How our staff are living sustainably - wow!

COP26 was an incredible moment for Glasgow and the world. As a council we aim to build on that with partners and to ensure a lasting legacy of our time as the most important place on the planet.

It inspired and highlighted many lifestyle changes that we can all make to become more sustainable - both at home and at work.

It has been really interesting to hear how COP26 inspired you to make a change to live more sustainably to help save our planet.

How you were inspired to make a difference:

 Recycle:

• "I recently built a compost bin out of recycled pallets to compost our household waste such as fruit and vegetable peels, unbleached tea bags, coffee filters, eggshells and more. I also keep hens so their waste is also added to the compost bins, as is grass cuttings and hedge trimmings. We use this compost to add back to the soil where we have fruit plants and vegetable plots - a great sustainable solution."

• "My family is now working harder to recycle our plastics! Much of what we place into our general waste can actually be recycled if you're prepared to go that little bit further. Following COP26 we now collect all our plastics and place some in our normal recycling, some at a local collection point and yet more at another collection point at a local supermarket. It just goes to show that if you're able to take recycling to other places then much of what you normally put into your general waste can in actual fact be recycled!"

• "COP26 taught us how to deal with our household food waste and how to grow better vegetables using it. We studied our food waste in detail and now instead of putting it into the central food waste collection we actually compost most of it ourselves and use it as fertiliser for our vegetables."

Reduce:

• "I now use a refillable and reusable washing Ecoegg to reduce my single use of detergent plastic bottles. It works great and I'm doing my bit to help to reduce items going to landfill and associated recycling costs."

• "I was really conscious of the number of plastic bottles that we were using regularly. Even though we recycled the empty bottles I really wanted to reduce the amount we were buying too, so I have made more of effort to use refillable bottles at work, school and when we are out and about. This has been a really easy change to make and has the added benefit of reducing the amount I spend on buying bottled water and juice."

• "I've made a lifestyle change to reduce my emissions level - changing my diesel car to a low emissions (Euro 6 compliant) petrol car. In addition, I'm keen off the back of the COP to reduce unnecessary car journeys to help curb carbon emissions."

• "At work I am currently creating online training materials for staff to complete technical training on GOLD online rather than attending in-house class based training. This has several benefits such as reducing the amount of time staff take out of their day to attend courses and giving staff more flexibility on when they complete the course."

• "I've bought an electric car and home charger to help reduce my carbon footprint and become more sustainable."

• "I now have my milk delivered in glass bottles to help reduce plastic consumption."

• "I am trying toothpaste tablets to replace plastic tubes - it took a couple of goes until I found a brand I liked. I hope to make the permanent switch once I get out of the habit of buying a tube of toothpaste!"

• "I have started to make many small changes, which together will make a difference. They include switching to use shampoo and conditioner bars, and a solid bar for washing my dishes to help reduce unnecessary packaging."

• "I have switched to using a deodorant which comes in a jar. It comes with cardboard packaging and re-usable applicators. This has been really successful with no feelings of compromise or change and I now don't need to recycle a can."

• "I'm more conscious about printing now and making great strides to reduce the amount of printing I do - simply by adding information online, hosting user guidance on our intranet, and encouraging those attending training courses to not print off the hard copies of the guides."

Re-use:

• "COP26 has inspired me to carry my re-usable cup wherever I go - to stop single use cups which as we know is a growing problem as they end up in landfill.200 million single-use coffee cups are discarded every year in Scotland, 2019 (Source: BBC)"

• "I've got into a good habit over the past number of years to re-use shopping bags again and again and I'm moving more and more away from full plastic ones to cotton biodegradable bags."

• "Since COP 26 I have started using Vinted to buy and sell clothes for my family rather than just binning old clothes and buying brand new every time."

 COP26...

• "... provided a huge opportunity to help educate our children and their friends. During COP26 we hosted delegates from India through the Homestay Network who would have been unable to attend the event without this support. The whole family loved the experience and it provided a really valuable cultural exchange for all of us. Our children learned about issues that affect India and it gave them real life examples to complement what they were learning at school. We also arranged for the delegates to give a virtual talk to children at the local school and I supported this by talking about my role in the council and how it helps the environment - by reducing our corporate carbon footprint through our Print and Mail Reduction project."

  "... encouraged us to think about how we shop. Since the event we've tried to buy many more recycled items including making better use of charity shops and online sites like Freegle and Gumtree. We also regular try to de-clutter our lives and recycle items back into our local community. This Christmas our kids had a reverse advent calendar in which we donated items or food we no longer needed instead of receiving things. We also now shop much more from our local social enterprise food shop Locavore - and make lots of use of their 'freebox' to make food."

• "...made me reflect on the contribution which I can make locally in my own neighbourhood in Glasgow to take climate-friendly action.   I'm going to volunteer more for cleaning up our local park and greenspace and try to work more with my neighbours on recycling in my close. 

• "...impressed me with the many of the discussions on sustainability in the food system.I learned a lot more about how our personal consumption has impacts on a global scale.  It made me think again about my own food choices, where the food my family eats comes from and how we might try to have a more balanced and plant-based diet.   I was also able to hear the voices of farming communities from around the world and reflected on the importance of making Fairtrade choices to ensure that we in the better off parts of the world can support equity for those in the developing world."

• "...helped to teach me that we all can do something, despite the enormity of global problems, and that we do have real urgency when it comes to taking action - a message reinforced especially by all the voices of young people in our city, which will continue long after COP."

• "...inspired me to try Veganuary and I have continued eating a plant based diet since then."