We compared the British Library (UK), the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Netherlands) and the Swiss National Library as organisations for the year 2024, combining three established methods into one Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA).
Where the emissions are
In absolute terms, the British Library — by far the largest of the three — has the highest environmental impact across every category. Yet even the largest library's footprint is modest: all three sit at roughly 0.003–0.004 % of their country's emissions, and each emits less than a typical university. Around a third to a half of emissions come from buildings and energy.
Normalise by the size of the collection and the picture flips: the British Library has the lowest impact per archived item, thanks to economies of scale and highly efficient high-density storage. The Swiss National Library also scores low on emissions per item, helped by Switzerland's low-carbon electricity mix.
Across all five environmental categories — greenhouse gas, human toxicity, land use, mineral resources and water — the largest library carries the highest gross impact. Each library is shown relative to the largest in each category.
Cost — and value
The same economies of scale show up in cost: the British Library spends the least per archived item, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek the most.
Beyond cost, all three libraries generate large public value through the provision of access to their collections and exhibitions. The scale of use in 2024 is an indirect but telling measure of that value:
| Access in 2024 | British Library | Koninklijke Bibliotheek | Swiss National Library |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical items accessed (reading rooms) | 488,193 | 42,195 | 50,881 |
| Physical visitors (incl. events & exhibitions) | 1,361,002 | 47,746 | 41,328 |
| Virtual visitors (associated websites) | ≈ 25 million | ≈ 10 million | ≈ 9 million |
While it is not possible to quantify the full economic value delivered to society by these national libraries, the substantial use they receive suggests real economic and social impact.
What it means in practice
Digital access is a powerful lever
Online access expands social reach enormously without raising the environmental footprint proportionally — libraries reach many times their in-person audience online.
Buildings & energy: big lever, shared responsibility
A third to a half of emissions come from buildings and energy. The levers are renovation and procurement — often shared with the property owner rather than the library alone.
Trade-offs made visible
There are tensions between emissions, cost and social reach. The LCSA makes them explicit and gives a basis for informed decisions.
Relevant beyond national libraries
These insights are not only for national libraries. Any galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) that manage both physical and digital collections face the same trade-offs between environmental impact, cost and public value. The LCSA approach offers a transferable way to measure and compare them — and to make the case for openness and digital access.
Get in touch See the publicationsThe full study, “National Libraries: An organisational Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment”, is currently under peer review.
A broad, positive social impact
The libraries were assessed against a range of social indicators covering three stakeholder categories — workers, service users and society — and seven indicator categories: working conditions, health and safety, cultural heritage, service-user feedback, inclusion, community engagement, and a public commitment to sustainability. In total, 20 social indicators were each assessed as positive, neutral or negative.
All three libraries score well across the indicators: they reach a large share of their countries' populations — especially online — and each runs a range of initiatives to engage children and users from minority groups. The libraries are exemplary employers, with fair pay, gender balance and active unions. A few indicator categories were scored neutral for some of the libraries (accessibility, opening hours, documented sustainability targets) and could be improved with modest changes.