Go Greener in Glasgow

Glasgow Convention Bureau launches a new support service for conference organisers looking to host a more sustainable meeting in the city.

The Go Greener in Glasgow initiative brings to life the ambitions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) through an interactive workshop for meeting planners, Professional Conference Organisers and academic conference Ambassadors looking for practical tips on delivering a sustainable conference, aligned to the UN SDGs.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals were already a key component of our People Make Glasgow Greener Strategy. The workshop concept builds on our Go Greener toolkit for conference organisers looking to deliver a more sustainable meeting in our city. The interactive format of the workshop allows each conference to make its own decisions on the Goals that best align to their vision and mission and then communicate these sustainable actions to their members, sponsors and stakeholders.

The Convention Bureau team are keen to do their bit to advocate for sustainable business events, continuously building on the range of free services offered to clients and delegates through the People Make Glasgow Greener strategy. Glasgow Convention Bureau was the first Bureau to gain Green Tourism accreditation and sign up to Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency. In 2016, Glasgow was the first UK city to join the Global Destination Sustainability Index of sustainable tourism and events cities, currently ranking 4^th in the world.  All of this positive action in support of sustainable meetings comes at a time when Glasgow gears up to host the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP26, at the Scottish Event Campus later this year.

We’re excited to be running the biggest gathering of rheumatology professionals in the UK at the SEC Glasgow in April 2022. Meeting face-to-face has huge value for our members but it’s also a real chance to makes some significant changes to the way we do things. We’re delighted to work with the SEC as a Gold Green Tourism-accredited venue and are grateful to Glasgow Convention Bureau for challenging us (as organisers), our exhibitors and our delegates to make changes suggested in the Go Greener toolkit and align our planning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The team at VisitScotland is incredibly passionate about the business events community being a driver for change. A lot of the messaging for the new Go Greener in Glasgow initiative resonates with our recently launched Journey to Change campaign.

Whilst as an industry we are becoming more thoughtful of our impact on the environment, more needs to be done. This new initiative is an opportunity for planners and organisers to learn from the team in Glasgow on how to implement more sustainable practices for their events. It is also a platform to shine a light on Scotland’s forward thinking in this arena and the great progress that Glasgow, as a city, has made in the sustainability field.