ARA Environmental Sustainability Group
The ARA Environmental Sustainability Group launched on Earth Day 2022. The purpose of this group is to advocate for environmental sustainability1 in the record-keeping sector and provide members of the ARA with the knowledge and resources to enact their professional duty to the environment, as outlined in the ARA Code of Ethics2.
Georgina Robinson initiated the setting up of the group after undergoing a study into climate action and UK record-keeping. The study found that many UK information professionals felt they had a professional duty to the environment, but found there were many barriers to action, including limited knowledge about sector-specific climate action and little support from professional bodies.
The group aims to challenge these barriers and to equip members with the knowledge to enact and advocate for climate action in the record-keeping sector.
Aims and Objectives
The main aims of the group relate to four areas: research, training, advocacy and collaboration.
Research – The group aims to investigate sector-specific climate risks and impacts, including the environmental footprint of analogue and digital record-keeping practices and how these impacts can be reduced. This research will also address how archives can prepare for and respond to environmental change through effective disaster planning and risk mitigation. Recognising that many professionals feel they lack influence to drive climate action in their workplace, the group will identify effective ways of communicating the importance of environmental sustainability to both internal and external stakeholders, including senior leadership.
Training – The group will support members of the ARA and the wider record-keeping community by providing training that strengthens understanding of the relationship between records and the environment. This will be achieved through lectures, workshops, Q&A sessions, and other knowledge-sharing events designed to build capacity and confidence in addressing environmental challenges across the sector.
Advocacy – To encourage the integration of environmental sustainability and climate action into everyday practice, the group will raise awareness of existing green standards, strategies, and best practice; advocate for sustainability to be embedded in future sectoral standards and guidelines; highlight the value of archives as resources for climate research; and promote their preservation and accessibility. The group will also deliver its research through publicly accessible channels, including social media campaigns, to broaden engagement and impact.
Collaboration – Finally, the group seeks to collaborate with other organisations and sectors to advance shared goals in research, training, and advocacy on environmental sustainability and climate action. Through partnership working, it aims to strengthen sector resilience and contribute to coordinated, long-term climate responses.
Meet the committee
Chair - Georgina Robinson is College Archivist at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She is interested in the intersection between records and the environment and contributed a publication in the Records Management Journal in a special issue on records management in the Anthropocene (Issue 3, 2021).
Secretary - Clare Horrocks (FRHistS) is a registered Scoping Consultant for the Archives Revealed programme at the National Archives and Secretary of the Environment and Sustainability Group at ARA. She has been Principal Investigator on a major collaboration with Gale Cengage Publishers—appointed as Academic Advisor for the online Punch Historical Archive—and has pioneered a number of attribution projects on Punch. Plans for 2025-27 include a major public engagement project with Sambourne House, for which she has received a British Academy Small Research Grant.
Events and Communications Officer - Charlotte Welch is a recent graduate of the MSc Information Management and Preservation at the University of Glasgow. She currently volunteers at the archive of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and has worked on cataloguing and engagement projects. She has a long-standing interest in sustainability which she means to carry with her through her career.
Research Officer – Alasdair Bachell is an archivist at the University of Dundee and was previously the archivist for the energy company SSE. He completed his PhD in Energy in 2021 which looked at the potential for the reuse of historic mill sites as hydropower generators in the Highlands & Islands. He is particularly interested in the intersection of heritage and sustainable energy use, and utilising historic records in climate change action and education.
Research Officer – Alex Wade is a Preventive Conservator who has been active in Conservation since 2016. Her time spent as The London Archive's Green Group Lead, involved looking for practical and workable solutions to waste management within the conservation and archives sector. Her passion for sharing sustainable practice inspired a selection of publications for the Institute of Conservation and talks. She currently serves as an ICON Sustainability Group Committee Member alongside the ARA Sustainability Group. In 2024 she received ICON's Marsh Award for Environmental or Sustainability Focus in Conservation.
Research Officer - Stacey Anderson, is the Media Archivist at The Box, Plymouth, UK, with over 22 years of experience in the cultural, heritage and visual arts sector including as founding Archivist for the South West Image Bank and Collections Manager for the South West Film & Television Archive. Stacey qualified as an Archivist in 2008, gained professional Registration with ARA in 2017, became an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2018 and acquired a UK accredited certification in Copyright in 2024. In her current role she is responsible for the care and development of film, photographic and digital collections, specialising in sustainable digital preservation.
Research Officer – Alex Buchanan is Reader in Archive Studies at the University of Liverpool and former President of the ARA. She has long-standing interest in sustainability, including research into how archives can support local food movements, alternative economies and supervises doctoral research in related areas. She is a trained Carbon Literacy facilitator and delivers Carbon Literacy training to the archives sector. She is also a member of the ARA Ethics Working Group.
Case Studies
The group are collecting case studies to help inform the sector on a number of topics: Built environment, Collecting environmental records, Strategic management, Knowledge sharing and Digital Preservation.
You can find the case studies here.
If you would be interested in providing a case study, please contact the group via ARAEnvironment@archives.org.uk
Get in Touch
If you would like to know more about this group, please contact us at ARAenvironment@archives.org.uk You can also follow us on Twitter @ARAEnvironment