IFLA Green Library Award 2026

IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) has accepted the nomination of the UniTrento Libraries for the Green Library Award, which recognizes libraries that most effectively promote environmental sustainability and social inclusion projects.

The UniTrento Libraries have successfully been enlisted in the longlist - the only Italian library to do so - thanks to a series of projects and initiatives carried out in line with the University's 2025–2027 Environmental Sustainability Plan. In particular:

• Sustainable Buildings: Featuring high energy performance and highly efficient system solutions.
• Sustainable Mobility: Availability of bike racks, e-bike charging stations, and a bike repair station outside the buildings.
• Responsible Purchasing and Recycling: Purchasing materials with reduced environmental impact for services, eliminating paper in administrative procedures, setting up book-crossing areas, donating discarded books and magazines, recovering materials from storage areas, and providing bins for sorted waste collection.
• Health and Well-being Promotion: Spaces where students can eat home-cooked meals, a selection of vending machines dispensing healthy food (fruit, salads, Parmesan cheese), and water dispensers to avoid the use of plastic bottles; spaces and equipment for sports and socialization, such as exercise bikes, ping-pong tables, and free chess and crochet courses.
• Social Inclusion and Awareness: No architectural barriers, setup of first-aid spaces, breastfeeding rooms, free distribution of sanitary pads, and tactile signage.
• Education on Sustainability and Inclusion for the University Community: Film festivals on environmental and social themes, red benches to raise awareness about violence against women, and invitations to bring plants into the library.
• Educational Initiatives Open to the Public: Meetings, reading groups, group games, and guided tours.