Greener Inter-Library Loan Practices

Here at my place of work, the level inter-library loan activity is quite significant. Also, a few months ago, we discussed how to find greener, more environmentally sensitive ways of doing business.

So a recent post on the OCLC Research staff blog Hanging Together attracted my attention. It is entitled "Greening ILL Practices" study completed. It discusses the findings of a three-month study of ILL processes in California:

"The first thing that jumps out from the data is that when a library uses primarily new packaging material for sending out ILL items, the packaging material itself accounts for more than half of the greenhouse gas emissions per package for that institution. Thus, right off the bat, an interlibrary loan unit can cut its carbon footprint nearly in half by re-using packaging material whenever possible (...)"