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Environmentally Sustainable Digital Preservation

“Digital preservation good practice is not solely about how successfully we preserve the bits and enable access to them, it must also take into account the broader context in which our work sits, and the wider responsibilities we have to society and the environment. Simply put, there is no point in preserving the bits if there is no one left to read and understand them. As a community we must therefore balance risks to the digital content that we hold not only against the financial cost but also the cost to the environment. We must consider how we reduce the environmental impact of our work, whilst continuing to maintain our valuable digital content for future generations. This is a challenging balancing act and we must work together as a community to evolve digital preservation good practice to minimise the environmental impact of our actions.”