RESOURCE: Digital Preservation and its Environmental Impact: The Effect of Digital Preservation on the Environment and Potential for Organizational Change

Elizabeth C. Bogar-Wyman (Johns Hopkins University) explores the intersection of digital preservation and environmental sustainability in her paper, “Digital Preservation and its Environmental Impact: The Effect of Digital Preservation on the Environment and Potential for Organizational Change,” shared via JScholarship, Johns Hopkins’ repository. From the paper abstract:

Digital preservation is a process that inherently contributes to the ongoing climate crisis through its use of electronics and electricity. This paper seeks to answer the following: what is the current environmental impact of digital preservation in the United States? Are cultural heritage organizations (CHOs) aware of the impact of digital preservation on the environment? What adjustments are CHOs willing and able to perform in order to reduce the impact of their digital preservation and how can CHOs be made aware of the need for and techniques to reduce the impact of digital preservation? It achieves this through a review of the literature and a series of interviews with cultural heritage professionals. Findings indicate that the current impact of digital preservation is similar to how it was five years ago. CHOs were found to have minimal awareness of the impacts of digital preservation on an organizational level, but were willing and able to enact a number of changes to reduce their impact, depending on size and location. Finally, it was determined that awareness of the effects of digital preservation and feasible solutions need to be raised more intensely through community channels.