Glasgow becomes first UK city to take step towards eco certification

As the city hosts the COP26 Conference, Glasgow announces that it has been awarded EarthCheck Benchmarked Community status, marking the first step towards becoming a leading sustainable city.

In September 2020, Glasgow partnered with international sustainability leader EarthCheck to assist the city in benchmarking its environmental and social performance, and to deliver higher standards of health and hygiene in a COVID-19 recovery environment.

The EarthCheck Sustainable Destinations programme helps communities to measure and monitor their environmental, economic and social impact and prepare and track their own performance against targets and other places in the world.

Cllr David McDonald, deputy leader of Glasgow City Council, chair of Glasgow Life, and city convener for culture, vibrancy and international co-operation, said: ‘We are incredibly proud of becoming the first UK city to achieve EarthCheck’s Benchmarked Community status, and even more so to announce this while the city hosts COP26.

‘As a small city with huge ambition, the EarthCheck Destination Standard plays a key role in helping us to position Glasgow as an international destination for business, investment, and tourism. By achieving the Benchmark status, we’ve shown that we’re more than prepared to take action to safeguard and care for the health and wellbeing of our citizens and visitors, and to continue to rebuild confidence in our special city.

‘This first step is just the beginning in Glasgow’s journey to achieving EarthCheck Destination Certification, and will allow us to measure and benchmark our city’s footprint, meaning we can quickly identify issues and areas which require improvement.’

CEO and founder of EarthCheck, Stewart Moore, added: ‘Congratulations to the City of Glasgow for achieving Bronze Benchmarked status under the EarthCheck Sustainable Destinations Certification program. Benchmarking provides an excellent starting point for Glasgow to continue on its sustainability journey.’

In related news, climbing two places from last year to 21st, Newcastle has beaten both London and Manchester to the title of the UK’s smartest city.

Photo supplied by Glasgow Life/Damian Shields