There is a contradiction at the heart of the digital preservation carried out by cultural heritage institutions (CHIs). While CHIs aim to safeguard humanity’s legacy, digital practices to preserve digital cultural heritage contribute significantly to environmental degradation. This paradox calls for a shift from mere efficiency to ecological responsibility, sufficiency and regeneration. Understanding the above phenomenon in practice is what shaped the ‘raison d'être’ of the Environmental Sustainability Practice Task Force of the Climate Action Community within the Europeana Network Association.
To help the Task Force systematically assess the environmental sustainability of digital preservation practices used by heritage institutions, and to support in mitigating the sector’s environmental impact, a wide-reaching ‘Sustainability Practice Survey’ was launched in 2023. The results of this survey provided insights from digital professionals and IT teams within CHIs on their current practices across the full cycle of digital preservation (i.e. selection, preservation, accessibility) and how they integrate environmental sustainability in digital cultural heritage.
The survey also reflected the urgency for collective, policy-supported climate action within CHIs regarding their digital preservation practices. This report analyses the insights and learnings emerged from this survey, and maps out the environmental footprint of digital activities of CHIs across Europe. It also proposes regenerative alternatives rooted in community, sustainability, and equity.
The wider context
The Europeana Initiative, in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal, supports cultural heritage institutions across Europe in understanding and addressing the environmental impact of digital preservation through its Climate Action Community and the Environmental Sustainability Practice Task Force. The Climate Action Community and Task Force identified a critical knowledge and skills gap concerning sustainable digital preservation practices in our sector. To bridge this gap, our work aims to encourage the adoption of climate-conscious strategies. The Environmental Sustainability Practice survey design, implementation and analysis was guided by the ENA’s Climate Action Manifesto, which advocates for the integration of eco-thinking, collaboration, and operational sustainability at every level of heritage digitisation, as well as with the key priority area of ‘mobilising culture for the planet” outlined in the EU Work Plan for Culture (2023-2026).
The methodology
The survey was designed and conducted by the Task Force for over a year, running until September 2023, and it was led by Task force Chair Evangelia Paschalidou. Distributed via targeted email and Europeana’s communication channels, the survey gathered input from digital, heritage and IT professionals in CHIs, or involved in any way in the digital preservation or management of digital content within a CHI, primarily in the EU but not only.
To complement the survey data, in-depth interviews with three selected case-study institutions were undertaken: the National Library of Finland, the Internationale museum network and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. This enabled a deeper dive into the organisations’ initiatives and good practices, as well as the sustainability struggles in their digital preservation processes. The data analysis performed by Joanna Murzyn, lead author of the report, was followed by expert feedback by the Climate Action Community Steering Group. On a policy level, Marco Fiore, chair of the Climate Action Community, enriched the recommendations for EU policy makers.
The survey received 108 responses from 24 EU countries and 6 other countries worldwide. The majority of the responses came from libraries (33%) and academic/ research institutions (23.15%) followed by museums (11.11%) and archives (6%). The rest of the respondents (24.07%) are IT developers / Tech organisations, 3D scanners producers, cultural and heritage associations, consultancy agencies, NGOs and non-profit organisations, digital culture aggregators. Finally, most participating organisations have more than 100 employees, indicating that the survey captured perspectives from larger institutions, with potentially significant digital footprints.
Key insights from the Report
Most CHIs (around 80%) recognise their environmental responsibility, yet only 42% have adopted formal environmental strategies, and just 14% actively measure the carbon footprint of their digital services.
Many CHIs approach digital preservation without a unified strategy. Thus, there is a diversity of content selection criteria that results in inconsistent preservation frameworks. Project-based requirements (17%) are the most common driver of digitisation, leading often to fragmented collections shaped by short-term goals. Organisational policies influence 14% of selection decisions, while 13% respond to ad hoc access requests, primarily for research reuse. Only 6% of institutions involve the public in participatory decision-making, and 5% report having no clear selection method at all.
Environmental responsibility is absent from digital preservation frameworks. While some institutions use established standards like FAIR (16%) or the Europeana Publishing Framework (12%), none reported incorporating environmental metrics into their strategies. Without clear standards or awareness, many CHIs continue to make preservation decisions that prioritise accessibility and durability but ignore environmental sustainability.
57.14% of surveyed CHIs lack policies governing the lifecycle of digital assets, meaning when and how to deaccess and retire digital assets.
Most CHIs maintain redundant backups as a security measure: 86% of surveyed institutions keep up to three copies of each digital asset, and 9% maintain six copies. However, these practices are rarely accompanied by environmental impact assessments. Only four institutions reported actively evaluating the carbon cost of their data storage, backups, or digital media lifecycle environmental costs.
While 17% of CHIs report adopting recycling practices, far fewer (8%) consider hardware repairability and only 3% factor sustainability into procurement. Recycling remains the most familiar action.
Developing community-powered archives and adopting a participatory approach, involves the end-users of digital services; around 80% of the respondents agree that users can help them to co-create value and improve their digital processes and practices to be more environmentally responsible.
CHIs can play a vital role in climate action by transforming digital heritage practices into regenerative ones. We need to move beyond efficiency to sufficiency —maximising preservation value with minimal ICT use. This report provides both the insight and the tools to help CHIs begin —or deepen— that journey.
The moment for action is now!
Do you work for a CHI and would you like to take action? Firstly, we invite you to download and read the full Report and reflect on your own practices at your institution.
Then, you may follow the recommended actions in the report, starting with small changes in your daily operations —like repairing hardware, using open-source software, rethinking ‘digital as usual’ mindsets—share your successes, and watch how our collective efforts blossom into transformative digital practices. Together, we're not just preserving the past, we're creating fertile soil for a more vibrant, regenerative future for generations to come and thrive.
We also invite you to join the Climate Action Community through the Europeana Network Association to share your learnings, exchange knowledge and network with others working on environmental sustainability in the culture heritage sector.
