GlasGowGreener February update

Welcome to our February update on Glasgow Life’s sustainability campaign, GlasGowGreener, which is designed to help us all play our part in supporting the charity’s climate actions.

Thanks to everyone who took part in our first challenge for the year and sent their GlasGowGreener Sustainable Resolutions for 2024. All of your great pledges will, collectively, make a real difference.

As we’re nearing the end of February, many of us are (only now!) realising this is a leap year and the month has an extra day. So let’s all make it count and use 29 February as a GlasGowGreener day of action!

Ready for our ‘extra day’ challenge?

As you know, GlasGowGreener has been arming colleagues throughout the organisation with plenty of helpful hints, tips and ideas on how we can all make Glasgow Life more sustainable. And many of you have been sharing examples with us of how you have been championing ‘greener’ approaches and practices across the charity. So our challenge for this month is to make the most of February’s extra day by trying out some of the ways we can make changes to our ways of working, and our way of life.

Below are some suggestions on how Glasgow Life teams and colleagues can take action on 29 February to help us all build new habits to become more sustainable. We’d love to hear your ideas too so we can share these in future updates.

At home

1. Take a little less time in the shower to save water and the cost of heating it.
2. Consider ways to shop more sustainably either as part of your active travel journey to and from work or when buying local produce. Have you signed up to Too Good To Go so you can take advantage of reduced prices just before it goes out of date to fight food waste.
3. The end of February is the perfect time to think about growing your own food. Pretty much any container can be used to grow veg and now is the right time to make a plan so you grow right through spring and summer.
4. Upcycle or repurpose your furniture or good quality old clothes instead of buying new.
5. Heat the room you are in or the rooms in use during the day and reduce energy use.

  At work

1. Prepare a sustainable breakfast and lunch before work and transport it in environmentally friendly reusable packing.
2. Try a more sustainable way of getting to work, involving public transport or active travel alternatives.
3. When you get to work, review the monthly GlasGowGreener updates for hints and tips on how to be more sustainable at work.
4. Speak to your team about how they are making changes and what’s working for them as we aim to hit Net Zero. If you haven’t done so already, sign up to www.warp-it.co.uk/glasgowlife  or start a “help yourself shelf” for products you don’t use or want to regift rather than throw away.  
5. Check the weather and adjust the heating on milder days if you can, and switch off electrical appliances and lights not needed.

Whatever you do on Thursday 29 February, make it a day to stretch your sustainability boundaries! Then let us know what actions you took on the day by completing the below table and sending it to sustainability@glasgowlife.org.uk by 14 March. Remember we’ll be celebrating the best GlasGowGreener contributions we’ve received at a special awards event – and we’ll share details of this soon.

As always, thank you for taking part and for your continued support of our GlasGowGreener campaign.