Penn Libraries Presents: Saving Bits, Burning Watts: Digital Collections Carbon Footprint Assessment at Penn Libraries

What does it cost the environment to preserve digital collections forever? From cloud storage to preservation systems and backup copies, digital stewardship depends on infrastructure that consumes energy and produces carbon emissions. This talk shares the results of a carbon footprint assessment of Penn Libraries’ digital collections environments and explores how storage decisions, redundancy, and system design shape environmental impact. It also introduces a framework for measuring and tracking sustainability in digital preservation over time.