Certifiably Sustainable: A clear path forward for your library

Original Air Date:
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m

with Jill Davis, Director, Hendrick Hudson Free Library & Dani Glaser,creator and Co-Director of Westchester Green Business
Facilitator: Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, co-chair, New York Library Association Sustainability Initiative Committee & Coordinator for Library Sustainability for the Mid-Hudson Library System

Thanks to a collaboration between the New York Library Association and Westchester Green Business (WGB) any public library in New York State can work with the WGB program to achieve a reduction in energy waste, water, and transportation costs as well as land use and purchasing.

The program, Green Business Certification, provides a turnkey system to successfully integrate sustainable practices into library operations. Library leaders will learn exactly where resources are being wasted and identify opportunities to increase efficiency and save money. Proprietary performance tools are used to calculate the economic and environmental impacts of energy, travel, waste, water, and refrigerants in a library, while staff surveys gauge behavioral impacts.

With funding awarded through Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Cleaner, Greener Communities (CGC) Program, Westchester Green Business has opened access for all public libraries in New York State to this groundbreaking program. It has helped dozens of businesses, nonprofits, and the award-winning Hendrick Hudson Free Library make operational decisions that result in a more sustainable, resilient future for themselves and their communities. This collaboration helps bring to life the Resolution on the Importance of Sustainable Libraries unanimously passed in 2014 by the Council of the New York Library Association.

The presenter slides for this webinar can be found here.