of the national survey conducted by the NCAS Working Group in early 2024 reports high levels of concern in the library field around taking action on these topics given the perception that conversations around climate change can be highly politicized in some communities. The implementation guide tackles this issue head-on, highlighting key talking points to help introduce the topic in nonpolitical terms that focus on public health, safety, and thriving local economies.

The implementation guide also addresses the information received that library leaders are feeling overwhelmed—by the topic of climate change in general, but also the idea of adding “one more thing” to their to-do lists.

The reality is that libraries are perfectly positioned to do this work and are already doing it in many ways. The Implementation Guide helps break the work down to bite-sized activities, and points out that good work is already happening in many libraries, perhaps in ways that were not previously thought of as connected to climate action. Bottom line: Libraries are not starting from scratch.

The NCAS Working Group adopted a guiding principle early in their work to ensure that the Implementation Guide provided simple steps that any library could start with, and to be clear about where time is best spent.

Resources are directly linked in the NCAS Implementation Guide, including a Climate Action Plan template, how to identify the most serious climate hazards in your region, how to conduct a waste audit, the ALA Sustainability Round Table’s Sustainable Swag Rubric, and more. The guide works hard to save users time and bring concepts and examples to life, with case studies from public, academic, and school libraries provided throughout the guide. Links to SLI’s growing clearinghouse of examples from libraries in the award-winning Sustainable Library Certification Program are freely accessible to all.

This work sets a new tone and direction, speaking to the urgent situation we find ourselves in. It provides the focus, information, resources, and, hopefully, inspiration for every library in the country to adopt climate action as a priority and accelerate their work in this area.

The final message from the working group is a simple quote, attributed to many respected leaders throughout time: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

Download the strategy and implementation guide today, for free at sustainablelibrariesinitiative.org/national-climate-action-strategy-libraries.

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich is Executive Director, Mid-Hudson Library System, Poughkeepsie, NY; cofounder of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative; a judge for LJ’s New Landmark Libraries; an LJ Mover & Shaker and is the principal author of the National Climate Action Strategy.