A few months ago, when I completed my Carbon Literacy training; I was thinking about the pledge I needed to make so I can help to initiate steps at work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I was brainstorming on it when my manager asked me if I  want to be a part of Seed Library project. For me it was the first step to give my pledge a chance to be executed in way which will not be limited to the workplace only.

Seed library is a collaborative project by Library & Health Promotion Resource Centre and Energy, Waste and Sustainability team. I have started doing research about Seed Libraries and got amazed to see how different organizations are engaged in the similar project to promote plantation which can play immense role in reducing emission of greenhouse gases. 

I have developed following points to consider before executing the project:

• Where we are going to display/place the seeds in the library and how we are going to store them
• who can take seeds
• do the users have to record the details of what have been taken
• are the users bound to donate seeds if they are taking seeds from the seed library
• will there be any limitation of how many seed packs a user can take
• how we are going to promote this

I have discussed these points with my manager and before making any decision we had arranged meeting with a member of Energy, Waste and Sustainability team to get their views/suggestions. As the result of this meeting following decisions were made:

• wall hanging sheet with different pockets will be purchased and displayed on the wall near the printer area as this is the most used area by the staff and the seeds will be stored in their own packaging or in small brown envelopes so they can easily store/displayed in the display sheet.
• all BDCFT staff and non-staff library members will be eligible to use seed library
• users don’t need to leave details of what have been taken
• users can take seeds for their home gardens or if they want to use it in the wards and will not be bound to donate seeds in return
• there will be no restriction/limitation on taking number of seed packets
• to promote this a donation box will be placed in the library to encourage staff and library users to donate seed, a page will be created on internal SharePoint, Energy, Waste and Sustainability team will interlink this page with their main page, screensaver will be created and sent out to the communication team.

I started implementing decisions by creating a Seeds Donation Box, requesting Trust staff to donate any unwanted seeds they have, to help us starting this library. I have created a logo Take & Donate for the project also created an eye- catching display at the location in the library from where most of the staff/users passes by. I have also displayed information sheet near the seeds display with some useful information. To promote it widely within the Trust I have used different social media platforms, which resulted in bounteous donation of seeds as you can see in the picture.

Once we had enough seeds donation, I have filled in the display sheet with different seed packets and again promoted it on different internal social media platforms including viva engage, Trust screensavers and displaying promotional flyers at different sites.

Every other week, filling in the empty pockets of seeds display, and full box of seeds (donation box) is evidence of this project’s success and is a joyful process for me.

With the start of autumn, take and donate process became slow but it will be elevated by spring season.

Titbit: This library works on Take & Donate seeds, take the seeds which you like and donate some from your garden to share a joy of nurturing the nature with others.

The Seed Library is based at  Library & Health Promotion Resource Centre, Lynfield Mount Hospital. It is open for all staff and library users who can take seeds for their home garden or if they want to use them with patients in the ward.

If you want to donate seeds to our library or have any questions, please contact me at: maria.zaheer@bdct.nhs.uk.

Maria Zaheer
Senior Library Assistant
Bradford District Care Foundation Trust