Together, we can help tackle climate change
Greenhill Community Library is a volunteer-run library with a board of trustees in south Sheffield. Our motto is ‘more than just books’ and we host many community groups and activities. We are always looking for ways in which to improve our service and offer something new to the community.
We became involved in supporting community climate action in 2021. Our first Chair of Trustees, Patrick Coghlan, was a life-long committed environmentalist and a talk at the library called ‘Simple Steps to Combat Climate Change’ by Sheffield Friends of the Earth stimulated interest in community action. A steering group formed to bring local people together around tackling the climate and nature crises. One of the first tasks of the group that formed was to identify new books for the library, all with a ‘green’ theme, which were purchased as part of Patrick’s legacy. These books were both fiction and non-fiction, for both children and adults, and were displayed together when first bought.
We have taken great pride in supporting our local climate group from the outset. Our first contribution was to link them a quilting group which originally met at the library. As a result, this group designed and created ten quilted banners as part of an international ‘Stitches for Survival’ project. They were displayed and much talked about in the library before being exhibited at the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November 2021.
Our next contribution was to host a TerraCycle collection box for hard-to-recycle plastic toothpaste tubes and toothbrushes that were then sent for specialised processing and re-use. This project was also supported by the local dental practice, who paid for the box, and the local primary school, whose children were key contributors to the collection. This team/community working has always been at the heart of what we do.
For the summer holiday period a library volunteer recently created a ‘Green Spaces’ Story Walk. Working with the local group and its network, they identified 10 different green-space locations locally and gained permissions to display extracts from stories and some short facts about nature, the specific green space or climate related issues on boards posted there. Added to this, each board had a letter of the alphabet and in an orienteering ‘spin’ this made up a phrase as part of a low-key competition. The Story Walk has been much enjoyed and has given families a reason to visit some local green spaces they may have been unfamiliar with.
On a more regular and simpler basis, we provide a venue for the local community climate action group to meet and carry out activities. They have held several talks and a film night inside the library, used our outside space for their ‘Splash on the Grass’ all day event during Great Big Green Week in 2022, as well as our hard-standing areas outside for Bike MOT sessions, and we also hosted a web page for them before they developed their own website. We offer them free stall space at our regular Farmers’ and Makers’ markets, and use our communication channels (social media, poster display and newsletters) to promote their activities.
As well as supporting the local group, we recognise the need to take action ourselves to reduce our carbon footprint. Recognising that our gas-fired heating system was ageing, we applied for funding for a new air source heating system which was installed in September 2021. This not only provided cheaper heating with a much lower carbon footprint, but could also be used as air conditioning in hot weather. This meant that we could act as a cool hub when the hot weather hit in summer 2022, and as a warm hub in the winter of 22/23 – to support people through that period of exceptionally high energy bills. Further to this, we hosted advice sessions by National Energy Action to help people facing high energy bills.
Additionally, we have replaced all the main windows in the library with modern double-glazed units and have also replaced all the fluorescent light fittings in the main library areas with LED panels, providing a significant reduction in power consumption. We obtained specific funding for some of these and purchased others out of our general funds.
With the support of our local community climate action group, we are now looking at our outside space, to see how we can use it better for nature as well as people. In summer 2022 we gave over an area of grass to plant wildflowers, which was a great success and very popular locally. Further planting has been done this year, and we have identified another area to improve next. A bench has also been installed, overlooking this planted area, as part of Patrick’s legacy.
We continue to host a collection point for hard-to-recycle items, buy recommended books on environmental themes and host meetings and events without charge. We feel very much a part of the network our local community climate action group has created, and this has developed links for us into sections of our community that we might have been missing before. We hope to continue to learn from each other as we go forward.
Greenhill Community Library
A volunteer-run public library since 2014
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