Inspired by the leadership of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), and library colleagues, associations, and institutions around the world, the OISE Library team created our first Sustainability & Climate Action Plan. This plan is an important first step in the OISE Library’s efforts to support sustainability and climate initiatives. As the largest education library in Canada, we want to help address the climate crisis in ways that benefit our institutions, our communities, and beyond. Our Sustainability & Climate Action Plan builds on work already in progress. These strategies will guide how we support sustainability and help drive positive change at the University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) and beyond.

How it works

The OISE Library Sustainability & Climate Action Plan supports the University of Toronto’s climate and sustainability initiatives, OISE’s Sustainability & Climate Action Plan, and broader efforts that connect with social and climate justice work. The Plan takes steps to address the growing climate crisis from within the academic library by putting forward 3 key focus areas and 35 actions items that the OISE Library will take over the next two years (2024-26).

The Plan's 3 key focus areas are:

Supporting teaching & learning for sustainability and climate change: This focus area includes developing and delivering information literacy programming, creating instructional resources, strengthening sustainability-focused resources and collection practices, and expanding open programming and events at the OISE Library.
Leveraging community partnerships: This focus area involves collaborating on and promoting sustainability initiatives and research at OISE, contributing to scholarship and professional initiatives related to sustainability and climate action within the Canadian academic library community, and opening channels of communication across UTL.
Built environment and operations: This focus area includes identifying and exploring existing frameworks and models for sustainability in libraries, exploring opportunities for facility and services improvements at OISE Library, and leveraging opportunities related to existing and alternative equipment/supplies purchasing and collections acquisitions models for libraries.

Download a PDF of the full plan at the bottom of this page or view the plan in your browser here.

OISE Library Sustainability & Climate Action Plan

How we did it

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