How can we adapt our estate, practice and standards, to safeguard our collections in the most environmentally responsible way?

Background

As well as the record itself, we must also protect the environment and the institutions that sustain it. Archives are organisations with a long-term view: we must look forward to a changing climate in a ‘demonstrably sustainable’ way and inspire positive action by engaging with our planetary history.

This research theme captures our ambition to measure and reduce the environmental impact of our practice and of our physical and digital estate; and to use the untold wealth of geographical, environmental, ecological and geospatial information within our collection to inform the future through understanding the past.

We also must develop our physical infrastructure, in a responsible way – creating laboratories, repositories and public spaces fit for the future – and continue to invest in people, through our staff, students and partnerships.