Gloucestershire Archives named joint winner of national sustainability award

Heather Forbes, Christina Wheeler and Hannah Basnett (Green Pledge Project sponsor, project manager and project officer) receiving the award from paleoanthropologist, author, and stand-up comedian Ella Al-Shamahi in London, May 2026). Photo credit: Hayley Bray

Gloucestershire Archives has been named joint winner of Sustainable Project of the Year at the Museums + Heritage Awards 2026, alongside Lambeth Palace. The award recognises outstanding environmental action across the heritage sector and celebrates projects that show how sustainability can be embedded into both buildings and day-to-day practice.

The Archives received the award for its two-year Green Pledge Project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which brought together work on collections, community engagement and practical carbon reduction. Through the project, staff, volunteers and partners explored Gloucestershire’s environmental history while also taking direct action to reduce the organisation’s own environmental impact.

Work included an environmental audit, the installation of solar panels and electric vehicle charging points, biodiversity improvements, waste reduction, and the replacement of energy-hungry systems with lower-energy alternatives. The project contributed to a major improvement in the building’s energy performance, moving it from a G rating to an A rating.

The project also had a strong public-facing element. Gloucestershire Archives catalogued and promoted environmental records, collected new environmental collections, worked with partners including Project Grow and Wiggly in the community garden, and used creative activities such as the travelling exhibitions, talks and an installation at Cheltenham Science Festival to encourage people to make personal climate pledges.

Judges praised the Green Pledge Project as an example of broad community impact and deep organisational commitment to environmental sustainability. For Gloucestershire Archives, the award is not only national recognition for a successful project, but also a powerful statement about the role archives can play in helping communities understand the past, respond to the climate crisis and create lasting change for the future.

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The project was also awarded ‘highly commended’ in Gloucestershire County Council’s own excellence awards last month.