Social Impact
Green Libraries Week, led by CILIP, is the national, annual celebration of libraries’ climate and sustainability initiatives.
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This year’s Green Libraries Week runs from Monday 27th October to Sunday 2nd November. We’ll be showcasing how Awen Libraries are making a difference within their local communities with some of the ways they are helping to protect the environment.
In 2024-25, over 327,000 items were borrowed, returned and borrowed again from Awen Libraries, including books, DVDs, iPads and even footballs. That’s a lot of reuse!
Our diesel-powered delivery van, which transports books between libraries, has been replaced with a more efficient electric vehicle, to help reduce our carbon footprint.
We have installed LED lighting and a battery to store surplus electricity from our existing array of solar panels at Betws Library, as part of its recent refurbishment.
To reduce waste, the books we no longer use are either sent to Arts Factory (a social enterprise based in Ferndale) for re-sale, donated to children in Africa or recycled.
Since January, almost 10,000 people have visited our libraries to use the free, shared computers, helping to reduce energy consumption within individual households.
We are working hard to provide eco-friendly prizes for the Summer Reading Challenge and 21 Book Challenge, to reduce the amount of single-use plastic we buy.
We reused the bookcases from the former Maesteg Library to refurbish Sarn Library and donated the remaining furniture to local schools for their school libraries.
