Parallel Session 9 – Leadership for Sustainability
Date: Thursday, 2 July 2026, from 09:00 to 10:30
Moderator: TBC
Location: R9
9.1) Small Conscious Steps Towards a Sustainable Future: The Case of Malmö University Library
Presenter: Sara Kjellberg, Malmö University Library, Sweden
At a time when environmental and climate challenges demand resilient infrastructures, libraries serve as central, open spaces for knowledge exchange and community engagement. Viewed as social infrastructures where sustainability can be addressed in multiple ways, research libraries have the potential to contribute both through their own operations and as platforms for dialogue and learning.
Malmö University Library has developed a strategic approach to sustainability that aims to reduce its environmental footprint while creating opportunities that inspire sustainable action among staff, students, and the wider community. The ambition has been to exercise leadership for sustainability by driving change in a conscious manner, using modest but consistent measures. This presentation describes a three-year journey initiated by Malmö University’s environmental and climate goals, and the library’s efforts to translate these ambitions into everyday practice.
In response to the need for a structured approach, a Sustainability Group was established in 2023 with a mandate to integrate sustainability into library operations. Organisationally, the group reports directly to the Library Director. Its responsibilities include evaluating university goals from a library perspective, monitoring sustainability in operational planning, proposing staff development activities, and coordinating events in collaboration with students, researchers, the municipality, other organisations and the public.
One of the initial activities was to do a workshop involving the entire library staff, aimed at formulating a set of clear sustainability commitments aligned with university guidelines. In 2024, Malmö University Library became the first Swedish library to sign the Green Libraries Manifesto, joining a network of almost 300 libraries committed to placing sustainability at the core of library work. This affiliation has strengthened international as well as national exchange.
There are a lot of thematic weeks and initiatives that can help focus sustainability events. After exploring and tested several approaches during the first years the library decided in 2025 to join the Nordic sustainability initiative Week 17. This enabled closer collaboration with Malmö’s public library, which joined the initiative simultaneously. Collaboration is key to work on sustainability to contribute to change. Through local, national, and international networking, the library has a platform for dialogue and development.
Over time, the Sustainability Group has worked systematically through three guiding principles: explore, disseminate and act. The presentation will provide concrete examples how these principles have been operationalised in practice to:
- Explore sustainability issues that require further learning and reflection, such as how a research library can address different dimensions of organisational climate impact.
- Disseminate knowledge by identifying what to communicate, where, and how to do this in the library environments.
- Act together by initiating collaborations and identifying relevant partners within and beyond the university.
Drawing on the experience from Malmö University Library the presentation will demonstrate how small, consistent steps can have significant impact, positioning the library as a catalyst for sustainability within the university context. It concludes by sharing lessons learned and how this work contributes to leadership for sustainability.
9.2) Sustainable Empowerment of the Library Landscape in Slovenia
Presenter: Mojca Rupar Korošec, National and University Library, Slovenia
We are co-creating the beginning of a new path, where the National and University Library (hereinafter NUL), together with its partners – other libraries – will co-create a sustainable knowledge society.
We are focusing on transforming ourselves into a modern digital center that uses advanced technologies, digitization of cultural heritage, and sustainable infrastructure to ensure secure, permanent, and effective access to knowledge and preserve Slovenian cultural memory. Key objectives include the digitization of collections, the management of digital resources, and the long-term preservation of digital heritage.
The NUL’s mission in the field of services and education is to empower users to critically address current issues and future challenges, to help shape proposals for solutions to them, and thus to actively assume the role of agents of social change.
The NUL’s mission in the field of research and development is to contribute, as an integral library, to solving social and environmental problems and to quality coexistence through its research and development work.
The NUL’s mission in the field of social action is to contribute to the respect of common values in the NUL’s organizational culture and, in cooperation and mutual exchange with stakeholders from the economy, politics, and civil society, to help shape responses to pressing issues of social transformation and a common sustainable future.
As part of our strategy, we are developing the NUL SUSTAINABLE AND GREEN LIBRARY PROGRAM, and we have decided, as required by law, that the document will serve as a framework for the development of national guidelines for sustainable libraries. We are a trustworthy institution that builds a democratic and sustainable society.
We rely on the effective European Code of Conduct for the Research Community, which promotes ethical thinking. Its principles are important throughout the research system and in all professional fields from the perspective of sustainability. We link sustainability and ethics in the library and understand it as a natural process that means responsibility towards people, the community, and the future. The library is one of the few public spaces where these two dimensions meet in practice every day.
Our decision to transform the library into a sustainable and green one is based on a commitment to general environmental goals and programs in line with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We follow the goals defined in the Resolution on the National Program for Culture 2024–2031 (RNPK), EU strategies such as the European Green Deal, and international guidelines from IFLA and UNESCO.
We have structured a comprehensive view of sustainability issues based on the definition of three pillars (ecological, economic, social).
The inclusion of sustainable content in the educational program is one of our priorities. We have prepared educational content to promote sustainable practices. We will conduct research on the sustainable operation of libraries in Slovenia, which will be used to prepare an ACTION PLAN for the sustainable operation of libraries in Slovenia.
Through its activities, as defined in its 2025-2029 strategic plan, the NUL aims to become a reference example of a sustainable and green library that promotes sustainable practices and raises awareness among the general public about the importance of sustainable development, for Slovenian libraries.
The NUL is committed to consolidating its role as a central national and international center of knowledge, culture, and sustainable development.
By establishing educational and cultural content and sustainable partnerships at the national and international level, it aims to become a leading center for the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage, digital inclusion, and cultural and scientific integration.
9.3) Develop to Sustain: Collaboration, Projects and Fundraising in Libraries as Means to Encounter a World in Change
Presenter: Päivi Maria Pihlaja, National Library of Finland, Finland
The ruptures and uncertainties around us today underscore the importance, both in libraries and elsewhere, of close and candid cooperation with similar actors and key stakeholders. Interactions are essential for tackling new complexities and building on shared interests related to libraries and their role in society. Current transitions also seem impactful due to their effect on pervasive conditions, such as funding, which contribute to the unpredictability of the environment.
In this presentation, we explore how the need to nurture institutional and research cooperation aligns with project and fundraising capabilities that can make networks more effective and powerful. In the National Library of Finland, the importance of cooperation and networks has been emphasised consistently in various sections of the organisational strategy for the years 2021–2030. Similarly, a new organisational structure, inaugurated in October 2024, built on similar motives. One notable revision to the structure was the creation of a new cross-cutting function dedicated to project collaboration and fundraising. The goal was to create a new internal platform for exchanges that could facilitate mutual learning and joint planning of activities related to these topics. Although the function was created around existing activities, it brought together competencies and job descriptions that had been carried out in somewhat secluded, separate settings.
Along with two other new “functions” devoted to data services and IT capabilities, the new entity was intended to advance the overarching goals of the new structure. One of these goals was to promote the idea of the NLF and its various service areas as a single entity. At the same time, collaboration and funding were seen as important ways to overcome challenges related to current transitions by improving the ability to communicate, act, and spread messages in concert with other actors.
In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the new entity that manages joint capacities in project collaboration and fundraising as described above. We will describe related operations before and after the reorganisation, and explain how the new function was organised in 2025. We will also discuss observations made during the process. Six different dimensions were provisionally identified to conceptualise essential aspects for further internal planning. We will explain how these areas could serve as alternative priorities in further progressive development.
The presentation will emphasise one of the six dimensions related to external networks and stakeholders. We will discuss how collaborations must be seen as integral to an organisation’s functions and responsibilities; how they can increase understanding and the ability to monitor wider operational environments; and how they overlap or converge with the daily collaborations of the library’s various experts. Finally, to outline future trajectories, we will ask how institutional capabilities could be cultivated to adapt to a rapidly changing operational landscape.