Green Libraries Conference 2025: Planting Seeds of Change
📅 Monday 27 October 2025 from 10 am to 5 pm
📍 British Library Knowledge Centre, London
The Green Libraries Conference returns for its third year – bigger, bolder, and greener than ever.
When the inaugural conference launched in 2023, more than 100 delegates gathered to celebrate sustainable projects and explore the role libraries play in tackling the climate crisis. By 2024, the event had doubled in size, bringing together over 180 professionals from across the library sector. Now, in 2025, we’re preparing once again to put libraries at the heart of climate action.
This year’s theme, Planting seeds of change: from small beginnings to a mighty forest, highlights the transformative role libraries play in supporting communities, championing sustainability, and creating greener futures.
Why Attend?
Libraries are more than storehouses of knowledge – they are active agents for environmental change. From decarbonising historic buildings to curating climate-literate collections, from supporting local resilience to hosting community conversations, libraries are showing what climate leadership looks like.
The Green Libraries Conference 2025 will be a day of reflection, collaboration and action, bringing together professionals from across academic, school, public, legal, health and specialist libraries. Expect to hear from inspirational speakers, join practical sessions, and take away tangible ideas to embed sustainability into your own work.
Programme Overview
| Time | Event | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 09.20-10:00 | Registration opens with coffee and networking(Please go to the registration desk inside the Knowledge Centre) | ||
| 10.00-10.03 | Welcome and housekeeping by Maja Maricevic Chair of the Green Libraries Campaign and Director of Innovation and Science at the British Library | ||
| 10.03-10.10 | Setting the scene on this year’s theme: Planting seeds of change by Louis Coifaitt-Gunn CILIP CEO | ||
| 10.10-10.20 | Baroness Twycross, DCMS Minister responsible for Public Libraries and Member of the House of Lords | ||
| 10.20-10.45 | Keynote 1 | Amina Shah, National Librarian and Chief Executive at the National Library of Scotland | ||
| 10.45-10.55 | Move to breakout rooms | ||
| 10.55-11.45 | Morning Parallels | ||
| Parallel One – Sustainable exhibitions and displays:Maddy Smith (Lead Curator Printed Heritage Collection, British Library),Melissa Painter (Head of Sustainability at the V & A) and Sharon Lam (3D Designer at the V & A) Chaired by Tenaya King, Julie’s Bicycle | Parallel Two –Climate fiction and climate book clubs: Dr Ann Alston (Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, Creative Industries and Education) and Dr Sarah Robertson (Associate Professor in the School of Arts, University of the West of England) Chaired by Tabitha Witherick, ASCEL | Parallel Three – Green procurement: Jon Ray (Environmental Sustainability Manager, Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM), University of Oxford), Lucy Gilham (Knowledge Specialist, Hampshire Hospitals Library Service, Basingstoke & North Hampshire Hospital) and Thea Sherer (Vice President, Sustainability and Climate Action Officer at Springer Nature Group) Chaired by Adam Tocock, Co-chair of the Sustainability in NHS Knowledge and Library Services Community of Practice | |
| 11.45-12.05 | Coffee break & and networking | ||
| 12.05-12.15 | Plenary presentation: Green Libraries Self-Assessment Framework Launching the Green Libraries Self-Assessment Framework pilot Yvonne Morris (Projects and Programmes Manager, CILIP) | ||
| 12.15-13.05 | Panel discussion: Writing a sustainability/climate action plan Vicky Clarke (Head of Libraries, Blackpool), Sarah Vansnick (Head of Preservation & Conservation at Trinity College Dublin), George Welch-Williams (Sustainability Officer, Whipps Cross and Mile End Hospitals) and Gareth Evans (School Librarian at Abbeyfield School, Chippenham) Chaired by Georgina Wilson-Powell, founder and editor of Pebble Magazine | ||
| 13.05-14.00 | Lunch | ||
| 14.00-14.40 | Keynote 2 | AI and Sustainability by Gordon Johnstone, Scottish AI Alliance Audience Q & A Chaired by Piers Torday, Society of Authors | ||
| 14.40-14.50 | Comfort break/Move to breakout rooms | ||
| 14.50-15.40 | Afternoon Parallels | ||
| Parallel One –Culture Nature Project: Emma Daniel (Libraries Connected) Cordelia Spalding (Natural England) Chaired by Sarah Mears MBE, Libraries Connected | Parallel Two –Tackling climate misinformation and disinformation Shohail Ismail (Met Office) Chaired by Laragh Quinney, National Library of Scotland | Parallel Three –Organisational Transformation: Working towards Net Zero Dan Hall (Sustainability Engagement Officer, University College London), Michelle Wake (Site Libraries Manager and Senior Librarian, UCL School of Pharmacy) and Professor Thomas W Jackson (Loughborough Business School) Chaired by David Prosser, Research Libraries UK (RLUK) | |
| 15.40-16.00 | Coffee break and networking | ||
| 16.00-16.30 | Plenary presentation: Professional registration and climate justice Addressing climate justice in a submission for CILIP Certification, Chartership and Fellowship Kirsten MacQuarrie (Sector Development Manager for CILIP Scotland) in conversation with Professional Registration Assessors: Alan Brine (De Montfort University) and Elizabeth Tilley (CILIP’s Professional Qualifications Assessment Panel) Chaired by Emily Cross, Professional Services Officer, CILIP | ||
| 16.30-16.40 | Green Libraries Week 2025Green Libraries Week map and audience input Hinna Vayani (Associate Project Manager, CILIP) | ||
| 16.45-17:00 | Roundup and conference closes | ||
Conference Prices
🎟️ Early Bird (until 30 September)
- CILIP Member: £125
- Non-Member: £175
- CILIP Student / Apprentice: £125
🎟️ Standard Rate (from 1 October)
- CILIP Member: £150
- Non-Member: £200
- CILIP Student / Apprentice: £150
Be Part of the Change
The Green Libraries Conference 2025 is your chance to join a growing movement of library professionals taking climate action seriously. Whether you’re just beginning your sustainability journey or already leading green initiatives, this is the place to learn, share, and connect.
🌍 From small beginnings, we can grow a mighty forest.
👉 Secure your place today and help shape a greener future for libraries, communities, and the planet.
Screening of The Librarians (Kim Snyder/Sarah Jessica Parker) Documentary @ UCL Bloomsbury Campus
📅 Monday 27 October 2025 from 6 pm to 8 pm
📍UCL Bloomsbury Campus, SB31 Denys Holland Lecture Theatre in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London, WC1H 0EG
You are invited to a screening of The Librarians (the Kim Snyder/Sarah Jessica Parker documentary). This documentary details how the Krause List, which flagged 850 titles centering race and LGBTQIA+ lives, sparked an unprecedented wave of book bans across the U.S. As the pressure mounted, librarians traced the links from combative school and library board meetings to the deeper currents of White Christian Nationalism driving the crackdowns. Confronted with harassment, threats, and even laws seeking to criminalise their work, their collective defence of the freedom to read stands as a stark warning. The screening, sponsored by UCL’s Department of Information Studies, the CILIP School Library Group and the Library Services Trust, will be followed by a brief discussion.
It will be held in SB31 Denys Holland Lecture Theatre in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG. Bentham House is situated a short distance from Euston Station as well as Kings Cross/St Pancras.
Monday 27 October, UCL Bloomsbury Campus, 6 – 8pm. Free.
All welcome. For more information and registration. Click on the link below: