>> Jennifer Peterson
just a reminder that there is a learner guide that Rebekkah has created for this series to guide your conversations locally.

know that it's something that you can customize if you have basic facets of the series that you'd like to hone in on.

you can adapt those for use in your community, so don't forget that's another resource to extend your learning on the topic.

again, we're so thankful to sustainable libraries initiative to be able to offer this series of webinars and resources for you to explore further, and we're thrilled to have Rebekkah Smith Aldrich be leading this series with us.

I'm going to introduce Rebekkah and Michaela Porta, who we'll call Miki today.

we're so glad to have an additional voice.

but Rebekkah comes to us as the executive director at the Mid-Hudson library system in New York, and is the co-founder and current president of sustainable Libraries Initiative and author of many books.

and Michaela Porta comes to us as the environmental social governance coordinator at the New Canaan Library in Connecticut.

so glad to have both of you here.

welcome, Rebekkah.

>> REBEKKAH: thank you so much, Jennifer.

once again we are so appreciative of web junction for partnering with the sustainable libraries initiative on this series, and we really can feel the love from the audience each time we do these, each month, which has been fantastic.

we have made a lot of new friends along the way.

we hope to make more today.

this is the fourth installment in the series, as J.P. 

mentioned.

our goal here today is to unpack something that was introduced in one of the earlier sessions, which is the idea of climate justice and really take a deeper dive on what's called the six pillars of climate justice.

we'll discuss all of the different frameworks out there.

but then we'll talk to Miki, who is an incredibly interesting person just in general but also happens to have worked on a project that is the first of its kind in our world, which is libraries.

so we're going to talk about justice-centered design of library facilities, which might be something new to a lot of folks on the webinar today.

to get us started, first a micro review for folks who weren't with us, then the climate justice framework.

we'll break for questions in case anything came up as I introduced that.

and then what you're here for is to hear from Miki, who might be way more interesting at the end of the day than me.

so J.P., I'll just ask if I can have control of the screen to advance the slides at a pace that works well for me that would be great.

thank you.

so just a reminder for everyone of why we're here.

climate change is a big, real thing that we are all feeling the effects of today.

and as we have discussed multiple times, climate scientists are predicting we will look back on 2023 as the good old days.

it's just going to get more intense weatherwise and we're going to see more frequent severe weather as we move forward, probably for at least the next 30 years.

and that's only if we do everything right when it comes to climate change mitigation and reduce those greenhouse gases to stop climate change from growing any bigger than it already has.

so the likelihood of that is hard to predict.

as we discussed in our last two sessions, we know we need to adapt right now in the face of what we're seeing and what is predicted.

and across all of that, we need to understand the level of disruption that this is causing across the globe.

and recognize the fact that the folks that take on the most burden because of climate change are the folks that have least likely contributed to the causes of climate change.

so the idea of justice, equity, in these approaches that we are discussing throughout this series needs to be threaded throughout everything we do.

so that's the focus of today's webinars are to discuss that.

in the face of us acknowledging the severity of client change and the impact on our communities and recognizing the truth beyond the call to action from the American Library Association, this is the grandist challenge of our generation.

it very easy to lose sight of that as we see the challenges of the day that takes up our time and energy.

but in the background, climate change is chugging along, harming people, and causing a lot of questionable predictions about what's going to happen next.

as we think about putting people at the heart of the decisions we make for our libraries, which we do all the time in our strategic planning, there's an added urgency to that work as we consider the effects of climate change on the communities that we serve.

so just a quick review.

characteristics of a sustainable library, coming out of the sustainable libraries initiative.

we are working with over 100 libraries and professionals across the country and now Canada who are working through the Sustainable Library Certification Program, including myself and Miki.

we are participants in that program.

I finished it.

Miki is well on her way.

these are things that have risen to the top as key characteristics or attributes of libraries that are really well positioned to be true leaders on the topic of climate change, climate action, and climate justice.

we really need to see libraries that are leading from within with authenticity and living their values out loud, through policy, how we break barriers to service, how we build and operate our buildings.

it has to be baked into how we operate our libraries.

then we have to be a catalyst for social cohesion and participation.

we're going to talk more about that in depth today.

we have dove into climate mitigation and climate adaptation earlier in the series.

those are recorded and available with the backup materials right on the webjunction website.

you can watch them whenever is convenient to you.

but these four attributes need to be in our operational planning, our emergency planning, and how we think about the future of our libraries and contribute to our communities.

so we have talked a lot about climate action throughout the series.

and just to flash this in front of you again, the sustainable Li brass initiative, we leed to define things so we are speaking the same language.

this is the formula we use to explain climate action in our world.

but it's a combination of activities with intention that equals climate action.

and so as we have unpacked this throughout the series, we have talked about mitigation and reducing greenhouse gases as traditional climate action, combining that with the really urgent need for adaptation.

we have to adjust in the face of the changes climate change has resulted in for our communities.

and then how we do all of this work must be done with empathy, respect, and understanding.

and that's what we're here to focus on today.

really thinking about the human element of the work that we do, and to think through all of the different intersections that come into this work.

and this is really where people get overwhelmed.

I think we get overwhelmed overall on the topic, but as we start to think about the human connection to what is happening in the world today, this didn't start today.

it didn't start yesterday.

the things we're seeing today and the problems we're trying to solve have evolved over a very long time and are often tied to very complicated issues related to our society and decisions that have been made hundreds of years ago, as well as economic modeling choices that have been made by our society.

so these are deep, challenging problems, no doubt.

and so that's part of why we're here today, is to acknowledge that and to do our best to find entry points to address these issues.

instead of feeling paralyzed by the issue or just kind of taking shots in the dark of trying to do things we think will help, let's get focused.

let's be methodical.

you can choose whatever framework you want.

I chose one here today to organize the talking points.

as you think about climate justice, which really is imbued throughout almost everything we talk about in this series, which is why we devoted a whole session just to climate justice.

and really climate justice is talking about respect for people and the planet as we make future decisions.

if you want to boil it right down to what we're really talking about, that's it.

but of course nothing is quite that simple, right?

and climate justice is no different.

many of you know this is really one of my favorite quotes of all time from John Muir, who is often called the father of our national Parks System.

you thought you could just solve one quick thing, but then you realize, oh, that's tied to this economic problem.

that's tied to this social problem.

well, if I really want to impact that, I have to go over here.

when you get there, you realize that's connected to six other problems.

before you know it, you're overwhelmed in thinking what am I going to do to make an impact in this situation?

where should I even start?

that's where we find people getting into these kind of loops they can't get out of because they are not quite sure they are going to have an impact and work on the right things and where should I start.

what's most important to my community?

you're going to get exhausted just listening to me kind of like pull that thread, literally, through that issue.

it's enormous, and it's overwhelming.

have I said it's overwhelming yet?

it's overwhelming.

let's try to unpack this a little bit today.

this is the framework that I have decided to use here today.

now, if you Google or search for climate justice framework, you are literally going to find pages of results.

you're going to find the Stanford framework for climate justice.

the two pillars, the four pillars, and the six pillars.

people in this big old world we live in have tried to wrap their arms around it.

and to break it into more bite-size pieces.

there is no one right way to describe climate justice.

I'm not saying the way I describe it today is the best way to describe climate justice.

but I think it's a good faith effort from the University of California, who has studied the issue and brought scholars together to talk to people in the field to start categorizing the work in a way we can wrap our arms around, that we can understand and relate to, and plan towards.

so I'm just going to take the six pillars today.

we're going to walk through each of the six.

hopefully it starts to group the work in a way that's relatable to you.

like I said, you might prefer the Stanford social innovation approach.

cool.

so here we go.

let's talk about the six pillars and how they relate to the work we are doing in libraries.

number one is the most obvious.

this is the social, racial, and environmental justice end.

this is really what most people think about when it comes to climate justice.

we're often thinking about the systemic racism, systemic choices that have been made over time that have created situations that make some in our communities more vulnerable than others.

and you can see here from the New England Journal of Medicine the gap because of decisions that have been in real estate, relegating less desirable pieces of land to demographic groups that could afford that land or who were basically shoe horned into those areas in our communities.

often they'll find themselves in flood plains or areas that are suffering much more during heat waves because of the heat island effect in paved areas and urban settings.

as we look at the health effects and health impacts of climate change, we'll often find folks that have been marginalized, whether it's for lower educational status or economic status.

that's not something we fix by recycling, right?

that's something we fix by doing the work in our profession that's been identified as equity, diversity, and inclusion work.

and actually righting the wrongs of the past and finding new ways forward as a community that takes into account these deficits and how our communities have been designed, created and populated.

so obviously a very, very big area of work, but I think it's important as libraries have done such a good job of prioritizing equity, diversity, and inclusion work since 2020 and the murder of George Floyd, that we recognize the ties that work has to climate action.

it is climate action.

so as we think about the justice work that we do as libraries, it again speaks to why we are so well positioned to be sustainability leaders and to help all be heard in our communities.

so getting to know the community, getting to understand how some of these demographic, social, and racial trends have impacted where people live and how they are affected by perhaps flooding or a heat wave or what it looks like when there's an evacuation order, understanding the social kind of code behind what's going on when these things are happening is really important to understand the correct responses to be participating in, with either the first responder community or stepping up as Michelle stricker said in the last community as the first restorer roleplaying in our community to help people get back on their feet after these events or to just survive these events.

how do we help target those populations that need more help than others in our community?

we have to recognize those inequities.

the second piece of the pie that we saw in the pillars is related to climate education and engagement.

this is a really frustrating one to talk about because for so many years, there was misinformation and climate change denial throughout our country, which means there is a big hill to climb up sometimes to educate people about climate change and what the right actions are to be taking in this moment.

as we position ourselves to become educational providers in this specific area, we are already educational institutions, are we owning and partnering with others to educate people in the community, including folks who have been traditionally disenfranchised in conversations about climate change, including young people.

that's why you see a picture here from the Youth Climate Summit.

side note, project that is very well worth people's time.

but the idea that we're going to base education on this topic in science, not in feelings, not in guesses, not in, well, I think I heard this, in science.

let's listen to the scientists, get them in front of people, help them connect people with the right path forward.

and making sure that all of the intersections are not acknowledged.

that we are not talking broadly to one audience.

we are talking to a segmented audience that is experiencing climate change in different ways depending on social justice issues related to our community makeups.

so that goal that you see very clearly stated, we have to effectively communicate climate change from that social justice inequity perspective if we want to solve the climate crisis.

that includes education, inviting people to the table, special outreach to groups that have been marginalized in the past, and empowering folks to do work that matters that's based in science.

just another shoutout for Project Drawdown that we have talked about a couple of times in the program.

let's look to the scientists to tell us where time is best spent.

the third area is indigenous climate action.

this is getting a lot of attention from the library association president.

her April session is dedicated to highlights indigenous voices.

watch out for that panel discussion.

it will be a good one.

tribal librarians are connected to tribal environmental officers.

they are doing targeted work on tribal lands, often in advance and more advanced work than we've been doing in municipalities outside of tribal lands.

so not only to respect the wisdom of folks that have lived on the land far longer than many of us who are immigrants, but recognizing that really it's the intersection of indigenous knowledge and western science that can be the most impactful choices moving forward.

so listening to the voices of people who have lived way closer to the land, who have more knowledge sometimes about traditional ways of doing things that really should have been the way that was carried forward today, to avoid a lot of the problems that have been made.

but we talk about indigenous tribes and cultures across the United States and beyond our borders.

we have to recognize this is one of the groups that has been marginalized throughout history in terms of less desirable land, areas that have less infrastructure, places with less money to solve problems that are being presented by climate change.

so inviting folks to the table.

as you think about where you live and what part of the country you are in, recognizing environmental scans of stakeholders are indigenous friends and neighbors who are living in our communities need to be a part of our conversations.

and maybe we need to be part of their conversations.

so let's break down the us versus them on this topic, and really find pathways to work together.

and oftentimes libraries are a great place to create those platforms for folks to be heard that are not being heard in other larger conversations.

the just transition framework.

you'll notice that kind of mysterious phrase that was very popular perhaps 25, 30 years ago.

we are trying to bring it back.

I think it's a really strong model for us to be considering, given the acknowledgment that our economic choices are very much part of the drivers of climate change.

and that very difficult conversation that most people don't want to have about the fact that a lot of the solutions that we come up with to tackle climate change and climate change adaptation can have negative effects on communities.

so for example, we'll often here as we start seeing the push towards more electric vehicles.

immediately you hear people concerned about the mining that has to happen for the materials that make up the battery components of those electric vehicles.

and it becomes a choice, right, of lesser evil.

we are trying to mitigate climate change, but this solution has a negative impact on communities impacted by mining as well as the disposal of those batteries.

where do they go?

whose backyard will it pollute when we get rid of them?

as we think about a just transition, the ideas that we need to shift our economy and solutions in a way that is respectful of not just the environmental goals that we have, but of the humans that live in the areas that are impacted by those decisions.

solar panels is another good example.

these aren't just environmental metrics we are going for.

again, we have always talked about the need for balance amongst three things.

you're looking at the sustainable libraries initiative logo which is modelled on the triple bottom line idea of balance against environmental stewardship.

and that balance is what we're talking about.

as you learn about the just transition, it's really taking responsibility for choices that on the face of them seem to be the right direction to go for climate change, but may have unintended consequences for folks that are perhaps impacted by the harvesting of natural resources or the production of goods that are necessary to mitigate climate change but are perhaps polluting another community to gain those abilities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

I love some of the work coming out of the Climate Justice Alliance.

it's so straightforward.

sometimes we have to change the rules about how things are produced and how the economy works and worker rights.

but where is money going in these kind of -- these storylines of how to produce the good and how to include workers into some of this decision making to mitigate harmful decisions on the worker community or the communities that are being impacted by harvesting or, I think, getting rid of items.

move that money and disperse it into the hands of workers who am make better decisions for everybody, which is a very unpopular conversation particularly in the United States.

but build a bigger we.

we don't want it to just be corporations.

we can't have it just be us.

it has to be everyone, right?

the we.

the bigger we that's impacted by what's going on here.

and thinking more systemically about the choices that we are making.

changing that storyline from the single bottom line to the triple bottom line is what is at the heart of the just transition.

so this is a big complicated issue.

I've got a resource for you I'm going to give you toward the end of my portion of the talk here today to help you go deeper on this topic because it's a big one, but it is a big part of how we think and how we change our mindset for a better future in our world and our generation.

so this is a cool little strategic framework related to the just transition.

I know I'm dating myself bringing some of this stuff back up.

but it makes a lot of sense, so I think it's timeless in my opinion.

but the idea of here's five principles to adjust transition.

of course we want to see ecological restoration to create a healthier world for us to live in, but that can't be done in a vacuum.

that's what it's acknowledging, that we have to democratize our communities to make sure healthily decisions are being made by the people impacted by the production and distribution of goods.

and driving racial and social equity.

we talked about this all the time during this series.

people have to be at the heart of the decisions we're making, and in no place is this evident than in this conversation.

and I got some flak at one of the presentations I did not for Web Junction but a different environment when I was talking about folks that are coal miners.

and there are legitimate complaints that if you shift away from fossil fuels, we don't have a job.

that's true.

you are impacting the livelihoods of segments of our population by moving away from fossil fuels.

so they need to be part of the discussion.

OK.

we understand that.

so what are our solutions going to be?

so that creating a bigger we needs to include the voices of people being impacted by decisions we are making with good intentions that have unintended consequences.

so relocalizng production and consumption, getting it back into local, respecting our local businesses, our local artisans, our local chefs.

making sure they are celebrated and supported in our communities to really think about lessening the need to bring in goods from other places and to be dependent on other countries to get us goods that we need to thrive in the future.

and then retaining and restoring cultures and traditions.

this is the one I think libraries really see themselves reflected in very clearly.

but it goes back to respecting indigenous climate action work.

and really understanding how the natural world works and retaining the cultural trends of the demographics of our community and celebrating those so they are retained into the future to create the fabric of our place, to make places people want to live and be and invest in and create healthy futures for our children.

so we could do a whole workshop just on the just transition.

I think you can see that.

just from my little intro here.

but I encourage you to jot that phrase down.

it's going to be one of the absolute key decision making points of how well our society does in the face of climate change moving forward.

the truth is transition is happening right now.

whether or not justice is threaded throughout that transition is what we're going to have to fight for.

we're going to have advocate for it.

and as library workers, we have to think about where is our sphere of influence to help all be heard in these processes our communities might be undertaking with very good intentions, but for some areas very challenging outcomes.

now the next piece of the pie, the other pillar we wanted to talk about, community resilience and adaptation.

we did a whole program on that just last week that's recorded and available on the Web Junction website.

please do check it out.

that's what we devoted the entire 90-minute program to.

we talked about short-term planning.

this is a little visual here about short-term planning.

steps to resill YEPS and adaptation.

recognizing your climate hazards.

planning to them.

learning from other communities that are going through these things, and incorporating that into your planning at your library to make sure in the short-term you know what hazards are most likely and what your plan is to respond if that does happen in your community.

but there is also that big investment of time and energy in long-term resilience and adaptation.

and that speaks to that second attribute of a sustainable library, right?

being a catalyst, a deliberate catalyst, for social cohesion and participation.

there's so much good literature out there about these topics.

we have thrown a lot of resources to you in the first few entries into our series here today.

but again going back to that idea of can we please cultivate empathy, respect, and wanting for one another and help people come together and learn how to listen to each other and work together so we can problem solve together on issues small to large.

and the formula is really not that difficult.

let's really just look at this little graphic I made for you in the middle of this thing.

let's get people up.

let's get them active.

go find the let's Move in Libraries project.

give them a sense of purpose, common things to work on that make a difference in people's lives, which creates a sense of community that we are all in this together.

and Lessen people's anxiety and fear about their neighbors so they can talk to each other and civically participate in voting, in making policy changes.

let's get them out there and get them together.

just a shoutout to all of my programming friends on the webinar here today.

when you are doing those events like Fiber Arts, battle Of The Books, all of these things that get people out of their houses, come together, have fun together, learn together.

this is what we're talking about.

we're not talking about the summit that is going to change everything, right?

we're talking about small, doable programs that bring people together.

and really behave as neighbors in a really challenging environment that our world is today.

so it's doable.

it's things we can do that plant the seeds for working on bigger things together.

now the next to last item in the six pillars there is natural climate solutions.

and we think about justice and access, we have to think about the natural world and the justice we do to it and how we allow people to have access to it.

so there is a number of ways to think about this particular pillar of climate justice.

but I just put a few of the ideas here for you to think about.

we think about clean air.

where does that come from?

making sure we are reforesting forests we have cut down.

getting gardening in the hands of people that don't live near traditional agricultural areas.

thinking about where food comes from and how we get affordable fruits and vegetables into the hands of everyone.

even people who live near farming centers don't always have good access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

thinking about the access to, I think, natural solutions that are cleaning our air, giving us better food to eat, helping the environment restore itself because of damaging choices that we have made in the past, and thinking about that across all neighborhood types, rural, suburban, and urban as part of climate justice.

there is so much -- I could have done a whole program just on this pillar because there's so much exciting work going on in libraries on this topic.

I just gave you one picture here from the Brooklyn Public Library in their Brooklyn incubator.

they tried urban farming near some of the branch libraries in Brooklyn.

and kids and community groups are engaged and people have more access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

it's a really good thing all the way around while educating people about where food comes from.

once you understand where food comes from, you might make different decisions about what you buy and who you elect and how things are done in the future.

wrapping up this portion of it, I'll point out that a lot of what we just unpacked in those six pillars require us to think in a particular way.

I outlined this in my first book, "Sustainable Thinking."

this idea of libraries as climate justice catalyst.

I didn't call it that in the book in 2018.

that wasn't the language I was using back then, but truthfully that is what we are talking about.

the most important things for us to work on as a society.

it requires us to focus on local, on hearing local voices, on prioritizing local problems and hazards caused by climate change, and a host of other things.

but finding ways to work together and respecting diversity while we do that.

helping all be heard is something our profession has always prioritized from our prioritization and collection development and how we develop programs and inviting people whose voices haven't been heard in the past to the table, whether it be through the written or spoken word or educational opportunities.

these four kind of catalyst ideas do line up with those pillars that we talked about through the University of California Center for Climate Justice.

before we transition here to Q&A and then talking to Miki, this idea of thinking like a 21st century economicist.

As I mentioned, the just transition is one of the more challenging pillars in that list of six pillars.

A group of us that worked through the American Library Association for many years, you can see the names there.

The Committee on Climate Change.

As well as Monica Antonelli, who is an old school advocate on climate change in the profession, and Adrian ho, who has amazing work on open access and how that applies in the thinking of a better world for the future when it comes to climate change.

We wrote a whole book with a bunch of our friends, some of who you will hear from through this series, actually in the next event you'll hear from one of our chapter authors.

But we wrote a whole chapter on this idea of donut economics, which is based on the economic theory from a U.K. economist.

And a lot of the thinking she does in that book translates to how libraries can think about their role in a just transition.

And you can see here seven ways to think like a 21st century economist.

What we did in the article is translated that economic model to libraries.

So if you're looking to get an accelerated understanding of how libraries will participate in a just transition, this is an easy, quick resource for you.

It will be added to the Web Junction page.

A lot of us don't think like economists.

That's not what we went to school for.

That's not where our energy lies for the most part in our profession.

But it is a massive part of climate justice, that we can impact by modeling better behaviors and thinking about a lot of -- how a lot of what we do already speaks to what is needed.

So it gives you the vocabulary you may need to talk to different groups of people about how you are contributing to climate justice work already.

It's not always about new stuff.

Sometimes it's about talking about what we already do in a new way with this new vocabulary.

So J.P., I'm going to pause here before we introduce Miki and see if any questions have come through.

I know we threw a lot of people here for the first portion of the webinar, but it was important to take a deeper dive on the six pillars.

I didn't want to just show the pie chart and move on.

I thought it was worth it to.

>> It doesn't look like there's any special questions at this important.

We encourage you to share resources, links and your questions at any point, and we'll be collecting those and any of those great examples or perhaps links to your programs, know that we'll be adding those to the event page later.

But let's shift over.

I'm going to get rid of these slides and have you all take us on the next part of this journey.

I asked Miki to join us here because she and her director, Lisa Old Ham, have created a new space and building using a methodology never seen before in our profession.

What they have done is actually used a justice centered approach to their building project.

So we have all become familiar of hearing buildings that are prioritized environmental stewardship, making sure they are respecting energy conservation and water conservation and creating healthy indoor air quality.

But this team went in a whole new direction on top of environmental stewardship.

They also took on this idea of social equity in the building material supply chain, using a program called Design For Freedom, which is a newer methodology to look at how do we ensure the materials we use to build our buildings were not made by anyone in a situation where there is forced labor or slave labor.

So, again, thinking about that holistic, where do things come from?

Who is impacted along the supply chain line?

Are we making ethical decisions with the money that has been entrusted to us to produce library services and library buildings?

So I'm thrilled to have Miki here.

Miki, thank you so much for agreeing to do this.

>> MIKI: oh, my gosh.

it's my pleasure.

such an honor to be with you.

you are literally showing us the way through to this work step-by-step.

so thank you and to oclc and web junction and of course sli.

>> so you have a very unique job title.

I was hoping you would tell everyone what the job title is.

what it entails.

>> MIKI: so I am New Canaan library's first-ever E.S.G. 

coordinator.

that stands for environmental, social, and governance.

I look at all operations of the library through that triple framework.

and I look at outward facing things we do as well as inFARD facing things behind the scenes with staff.

and the title that we landed on of E.S.G. felt comprehensive of that triple bottom line and incorporates all aspects of it.

but it also felt familiar in our community context because we live in a community with lots of financial professionals, business people, people who have been used to hearing about E.S.G. in their kind of corporate experience.

so in your community, this might sound like something else.

it might be social justice coordinator.

it might be sustainability coordinator.

this is what we landed on because it worked specifically for us.

>> REBEKKAH: Miki, what's a day in the life of that position?

what are you working on a regular basis in that world?

>> MIKI: it's a bunch of different kind of lanes.

there's program development that happens because in the outward facing kind of channel I want to make sure that we're not missing people.

so where are some gaps in our programming?

where are some gaps in terms of who we are serving?

who doesn't feel seen?

what can we do to bring those people in, engage them, uplift them?

and sometimes it can be something small like you were talking about knitting circles, et cetera.

you know, the bread and butter of library service.

but sometimes, you know, really not something small.

really kind of putting ourselves out there and doing larger marquee events or things that just demand more of the staff or of our marketing to really show, you know, that we're putting some real energy behind it.

so there's development work.

there's definitely -- well, S.L.I., I mean, S.L.I. is incredible.

doing the S.L.I. certification has fallen into my wheelhouse, and for those of you not familiar with it, it's basically a path forward through this work.

S.L.I. is like having a friend who has done all of the work before and can tell you then how to do it, give you their cheat sheets, basically.

so like, you know, I am -- I have to jump through all of those hoops to get to that certification.

and a lot of that work is environmental.

a lot of it is social.

a lot of it involves governance.

so it can be anything from policy reviews and policy creation to tracking of metrics to, you know, different kinds of programming, reviewing collections, et cetera, et cetera.

so it's a lot of moving parts.

I think it's actually harder than LEEDcertification.

there's so much.

one of the more difficult things is actually the measurement, the measurement of progress because, again, there is quantitative and then there's the qualitative, which is what libraries are really good at, so it's always trying to assess, have we moved forward, have we moved backward, are we standing still.

and really qualify this for people who may not always understand libraries and the mission of libraries, including boards.

including library boards who don't always, you know, completely understand what it is that we're doing here or how libraries are functioning today.

so it's a lot.

I have my fingers in a lot of different pies.

>> REBEKKAH: necessarily so.

let's pivot and talk about your building project.

just give us a little bit of background about what the Genesis of the project was, what you were trying to achieve through the building project at the outset.

you know, maybe what the square footage goal was, just to give people context for the rest of the conversation.

>> MIKI: definitely.

there was a timeline, and there's some interesting things in there that people might find instructive.

so like a lot of people, our library was build about 100 years ago.

the original piece was like a little stone rectangle built in 1913.

in 2012, the decision was made that we needed a new building.

it had been added onto a bunch of times.

it was breaking down and failing, and we needed a new space.

so at that point community consultations began.

and that looked like surveys, focus groups, you know, really reaching out into the community and all of the stakeholders and saying, well, what do you love?

what don't you love?

what's missing?

and kind of taking the temperature there.

and then the following year in 2013, a few really interesting things happened.

one was a funding feasibility study, which of course you need to do.

you need to find out like how much money is it possible for us to raise.

and in our case, it was super important because 75% of all the money for this project came from philanthropic donations, so from the public using the library.

we needed to know how much money we could count on from those folks.

but almost more importantly was what our absolutely visionary executive director realized is you can't build a $40 million building without having $40 million worth of purpose in it.

so we really needed to reset who we were as a library, what kind of services are we delivering, what does our collection look like, what does our staff look like, what kind of training does our staff have.

so we really drilled down on this idea of wanting to provide experiences for our public that feel transformative and not transactional.

and that was a real mind shift.

and that was a mind shift that was across all sectors.

I mean, it's literally the backdrop of everything we do.

it's literally the backdrop of every talk I see you do.

libraries change lives.

that's it.

it's transformative, not transactional.

so between 2013 and 2018, we really dug in and did that work.

and then in 2018, we were able to kick our fundraising into high gear when we acquired the last parcel of land we needed to make this project a reality.

two years after that, 2021, construction began and we just moved in in 2023 in February to this highly flexible, incredibly transparent building.

you can see some of the transparency behind me, of space that's almost entirely -- almost the whole building is usable.

and it was built with this idea that people come first.

so while our collection is beautifully displayed and, you know, well cared for in this space, this was a space that was built for people first, enabling all kinds of experiences and opportunities for all different kinds of learners across all different kind of curricular areas in our adult and in our children's area.

>> REBEKKAH: so this idea of people first, you took this to the extreme.

>> MIKI: 100%.

>> REBEKKAH: you partnered with Design For Freedom.

talk about how that came about and how you and Lisa and your team convinced the board to go for it since no library had ever tried this before.

>> MIKI: it's interesting.

so in I think early 2021, Sharon Prince, based here in New Canaan, approached Lisa.

Grace Farms, for those who are not familiar with it, is an organization that from its inception was involved in the issue of human trafficking.

and they created a movement Called Design For Freedom.

this is a movement that seeks to remove complete enslaved labor from the built environment, because even though global laws forbid the use of forced labor, the building industry completely relies on it.

so this was news to us.

we did not know this, and Sharon talked to Lisa about how construction is the largest global industrialized sector, and it is rife with debt bondage, forced labor, child labor, you name it, and it exists with impunity because there are so many steps along the supply chain.

there's such a distance between the point of extraction of the material and here, you know, when it gets to be your carpet or your chair or your wall.

so Sharon talked to Lisa about this problem and about what they were trying to do, and said, would you be our first pilot project in the United States?

and of course Lisa, as a librarian, I mean, you know, the answer was yes, yes, absolutely yes.

not only because there's a moral imperative but as a library, literally a platform for lifelong learning, this is materially and conceptually in our wheel House.

This is our director learning something she had not known existed, and we have the opportunity to do something with our building but also do something with our platform to raise awareness about it.

and I think the board was very receptive because Lisa is such a visionary.

that's why they brought her to New Canaan in the first place, to build this building, so they trust her.

but she was able to communicate this as a win on every level across the board.

like we cannot not do this.

and I think she also drew a comparison to LEED certification.

and said, hey, everybody, remember that certification 30 plus years ago?

yeah, because it wasn't a thing.

but now LEED is a huge thing.

and that's what this is trying to do, is bring transparency to this process.

>> REBEKKAH: I love Lisa so much because she gets me jazzed up every time I talk to her.

but she makes such a good point.

once you know, you can't unknow.

once you understand what the labor force looks like internationally that allows some of these materials to be affordable for libraries and their project, you have to confront the reality of that economic system that is not just and that is on the backs of folks that are really not treated well to put it mildly.

so this task that we're taking about, you know, LEED certification.

there is a pathway forward.

there are recommended models how to get stuff done.

there are vendors that are trusted and proven and time worn.

we know how to get these things done.

you embarked on a methodology that really had no guidance in terms of -- we have vetted all of these vendors.

buy from these people, and you'll be good to know and you'll know your products have not been made with slave labor.

my understanding is you had to source all of those building materials to ensure on that supply chain they were truly forced labor free.

is that right?

>> MIKI: well, here's the thing.

when we got involved in this, it was so early that from the very beginning, and also we were, you know -- in 2021, we had already bought our steel and had it on hold waiting for the project.

so it wasn't as early as it should have been.

but in any case, since we were the first, there was an understanding that we were not going to be able to actually certify that everything in this building is forced labor free.

what we could do is crack into the process by identifying 30 components, and not low-hanging fruit.

we wanted it to be hard.

we didn't want to identify things that we knew we could just check off and make ourselves feel good.

we wanted to identify 30 components that Turner Construction, our construction company, would then ask subcontractors to trace back as far as they could if possible to the point of extraction, and it really wasn't so much to certify that the material was clean.

it was to figure out how do we even shop this conversation, how do we begin this process, how do we design a tracking methodology.

and so probably the most important thing we did as a pilot project was bring Turner in.

when they come and talk to you, you're going to remember that.

so they did.

they talked to their subs.

and they said, where's this coming from?

and what we found was that many of the subs were guarded.

they had never been asked this question before, so they weren't sure how to answer.

they weren't sure what to do.

it was a completely new conversation.

and so it involved a lot of like kicking of tires.

like, OK, well, this subcontractor is kind of stonewalling us.

how do we change the approach?

do we go to the person above them, below them, change the language?

we wanted it to come across not that we're trying to catch you out and punish you.

instead we're saying, join us.

join us on this journey.

get in on the ground floor with us.

this is what we're trying to do.

be a change maker.

and there's a reputational advantage to that that some people really can't resist.

for other people, it's like how it was for Lisa.

the answer is yes, and I'll figure it out later how to make it work, you know.

but it was more about how to design the process rather than how to ensure that every single tack and bolt in the building was clean.

>> REBEKKAH: what did you learn through that process that you just described what you were engaging with the construction company and the subs?

>> MIKI: well, one of the things we learned was that if you are devoted to this work, you're in it for the long haul.

this is going to be hard.

it is not easy.

and it's like you said.

have I said, you know, did I mention that it's overwhelming?

yeah, it is overwhelming.

it's a lot.

it is a very, very complicated patchwork.

so Design For Freedom was absolutely worthwhile.

we are still committed to it.

we said that we would continue to raise awareness about the issue through our building but also by having like, you know elect are yous, panels -- 

lectures, panels, workshops, whatever.

but I want to be honest and say that for me, the biggest take-away from Design For Freedom was that it helped us interrogate what we are doing here, right now, because Design For Freedom was so focused globally on just treatment of people very far away from us who we will never meet.

but what are we doing about our service to the community or our support for our staff?

how are we striving for that triple bottom line in everything we do here and now?

we didn't want to pat ourselves on the back and say, check, we did our bit for social equity because that's low-hanging fruit.

Design For Freedom didn't really cost us anything.

but creating my position, that did cost us something.

this is now a funded position, so it's a priority.

and there's somebody accountable for making progress.

and what that progress looked like, just a few concrete examples, was immediately here we were thinking about Design For Freedom.

we didn't have a purchasing policy.

so we wrote one.

because it's like, hey, guys, you know, how much are we ordering from Amazon?

what are we ordering?

who is making this stuff?

do we even need this stuff?

is it just more garbage?

so a purchasing policy.

how do we message to our community in the most basic way what our values are?

we didn't have any kind of values statement, so we created a climate and equity pledge.

and we combined the climate and the equity piece because of course it's intersectional.

it's related.

it's interrelated.

they have to live together for us.

so now that lives on our website and in all of our documents.

you know, we did a lot of policy reviews to see, is the triple bottom line reflected in black and white on paper?

where are we posting jobs?

who are we recruiting?

how are we reaching out to these folks?

is it just on our website?

you know, where is it?

so we have done a lot of work.

you know, we committed to doing the sustainable libraries certification training, which is huge.

that's been a real education.

we have committed to doing more training for our staff.

and by training, I mean formal training where we'll shut down the library and do like an in-service day to do some really deep sustainability training or E.D.I. training, but it can also be smaller things.

it can be like an email that a staff member sent recently for the Korean harvest festival, where she described what this is and said, come on over to the staff room and enjoy some treats.

so like everything in between, just always kind of making room at the table for everyone, being that radically inclusive space that libraries are committed, in fact, mandated, to be.

the other thing that I really want to mention because I hear a lot about how libraries need to be neutral.

libraries are neutral.

we can't be political.

and I always say to people, you know, everything is political.

there is nothing that is not political.

what libraries can't be is politically partisan, but we absolutely, 100% are political spaces and we need to be if we're doing our work correctly, because you need to engage with your municipal government, your local nonprofits, your chamber of commerce, your businesses.

and one way we are really leaning into our climate justice commitment is we convene a monthly meeting of all over -- 

over 20 organizations in town called the Nature Environment Coalition is what we call it.

these are conservation, nature, environmental stewardship groups.

one day we were sitting around the table, and a political appointee, the head of the town conservation commission, said, wow, this is a really powerful group.

and we have the plan of conservation and development renewal coming up in town.

this is a document, the guiding document, for conservation and development in our town.

it's renewed every -- or revised once every 10 years.

and it's this much conservation to this much development.

that's been the deal.

but suddenly looked around the table, a table that we set for -- we're not the bosses of it, we're the convenors of it.

but he looked around this table and said, wow, together we speak so much more powerfully than individually.

this is the first time we've had something like this.

so now we are enabling this group to come up with guidelines for the next 10 years in our town.

it's really powerful.

and that's library mandated work.

>> REBEKKAH: yeah.

what say good example you have given here, Miki.

I'm kicking myself for wasting any time at the beginning of the webinar when people could have been hear you from you already, because you are living it, putting all of this methodology into practice, conversations, action, living our valuing out loud with the staff.

it's all coming to life in the work that you're doing at New Canaan, which is super cool.

a lot of folks just messaged me asking for your climate and equity pledge.

I posted that in the chat box.

and there's a lot of good questions coming up for you from the audience.

and I want to wrap up with a couple more that I had for you.

now, you obviously were aware of LEED.

while I think that that became parse and parcel of your triple bottom line approach, it's not your only facets of that organization or the building that's super interesting.

could you talk about some of the environmental stewardship decisions you made in the project?

>> MIKI: definitely.

our building, we worked with LEED architects to get the most environmentally conscious buildings as we could.

we created didactic signage that is beautiful and lives permanently all around our building, and it's calling out features as large and important and sort of sexy as solar panels and the green roof and our all electric system that's poised for like 100% renewable future, as well as smaller things like an induction cook top that you might walk by and not notice or the drinking water.

like the bottle fillers and the fact that our faucets are already filtered so you can just turn on a faucet in the kitchen or the staff kitchen or, you know, the conference room, and it's filtered water.

so we felt strongly that we needed to have some kind of passive environmental education because this is no longer nice to have, it's a need to have.

so I don't care where you're at with climate change or where you're at with environmentalism.

if you walk into the bathroom or go to drink water, you're going to see this sign and you're going to get something from it, like it or not.

you know?

and it's not -- you know, it's very gentle and it's what we're supposed to be doing.

this is a building that is all about education in every which way, you know?

>> REBEKKAH: I love it.

I love that you're using the building as part of your collection.

you're helping to educate through the choices that were made.

and also -- I'm not sure how to say this in a way that won't sound like of machiavellian, but you're getting credit for making good decisions on behalf of the future generations.

I just saw a couple of kids walk by you there.

I'm thinking, what is their impression?

their experience not only in the library but what they know about that institution in their home town where they grew up.

that's the way things get done.

that's the way they assume other people should be behaving.

and I think that's really -- 

you're getting mileage out of the decisions that you made not only ethically and at your core, but I think from that living laboratory opportunity to teach through the building and the choices that were made in the fixtures and furnishings as well.

I will just say I took a field trip to Miki's library.

and I love the signage.

it's fantastic.

there's all of these great little features that make you wonder over and ask a question like, what is that in and there's a sign there that tells you, and it's fantastic.

>> MIKI: well, I think intentionally, we know design communicates.

you know, when you walk into a space, you feel something.

so what is it?

if you're building a new library, what is it that you want people to feel from being in that space or walking by that space or looking through the window?

what is it that you want to communicate?

and I think that that was, you know, with -- back to Design For Freedom, of course the answer was going to be yes, we'll do everything we can.

but, you know, what are we doing here right now for this community with the resources that we have, with the people that we have, you know?

what are we communicating to our community and how are we engaging them in this work?

inviting them in and meeting them in a place -- you know, some people have been doing justice work forever, and some people, you know, they just hear the word justice and they check out.

so how do we get people to do justice work without sometimes calling it justice work, you know?

it might be like somebody tries to go book a room, like the one I'm in, and they might get a little thing that says, you know, your meeting or event is welcome at New Canaan Library.

please join us by eliminating or reducing plastic use.

bring a reusable water bottle to the building.

or if you're going to have an event and you want to bring temporary goods, here are some links for compostable items.

it's kind of got to be all of the above.

>> I can feel people on the chat that are all jealous of your job, that you get to focus on this all of the time and make all of these intersections happen.

we all think about it, but a lot of us don't have time to make it happen and a lot of us don't have a building project.

I'll ask you to talk a little bit about your thoughts.

you folks jumped onto the sustainable library certification program almost before you finished your building.

so those who might be interested in why did you choose that, what drew you to that, you talked about methodology to move forward with.

but is it actually helping your library?

>> MIKI: I just want to say you don't need a new building.

so we were in our old building, and we did not -- I mean, I -- 

this building, I couldn't even visualize really truly what this building was going to be.

you just have to have the commitment.

and even before the building was built or even the shovel was in the ground, the commitment to sustainability and E.D.I. work was strong on our staff.

the thing was that it was being carried by a few people, kind of on the side.

so I think the biggest thing that my position has done is to really enshrine this work into the organizational DNA.

and let me tell you, Lisa is a visionary.

and the staff here is the best.

but we still have to defend my position.

we still have to go in front of town bodies who say, what is that?

you know, I've gotten emails saying, what do you even do there?

they don't all like it.

so you don't need a new building.

you can just kind of lean into this work.

I mean, I'm happy to -- I can't look at the chat and talk at the same time.

but I will definitely look at this and send material that can be sent out afterwards, and anybody can contact me and I'm happy to have a conversation about different ways to do this work where you are, with what you have.

it's possible.

it's actually urgently needed, you know?

it's not an option.

>> REBEKKAH: amen, sister.

that's why I love working with you, because you articulate so well the vision we have for the sustainable Libraries Initiative.

how does it look like, how can we do this?

I'm seeing a couple of people in the chat really appreciative of all you have shared today and getting a chance to look at your climate and equity pledge and anxious to see the signage you mentioned and what they might be able to replicate.

but I want to turn it over to J.P. who has been monitoring the chat box for us because none of us could keep up with what was doing on.

what kind of questions have come through?

I know there was a big conversation about climate anxiety and grief that I'm happy to tackle during this portion.

but what did you line up for us to talk about during the Q&A?

>> there were a couple of specific questions.

somebody asked, did you consider other options such as the Living Building Challenge and long established traditional natural localized building methods like straw bail, lime paint, waterproof, tall deck, et cetera?

can you just share a little bit around that?

>> MIKI: in our building project did we consider that?

I don't think we did consider straw bail.

I'm not sure -- our architects are called Center Brook Architects.

we are not the only sustainable building project they have done.

I'm not really sure what that process looked like.

I will say that in some cases, we went way beyond LEED in some cases and sometimes we fell short of some things.

I don't actually know which ones, you know, went long and which ones went short.

but I'm pretty sure straw bails were never part of the plan.

there's a lot of glass here, a lot of transparency.

>> REBEKKAH: I would say that the size of the building might not have lent itself to some of the more traditional building methodology mentioned in that question.

and I'll just say myself I'm a devotee of the Living Building Challenge.

I think it's so aspirational.

and so when you think about it, we really don't have any libraries at this point that are Living Building Challenge certified.

a couple of libraries have used it as a framework to design things, but we haven't seen that achieved yet which will be super exciting when we finally see that happen.

>> sort of related, in terms of somebody asked -- and I'm sure, Rebekkah, you have experience with some of the other folks you have worked with.

but how does this goal work with public procurement and bidding laws?

>> REBEKKAH: Miki, does your library fall under public procurement and bidding laws?

>> MIKI: no, we did not.

>> REBEKKAH: I can say that there's a lot of work we've had to do through LEED processes that have been related to procurement.

a lot of it goes back to how you write your bid specks.

they are bidding on something.

how have you described it, and how do you allow for education in a procurement process when you perhaps are asking for something like Miki mentioned, something that had never been asked before?

how do you create that opportunity to not judge them for that, but to ask them to be part of your process and to allow for education, even for contractors in a process?

so I think Miki had more freedom and Lisa had more freedom in that project because they didn't fall under public procurement laws.

I have worked on literally 100 projects that do fall under those laws, and it boiled down to working with the right teams that can write specks for you that people are responding to that help you get to your end goal.

and so I'll just -- I'm not -- I don't have -- I did write an article many years ago on integrative building design.

it's not a widely adopted approach.

architects often advise against it because it takes them out of the center of the process.

but I think there are some gems in the article.

and I can put that on the list of materials for the webinar.

but the idea is you have experts to help build your building at the table early so you can write bid specs that help you achieve the goals of your project, whether it be Design For Freedom or whatever you're trying to do.

you need experts to help you craft that language that the contractor community is then responding to.

in this case we were going -- I don't want to say it was an extreme ask, but it was certainly not a normal ask, to source where these things come from.

I think Miki was super eloquent in saying, we're not judging you if you don't know.

we're asking you to help us do something differently in a different way here.

so you're almost testing for attitude in the bid process in your rub Rick when you're scoring people rather than, oh, they got this answer the first time out.

>> MIKI: you're framing the issue.

you're trying to give them an on ramp to doing better.

nobody does better, you know, 100% day one.

so this is an on ramp.

>> MIKI: progress, not perfection.

that's what we say in the certification program all the time.

we're not saying we have the right answer.

we think we can probably do better tomorrow than we did yesterday.

>> MIKI: yes.

>> I have a question here privately.

it pains me to ask this question, but how do you overcome resistance that can come from affluent communities?

my library serves an overwhelmingly white wealthy town.

they are insulated from the climate crisis, a real-life local embodiment of the inverted relationship between who has the most resources and is the least harmed, versus who has the fewest resources and is most harmed.

>> MIKI: that's a great question.

I love that question.

we all ask ourselves that question.

and New Canaan Library is in a wealthy community, very affluent community.

and one of the things that I do is I don't engage in conversation with people about whether this work is legitimate or not.

I don't get into conversations about whether climate change is real or if systemic racism is real.

I just don't.

I just do it.

and one of the ways that we're able to do it is because we strive for excellence.

so I'll give you an example.

we had Misty Copeland come and speak.

first African-American principle dancer of the American Ballet Theater.

and we packed the house.

everybody came to that.

there was a wait list a mile long.

and nobody was going to get into it with Misty or with us when she talked about her experience of systemic racism in the dance world.

we brought Matthew Desmond, Poverty By America, professor at princeton and Pulitzer prize winner, to talk about economic inequality, how this happens by design, you know, a lot of slides about supporting labor in our country.

I mean ideas that are not necessarily, you know, carrying the day in New Canaan, Connecticut.

however, this guy packed the house because he's an excellent thinker and excellent writer.

he's a serious person.

but we also make sure to be that radically inclusive space where when, you know, an organization we've never worked with before, the D.A. R., came and said, we want to do a little pop-up exhibition about the Constitution on Constitution Week.

and I said that's great.

let me see your posters.

how can we make it work?

and we did it and we hosted it in our concourse for a few weeks.

we put out, you know, a book display of books about the Constitution, and we said, we'll do you one better.

we'll find you a Constitutional scholar from one of our local universities to come and talk about the Constitution.

later this month or next month, you know, and they were just absolutely thrilled.

so, again, reminding us that, you know, inclusivity means inclusion, but just doing this work unapologetically.

so, you know, if somebody is -- 

nobody is going to get into it with us when we're bringing Misty Copeland or Matthew des  MOND, and nobody is going to get into it with us for bringing in the D.A.R.

but I also want to say be careful when you program.

vet your speakers.

make sure that who you are inviting is somebody you can really get behind.

and that's a place to look at your collection policy, look at your programming policy, and see, what are the criteria that we demand of ourselves before we acquire a book or we do a program?

and like really hold that line because you're going to be called on to defend it.

we have to do it all the time.

but we have those policies.

again, it's that triple bottom line in black and white.

can we copy and paste that into an email where somebody is writing and complaining about something and we very nicely try to educate them about what it is that we do here.

>> REBEKKAH: I can't improve on that.

it was fabulous.

I love the quote of being unapologetic.

you know what the right thing is to do, so you do it.

finding those allies who are going to support you in doing it.

but I think heeding Miki's warning that you have to be ready to defend what you have chosen to do.

knowing that your board is behind you, knowing you have a policy that backs up the choices you're making.

one of the new things we're working on with our libraries, they have a reconsideration list, so we manage those complaints that are coming in on those topics which are sometimes inOKous, because folks don't understand.

but some of those attitudes are tied to influential people on your board.

so how you protect that governance structure while not tying your hands so you can be unapologetic to do the right thing.

there has to be the lineup from the governance standpoint of the organization.

we talk about libraries are not neutral.

we are political organizations.

and we have to be politically savvy sometimes in how we position ourselves to do the work.

it might be framing or language that we're using or allies that we seek, and that show of solidarity when those things are being offered through the library is often enough to quell people who might want to complain, but they might be like, well, it seems like a lost people are behind that, so I'll keep that to myself.

>> MIKI: exactly.

>> REBEKKAH: or maybe I'll learn something and change my mind.

>> MIKI: yeah.

those community partners are your allies.

And sometimes, you know, it's so helpful when you have, you know, that linking of arms that takes place for a program that might otherwise, you think, oh, God, we're going to catch heat for this.

but if it's sponsored by your local bank and local community foundation, and the ice cream store down the street, you know what I'm saying, then it's sort of like, you know, again we're stronger together.

>> REBEKKAH: nice.

>> there was a question earlier on when you were talking about measurements and they were curious, interested in hearing what sorts of measurements you use, how often, and how do you measure qualitative metrics.

>> MIKI: that's a good question.

and that's a question that we are still trying to figure out ourselves, so we're still building this.

I have been in this job just over a year, and I have dragged my feet on the measurement piece.

this is like the last stop on the train.

I'm like, OK, I have to figure this out.

you know, for -- some things are straightforward, right, like measures our energy usage.

that's really straightforward.

the part that's less straightforward is that qualitative piece.

so one of the things that we're trying to look at is coming up -- and I can actually share this.

I'll send this to you to push out, even though it's not in its final form.

we're still working through it.

but we're trying to kind of land on some different values and track how we're doing on those values against the different programs that are taking place in our building every day.

so the values might be -- one might be climate action.

another one might be representation.

another one -- you know, so you figure out what values are important to you.

but they have to be like just a handful.

not too many, not too few.

a handful that really feel meaningful for your community.

and then I try to look at the different kinds of programs that are happening.

some of them repeat programs, some of them are, you know, one-offs.

and how did that program measure up against this checklist of things we definitely want to be leaning into?

and in some cases you might get, you know, all five.

in some cases you might just get one.

you know, so something like that.

you know, it's not just how many people attended that program.

although, of course, you do track that too.

you track the program popularity.

you know, how many people attended.

how many people signed up and didn't attend.

did anybody look at the recording.

testimonials too.

you all know when people come up to you and say, wow, that literally like saved my life, or, you know, one person told me about how they clock people who are sitting in armchairs presumably reading newspapers but they are not turning any pages.

and so they know what that means, that person is here for the social connection, social connectivity.

so these are things that we have to -- and we have to be good communicators of this to our boards and to our sources of funding, you know, because they don't necessarily put it together with what we do day in and day out.

but that's what I hope to do with the tracking is kind of gather enough information that at the end of the year I can create a report for our staff and for our board that shows what kind of progress has been made and just kind of connect the dots for them.

>> REBEKKAH: that's really great.

>> MIKI: it's not done, but I'll share it.

>> and also just a note that Miki said that she would look at being able to share some of those passive -- the poster piece.

Rebekkah, I'm sure there are other folks that are sharing some of those passive poster pieces.

I'm going to just kind of pass it over to you, Rebekkah, in terms of timing.

there was folks chimed in around the issue of climate anxiety.

so recommendations on how folks are handling climate anxiety while doing this important work, including recommendations for children and, you know, books or resources to address climate anxiety with children.

>> REBEKKAH: such an important topic.

before I jump into that, and I put the link in the chat, that public Outcome, they have mapped the outcome-based surveys to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

so there's a new tool in our toolbox thanks to Project Outcome.

so check that out.

 I'm certainly not an expert on climate anxiety.

but the feedback we have gotten in the eight years of the sustainable library initiative, is that folks that have really been grappling with the crushing anxiety that the climate crisis has caused, are looking for a path forward.

they want to feel hopeful, but they're not sure where there's going to happen for them.

and some people have found that in the work we're doing with the sustainable libraries initiative.

to find other people who are like-minded, who see the power of our profession to create hope in these situations where it does feel hopeless, to remember why we got into this profession to begin with, to understand that -- I'll just tell my own little story here.

I worked in a completely different profession before I got into libraries.

I was a counselor for folks who were victims of domestic violence.

I was not strong enough to do that work.

the trauma on the front lines, seeing where people were landing, and understanding the systemic causes of how they got there.

I couldn't fix sitting in that shelter with that family who arrived that morning.

and as I started to feel hopeless, like we'll never stop this, I really had to take a step back and evaluate where I put my energy.

I was line, I'm not strong enough to be a frontline counselor in that moment.

but what I love, love, love working at libraries is I feel the change systemically in the work that we do.

I understand, and I think most of you do too, the power of education, the empowerment that we produce through our services to allow people to better their lives, to connect with their neighbors, and to find hope in whatever situation they're in.

that's what keeps me going.

so when people say to me, oh, you must be so tired of doing this work, and Rebekkah, I saw you present last month.

you're doing it again this month?

but I find energy in this.

I find it energizing to work with people like Miki and the other hundreds of people in the sustainable libraries initiative who are finding a path and trying, right?

we're not saying we know exactly what we're doing, but we are saying we think we can contribute in a positive way to this.

so I think there are those moments where we all feel weighed down by what's going on.

but to understand, there are millions of people working to make this better, and we all have to find a way to connect and work on the things that are actually going to make a difference.

so that's why we were so grateful to Web Junction for partnering with us on this series because we are learning every week from the libraries in this program what is working, what is making a difference, where we see hope in the future through the work that we're doing.

so if you haven't connected with the resource, I'm not a salesperson.

we're all just trying to help each other in these moments.

I think there's some great book lists out there.

I haven't met Helen yet, but somebody named Helen put fabulous resources into the chat box.

there's also book lists available on world cat produced by a friend of the sustainable libraries initiative, if you're looking for leads on books to read with children.

not specific to the grief issue, so maybe we can crowd source that together and build one after the webinar here today.

but really connecting with these libraries that have dove into the deep end and are doing work in the certification program, I personally find it inspirational.

you can check out their final presentations on the website, see what they've been working on.

and picking your path forward, I think, is one of the most important things.

I have been with my husband for a long.

we have been together 30 years.

and his grandmother would say to me when she got depressed, just start thinking what she was grateful for.

so when I feel weighed down by the climate crisis, I think, I'm grateful for my fellow board members that see what I do in terms of the power of libraries to help in this situation.

I'm grateful for people like J.P. who said, Rebekkah, do you want to do this webinar series with us because we think it could help other people.

who are we grateful for in these situations to lift us out of what sometimes is the unavoidable depression of what is going on around us.

it's heavy stuff.

finding paths forward.

this is a community practice where like-minded people are trying to find the paths forward.

I feel like I'm preaching now.

sorry I went on and on about that.

but I want to say I see you.

I feel that.

I think a lot of people on this webinar do too.

you're not alone feeling that way, and I've not denying that sometimes I feel that way too.

I hope these webinars are helpful, and that you are seeing other folks in the profession that are providing that hope to help pull us out of those feelings of and grief and anxiety and know that we aren't going to solve the whole thing by ourselves, but there are coalitions to be made to make the place better in the little world we live in as individuals.

J.P., I'm just say we have some cool speakers coming up in November too, people who are exemplifying this.

and that's the answer I would give to everybody who's been helping with this webinar series.

people who have found a path forward that it's helping them feel better about the situation and like we're making a difference.

you've got Mandy and Evan, who tag teamed to write a chapter in "Sustainable Thinking" about programming and how to walk the walk, making sure we are living our values and producing programs, as well as hazel, who I know is here today, who is an unbelievable rock star in the topic of sustainability from really the best library of things I have ever encountered in my life, fabulous programming that is connecting people with information that I think fills them with hope.

I hope that gives you hope that there is work to be done that is meaningful and helps to combat those feelings that we all have that keep us up at night.

>> I'm super, super excited for our final two sessions.

for that very reason, I know that folks love to hear from people that are doing this work and more examples are always welcome.

so as we say R&D, we can do more rip-off and duplicating.

so thank you so much.

thank you so much to Miki.

it's been really wonderful to hear about your great work.

and thank you, Rebekkah, of course, for all of your fantastic work.

a reminder that I'll send you an email later on today once we get the recording posted.

and we'll follow up with Miki.

it might take a bit of time to get that additional resource -- 

those additional resources there, so just remember to come back to that same page.

I'll also send you all a certificate for attending today.

but a reminder that all of our recordings and other self-paced learning can be accessed in the Web Junction catalog for free.

be sure to refer folks to that, and there are certificates for learning in the catalog for those that need them there.

and I am going to send you all to a short survey as you leave.

I know that we've been together a while, so that link will also be in the email you receive.

but we really appreciate your time providing feedback to us.

we'll share it with the presenters as well as guide our ongoing programming.

so thank you for your feedback as well.

excellent.

all right.

any other final comments from the both of you?

>> MIKI: no.

thank you.

>> REBEKKAH: I want to say thank you, Miki.

it's a pleasure.

and I'm so glad you gave us some of your time for other people to recognize what good work you're doing.

>> MIKI: thank you, Rebekkah, and thank you you for your work.

and everybody on the call I thank you for your work.

these are all good people here with us today.

>> everyone have a great rest of your week, and we'll see you later on in November thank you.

>> REBEKKAH: thanks, J.P.