Digital Preservation and Climate Change:

Environmental Sustainability Experiences in Sound and Audiovisual Archives

Abstract

Sound and audiovisual archives preserve large volumes of digital information for present and future access and reuse. This task is based on sustainable digital preservation involving economic, social, cultural and environmental factors. The environmental factor becomes relevant in the context of climate change because the technologies and documentary processes used in this task have an impact on the generation of the carbon footprint and e-waste production. In view of this, this article explores experiences aimed at reducing the impact of digital preservation on the environment, based on the case study of two archives that safeguard radio and television collections, have the infrastructure and technology for analogue and digital preservation, have practically completed digitisation and have robust and sophisticated e-archives or digital mass storage and management systems. It is concluded that practices have begun to be put in place to reduce energy consumption and to properly manage the technological waste produced by obsolete technology and unserviceable carriers. These are the first efforts of an environmental sustainability perspective that, based on a critical review of digital preservation, should be reinforced and expanded in the coming years.