Green Libraries Grant Fund Awardees Announced

The Green Libraries Partnership with support from Arts Council England and in partnership with British Library, Libraries Connected and Julie’s Bicycle is pleased to announce fifteen selected projects under the £40,000 grant fund for public library services in England to support environmental activity.

Selected projects include a range of innovative ideas that will enable libraries to demonstrate environmental understanding and action through local partnerships, community engagement activities and staff, stock and space interventions. Projects will take place between August–October 2022 and the outcomes will be shared at the Green Libraries Conference and through the Green Libraries website.

Full list of selected libraries and projects:

1. Inspire Midlands Libraries
LOGGS (Library Outdoor Green Garden Spaces)
A library garden with outdoor classroom facilities for the development of a high impact environmental programme of activities in Bircotes rural library. The work will act as a pilot generating data on community awareness and engagement with the environment through the garden, to explore creating a rolling programme in other rural libraries.

2. Staffordshire Libraries
Changing Climates Changing Lifestyles toolkit
A toolkit of resources for the Climate Change Library Champions in Staffordshire’s 43 libraries developed with the help of local artist Juneau Projects. The project will support behaviour change by creating a craft kit on a recycling theme and deliver two workshops in Area North Libraries and Area South Libraries for families on the theme of recycling.

3. Bi-borough (Westminster-Kensington & Chelsea) Libraries
Cleaner greener bi-borough libraries and archives
A series of interactive training sessions in partnership with Groundworks London for libraries and archives staff to help acquire a greater understanding of ESG principles and practices. The training will culminate in an interactive workshop with residents to help identify greening projects for the libraries and archives.

4. Barnsley Libraries
Bees in Barnsley
A month-long festival celebrating all things bees and highlighting how essential they are within our ecosystem. The festival will use engaging activities and events to raise awareness of the environmental challenges we’re facing due to the declining bee numbers and what we can do as individuals to combat this.

5. Kirklees Libraries
Discovering the Secret Garden
Developing the unused garden behind Golcar library into an accessible, environmentally sustainable area for community use with the help of three local schools and a local artist. The theme of the artwork would be sustainable gardens for native wildlife, plantings and habitats.

6. Hampshire Libraries
Sparking Conversations with Children & Families
Activities for children, young people and families at 40 libraries, focusing on the environmental sustainability challenge of engagement and education. Activities include: worksheets for young children, and delivery of three education sessions with Southampton Scrapstore, a local recycling charity.

7. Eltham Libraries
Wishing Well – Eltham Library’s Community Garden
An intergenerational project to design and construct a library community garden using sustainable materials and skills sharing between local primary school children and Age UK’s Men/Women in Sheds group.

8. Blackburn with Darwen Libraries
Environmental activities at the Blackburn with Darwen Children’s Literature Festival 2022
Authors, poets and illustrators will draw on their ‘green work’ to create an underlying theme of the importance of looking after our environment, using their published work, e.g. the rap poem, Save Us From Plastic, which focuses on the devastating impact plastic pollution has in our rivers and oceans, and Felicity Fly in the Garden, which educates children about pollinators and their important role in the eco-cycle.

9. Lancashire Libraries
Planet Savers – workshops for children and families
A series of workshops for children and their families during the national Fun Palace weekend in 5 libraries, all based around the idea of environmental sustainability – one of the core principles of Planet Savers – Lancashire Libraries’ in-house designed summer reading scheme.

10. Dudley Libraries
Enzo & Loca – Environmental action figures looking for ways to achieve net zero
Each month, Enzo and Loca will provide simple suggestions that children can follow to help the environment, reducing the amount of waste they make, reusing items so that they don’t have to throw them out, and recycling by using waste materials to make new products. The libraries will hold Green sessions, highlighting books about biodiversity and sustainability, and offering activities such as creative craft sessions using recycled materials.

11. Wiltshire Libraries
Interpretation boards demonstrating environmental activity in the library
The displays will communicate to the public what has already been done by Wiltshire council to reduce energy wastage, generate and use renewable energy and increase recycling in libraries. The display will include examples of sustainable swaps from Sustainable Devizes and information on the future Wiltshire Council plans e.g. solar panel and air heat pump installation and LED lighting and direct people to the collection on Climate books to find out more.

12. Wakefield Libraries
Encouraging sustainable transport to our libraries
Enabling sustainable transport access to the library through a programme of analysing and upgrading the information to promote non-car travel options twinned with the provision of cycle repair equipment at our branches in addition to existing cycle racks.

13. Surrey Libraries
Learning to Deliver Zero Carbon
Training for 200+ library staff to increase their awareness of the benefits of going Net Zero and how they can support the delivery of the Surrey County Council Net Zero Programme.

14. Lambeth Libraries
Save the planet, pounds and pennies
Activities addressing the cost of living crisis and showing how a greener lifestyle can also save money. Activities with local community groups and will run across all 10 libraries and then be embedded in the core delivery, making the libraries a central place to find out about a green lifestyle.

15. Newcastle Libraries
Greening of Princess Square
Changing the way we think about and manage small areas of planting in an urban setting. The project intends to redevelop an abandoned urban planting area outside Newcastle City Library to demonstrate how to increase biodiversity in the city centre and to raise awareness of eco-friendly urban gardening techniques.