AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

Today, many organizations are striving to be more sustainable. The reasons can range from a desire to align with sustainable development goals defined by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, or to reduce an institution’s carbon footprint. Regardless of the reason, institutions around the world are implementing energy saving strategies to reach these goals. For some, the implementation of these strategies is a resounding success. For others, multiple unforeseen dead ends or problems impede implementation rollout or stop it altogether.

Implementation successes and challenges vary from organization to organization, as and vary internally within an institution. The problems can range from internal disputes to administration priorities. Some institutions do not know what steps to take when a project begins to go off track. Others may have set high expectations for the results of the implemented strategy and though the strategy is successful, they desired better results and consider the project a failure. n

Over the last 12 years we have worked with over 70 collecting institutions of all kinds to help them implement energy saving strategies. During that time, we have worked with a number of organizations that have successfully implemented energy saving strategies and some that, though they tried hard, were not able to successfully implement any energy saving strategies. Every institution faced hurdles of some kind during the course of their project, either internal or external. In some case the hurdles were easy to overcome and in other cases they significantly impacted the project.

This presentation will provide some examples of institutions across the spectrum of libraries, museums, and archives that we have worked with over the last 12 years. It will identify some of the major successes they experienced, as well as lend insight into less successful situations. The presentation will recognize the factors in each of these cases that led to success, including significant energy and/or carbon reduction. It will also examine the hurdles that institutions faced that caused the project to stall and, in some instances, stop all together. At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will have a better understanding of some of the major factors that can impact the implementation of sustainable strategies at an organization and best practices for navigating these challenges, or avoiding them altogether.