‘Tis the season to reflect back on the past twelve months and in doing so, I can’t help but be excited about what is going to happen in the coming year(s).
In 2017:
- The American Library Association’s Executive Board formed a Special Task Force on Sustainability, which I am co-chairing alongside Rene Tanner of Arizona State University
- The New York Library Association launched the first-of-its-kind Sustainable Library Certification Program and already has 15 libraries signed up
- Bill McKibbon spoke at the 2017 American Library Association Conference in Chicago
- I finished my book, which I have been working on for an awfully long time: Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library’s Future in an Uncertain World (available “any day now” from ALA Editions)
- I’m about to finish a second book on resilience for the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries and was named to the Center’s advisory board
- Living Building Challenge made the cover of Library Journal
- I was invited to be the closing keynote speaker at the Hawaiian Library Conference, their 2017 theme was “Sustainability: More than the Environment”
- Matt and I co-presented the keynote at Agents of Change: The Importance of Sustainability in Public Schools, Universities and Libraries.The event featured a who’s who of sustainability leadership in the largest city in the U.S. (the ninth largest city in the world for those playing along at home): New York, NY:
- Mark Chambers, Director, Mayor’s Office of Sustainability
- Meredith McDermott, Director of Sustainability, New York City Department of Education (the largest school system in the country)
- Tria Case, University Director of Sustainability and NYSolar Smart, The City University of New York
- Alex Mikszewski, Energy Manager, Brooklyn Public Library System
- Garrett Bergen, Associate Director of Facilities Management, New York Public Library
- Tameka Pierre-Louis, Sustainability and Energy Liaison Officer, Queens Library
Libraries are stepping up and owning their role as sustainability leaders in their community. In 2009 I started this journey in earnest and I couldn’t be more excited about where the path is leading. I look forward to working with you all to ensure libraries are catalysts for a brighter future for us all.