In late 2024 the DPC established the Carbon Footprint Task Force. This task force was set up in response to an emerging need within the community for clear guidance on how to calculate the carbon footprint of digital preservation activities.
Alicia Wise (Executive Director, CLOCKSS) agreed to chair this task force and helped shape the charge. DPC members with expertise or experience in this area were invited to put themselves forward to join the task force. A small expert group was formed, which met for the first time in January 2025, and a schedule of monthly meetings was set up. Initial meetings focused on introductory presentations, agreeing the task and ensuring we were all on the same page. In April 2025 we began to develop a set of headings and topics for an online toolkit, and subsequent meetings focused on writing and discussing challenges and issues as we encountered them.
We agreed a number of guiding principles to shape our writing of this toolkit:
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The toolkit should contain clear, practical and actionable advice and information.
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It should demystify carbon footprint calculations for digital preservation and empower readers to take action to calculate the carbon footprint of their own digital preservation activities.
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The advice within the toolkit should be applicable regardless of:
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digital preservation systems/infrastructure in place
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current experience level with carbon footprint calculations
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type/sector/size/geographic location of organization.
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The resulting toolkit was a collaborative effort, in which we were able to benefit from the experiences of all group members. It was shared for community comment and testing in March 2026 and more formally launched at the iPRES conference in September 2026.
A big thank you to members of the Carbon Footprint Task Force for sharing their challenges, knowledge and experience on this topic, and their hard work and good humour throughout.
The Carbon Footprint Task Force met monthly over Zoom for a period of 12 months
Members of the Carbon Footprint Task Force:
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Alicia Wise (Chair), Executive Director, CLOCKSS [ORCiD 0000-0002-7898-3428] – read more about carbon footprint calculation work at CLOCKSS
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Sharon Bayer, Director, Systems Deployment and Integration, Harvard
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Catherine Jones, Energy Data Centre Lead, UKRI/STFC [ORCiD 0000-0002-5112-835X] – read about environmental impact assessment at the Energy Data Centre
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William Kilbride, Executive Director, Digital Preservation Coalition
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Jenny Mitcham, Chief Digital Preservation Officer, Digital Preservation Coalition [ORCiD 0000-0003-2884-542X]
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John McMillan, Chief Operating Officer, Digital Preservation Coalition
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Laura Peaurt, Archivist (Digital Preservation), University of Nottingham
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Caylin Smith, Head of Digital Preservation, Cambridge University Libraries and Archives [ORCiD: 0000-0001-6340-5708]
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Paul Stokes, Subject Matter Expert (Digital Preservation), Jisc [ORCiD 0000-0002-7333-4998]
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Danielle Taylor, Digital Preservation Librarian, Indiana University [ORCiD 0009-0005-2395-4768]
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Elisabeth Thurlow, Digital Preservation and Access Manager, University of the Arts London [ORCiD 0000-0002-6630-6235]
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Mikko Tiainen, Development Manager, CSC - IT Center for Science Ltd. - read about carbon footprint mitigation tasks at CSC – IT Center for Science
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Guanwen Zhang, Senior Digital Preservation Specialist, University of Alberta [ORCiD 0009-0000-9119-8232] – read about the carbon footprint of web archiving activities at the University of Alberta
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Tamara van Zwol, Preservation Coordinator, Dutch Digital Heritage Network [ORCiD 0009-0000-9119-8]
The toolkit was published in draft in March 2026 with an open invitation to the community to actively test and provide comment and feedback. As well as accepting comments via an online form and within a Google doc, a Carbon Calculation Support Group was formed, which met monthly for a period of six months and worked together on carbon footprint calculations. This group was able to highlight areas of the toolkit where the advice and guidance needed to be improved, whilst working on their own case studies. Many improvements have been made to the toolkit in response to feedback from this group and our thanks go to all participants. Find out more about the Carbon Calculation Support Group and explore the case studies.