Back in December, Foundation Archivist Jo Wong became one of the first recordkeeping professionals in the country to undertake a new Carbon Literacy training course, developed specifically for archives. The training, provided by The National Archives and accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project, covered topics including climate change science, the impact on archives, carbon footprints, and action planning to reduce our carbon emissions in the heritage sector. 

The sessions also included plenty of opportunities to share ideas and experiences with other archives and records professionals, and was followed by post-course work to complete to help us achieve our goal of becoming a ‘greener’ archive. Successful completion of the additional work will result in Carbon Literate certification, demonstrating our commitment to making a difference in this area. 

Environmental sustainability is very much at the heart of The Princethorpe Foundation, as we continue our journey towards becoming carbon neutral. This is a process in which every member of our Foundation community plays a vital part, as detailed in our Environmental Sustainability Plan 2024 – 2029. 

Comments Jo Wong, “I feel very lukcy to have had the opportunity to participate in this important new training. The course was intensive and challenging at times, but also inspirational and supportive, exploring how we can make changes in our workplace to protect our planet now and into the future. Climate change is currently a much discussed topic in the heritage sector and I am keen to share learnings from the course with colleagues across the Foundation, to help us all progress further towards our Net Zero goal.”

Since attending the course, Jo has already started finding ways to improve the efficiency of the environmental control systems in the Foundation Archive strongroom, and has begun work on reducing the Archive’s digital carbon footprint through identifying and removing duplicate digital files. 

From The Archives: The below image is a recycling logo designed by a Princethorpe College student in 1991, when the College started its first paper recycling scheme.