SUSTAINABILITY DESTINATIONS UK
What it means to be green As we emerge from a devastating pandemic, talk is turning to a green recovery – and the pressure is on event planners and destinations to join the fight against the climate crisis. Words by Holly Patrick . Scientists agree we have approximately nine years to halve global emission to give us a ghting chance of keeping temperatures at 1.5C of global warming - the best-case scenario of the Paris Agreement. But is the business meetings and event sector pulling its weight? We explore ve destinations that are exing their green credentials...
Glasgow, Scotland
discount to Glasgow’s hotels to achieve green accreditation ahead of the conference. “If ever there was a conference that embodied the importance of face-to-face meetings to drive and deliver societal bene ts, it is COP26,” says Aileen Crawford, head of GlasgowConvention Bureau. “As conference host city, 1,000 locally based volunteers will be engaged with the conference, the delegates, and the key messages, bringing citizens, community and the conference together as a positive legacy of the event.” In 2019, 15 per cent of all conferences in the city were in the eld of sustainability and if delegates are wondering what to do between keynotes, Glasgow’s 90 parks, gardens andmany free museums and galleries are a good place to start.
G lasgow has spot in the Global Destination Sustainability maintained its fourth-place
(GDS) Index since 2016 and has recently announced its membership with Tourism Declares, an action group aligning tourism and travel with the target to cut global emissions in half by 2030. Glasgow is the rst convention bureau in the world to sign up. In not such new news, Glasgow is also hosting this year’s
Glasgowhas ambitions of becoming the UK’s rst carbon- neutral city by 2030
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and the city has ambitions of becoming the UK’s rst carbon-
Sustainability strategy: PeopleMake Glasgow Greener (CVB)
neutral city by 2030. In conjunction with COP26, the Glasgow
Convention Bureau is running a project with Green Tourism and Scottish Enterprise to give a 50 per cent
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