Sustainability and responsibility in the National Library

The principles of sustainable development are reflected in the National Library’s operations and service development. The Boldly sustainable change program, published in 2021, sets the background for the National Library's perspective on sustainable development and presents its goals and roadmap.

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The ethos of sustainability is at the core of the National Library's operations. In the future, we want to develop our operations and services in an increasingly sustainable direction, secure everyone's access to sources of knowledge, culture and civilization, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

Kimmo Tuominen, National Librarian

    Sustainable development in the National Library

    The UN's sustainable development goals serve as a basis for planning

    "The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere." Read more
    from the UN's webpage.
    These goals served as a basis for the National Library's planning of its sustainable development programme.

    National Library's basic operations support the principles of sustainable development excellently

    Our operations support many sustainable development goals from the perspectives of cultural and social sustainability.

    • The roots of our operations go all the way back to 1640; we have recorded published cultural heritage and made it available for use ever since.  This reduces the need for other organisations to store and digitise materials or make materials available. 
    • Our operations support the best access to materials possible.
    • We promote Open Science.
    • Our digital services are available to everyone, e.g. https://kansalliskirjasto.finna.fi/, https://finna.fi/ and https://digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi/

    Read our sustainable development programme (pdf):

    Carbon footprint of the National Library

    Carbon footprint of the National Library of Finland: A report on carbon footprint assessment for 2019

    First report on the National Library’s carbon footprint was released in May 2023. According to the calculations in the report, the total amount of emissions from the National Library in 2019 was 1,018 tonnes of CO2eq. Two thirds of the emissions were generated by energy consumption at National Library facilities. The second largest amount, approximately 21%, was attributed to procurements, which are mainly purchases of ICT services and library materials. This figure does not include emissions from the National Library’s own digital services and its digitisation efforts.

    Read the report here: Carbon footprint of the National Library of Finland: A report on carbon footprint assessment for 2019
     

    Sustainability and responsibility in the University of Helsinki

    Administratively the National Library is part of the University of Helsinki. In its strategy the University of Helsinki aims at leadership in resposibility and sustainability.

    Read news about the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and sustainability transformation on the university's webpage.

    Cooperation with other organisations in the cultural heritage field

    The National Library is in a position to act as a support of the work for sustainability in the field of cultural heritage. We promote cooperation and dialogue in trying to find the best solutions.

    Work for the sustainability in other cultural heritage organisations:

    More information

    2023

    2022

    2021

    2020

    Contact information

    Susanna Eklund
    Planning Officer
    Finna Service
    National Library