2021 Conference

The Day After Tomorrow: Business Archives and the Climate Crisis

With the eyes of the world on Glasgow for COP26, we invite you to come together to consider how archivists can tackle the issue of climate change. We have split our conference into two half-days. Our first session looks at the activities of archivists and heritage professionals. What are the issues facing us? What can we do in our working lives to mitigate climate change?

Programme Day 1 24 November

2.00: Carole Destre (Horniman Museum), The Horniman Climate and Ecology manifesto – putting the pledge into practice.

2.20: Georgina Robinson (Eton College Archives), Measuring the sector’s perception of environmental impacts and risks

2.40 - 3.00: Q&A and comfort break

3.00 : Karyn Williamson (Abrdn ), Abrdn - When sustainability and digital preservation collide

3.20: Amelia George and Colleen Daw (the Winthrop Group, US), Mckinsey and Co - Using the archives as an inspiration for sustainability work

3.40 - 4.00: Q&A and comfort break

4.00: Tim Powell and Georgie Salzado (TNA), Climate change: a risk analysis approach for archives and associated heritage collections

4.40 - 5.00: Q&A and concluding remarks

Our second half-day will look at the records of climate change. Are there insights in existing collections? Are we collecting the right records to capture our responses, and the responses of businesses, to environmental changes?

Programme Day 2 November 25

10.00: Andrew Smith (University of Liverpool), Uniting business history and global environmental history

10.20: Kolya Abramsky (freelance archivist), The challenge of archiving the global wind energy sector

10.40: Marta Musso (King's College London), EOGAN: the European network of energy archives

11.00-11.15: Q&A and comfort break

11.15: Katie McDonald (West Dunbartonshire Archives), Threads Through Time: Exploring narratives in sustainability, feminism, and social justice through sewing machines

11.35: Guy Baxter (University of Reading Archives), "To step into the wind and rain”: can farm records help us to meet today’s challenges?

11.55 - 12.15: Q&A and concluding remarks