Who doesn’t love spring — the time of year when nature brings us renewal, warm fresh air and the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the sunshine? For me, spring also brings a reminder of our stewardship of the Earth. Here at the Daniel Boone Regional Library, we take our stewardship of public library resources seriously, not just in the materials and services we provide, but also in our four facilities.
One of the goals in our new 2023-2025 Strategic Plan is to demonstrate our commitment to environmental sustainability. We have an active staff Sustainability Committee which helps the staff make “green” decisions such as using reusable containers and dishes and recycling more, and we in administration are looking at larger projects with even bigger impacts.
While we have made incremental changes in the past few years such as installing water bottle fillers in all our buildings and hand dryers in some restrooms, we are stepping up our efforts to reduce our energy costs and carbon footprint. Examples include replacing individual desktop printers with shared multi-functional machines and budgeting to convert our light fixtures from conventional to LED this year. There are more projects on the list and ideas, like spring flowers, abound!
Margaret M. Conroy, Executive Director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library