Sustainability has long been a core condition of digital preservation. In fact, sustainability is one aspect that sets these efforts apart from standard information technology practice: we provide ongoing value for our communities by building preservation programs that can sustain the maintenance and care required to ensure digital materials remain accessible and usable over time. However, many digital preservation programs treat another aspect of sustainability—environmental sustainability—as separate from core preservation requirements. As the effects of climate change and ecological harm increase and threaten the stability of our global society, and as our digital preservation endeavors contribute to these impacts and harms, it’s time to shift environmental sustainability from the periphery to the core of digital preservation practice.

The NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation 2024–2025 revision seeks to advance the re-alignment of environmental sustainability as a core preservation concern by building on over three decades of scholarship and practice as well as community feedback since the last revision. In this session, the Levels Working Group will provide a status update on the revisions and introduce the Environmental Sustainability Guide, a new supplemental Levels resource that facilitates embedding environmental sustainability considerations into preservation decision-making via the Levels assessment framework. The new guide surfaces core sustainability concepts as guiding principles that are broadly relevant to all aspects of digital preservation work and detailed considerations for sustainability decision points that align with specific recommendations in the Levels of Digital Preservation matrix. The session will include a presentation by Levels Working Group members followed by an open community discussion facilitated by Levels Working Group and Steering Group members to solicit feedback on the Environmental Sustainability Guide prior to final publication.