The Creative Europe-funded project Sustainable Archives and Greener Approaches (SAGA) convened project partners, archival professionals, scientists, and risk management specialists at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU) for its first capitalisation seminar since the project began in 2024. The event focused on sharing project findings and developing practical strategies to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of archival institutions.
The seminar highlighted how cultural heritage institutions can strengthen disaster preparedness and long-term sustainability in the face of increasing environmental risks. Participants reflected on lessons learned from past emergencies, current best practices, and the practical steps archives can take to improve resilience while safeguarding both collections and staff.
In her keynote address, Paola D’Orsi, Director of the State Archives of Florence, recalled the devastating Florence floods of 1966 and the decades-long recovery effort that followed. The disaster, she noted, continues to shape the field of cultural heritage preservation today. “The event,” she said, “changed how the world thinks about protecting cultural heritage.”
With extreme weather events becoming more frequent, the seminar underscored the urgency of strengthening archives risk management strategies. Discussions ranged from microbiological and environmental assessments to the application of ISO standards and emergency preparedness practices across Europe.
According to Cristina Diaz, project coordinator at the Spanish State Archives, “Today we have learned from experiences ranging from the Florence floods of 1966 to current disaster preparedness practices, with practical examples from Norway, France and SOS Archivi, as well as the application of ISO standards in risk management. The key takeaway is clear: disaster preparedness is an issue that every archive institution must prioritize, because archives should be recognized and protected as critical infrastructure.”
While the SAGA project draws on advanced scientific approaches — including the sampling of environmental microorganisms and quantitative surveys on risk management — the seminar emphasised practical and achievable measures that institutions can adopt within existing physical and financial constraints. Across the presentations, participants repeatedly stressed the importance of monitoring and prevention as the “first action,” as well as the value of strong local networks that can be mobilised rapidly during emergencies.
Reflecting on the next phase of the project, Diaz remarked that “the SAGA project is now reaching a crucial stage in which we must gather and consolidate all the knowledge generated through the microbiological, building and environmental assessments carried out so far. The next step is to put this knowledge into practice through concrete action plans that will improve the conditions, resilience and sustainability of the partner archives.”
Dieter Schlenker, Director of the HAEU, highlighted the broader significance of the project’s outcomes for the archival sector. “From the survey we conducted of peer archives last year, we know that the knowledge and best practices gleaned from these efforts will be a public good for archives across Europe.”