Environmental

Did you know that Glasgow the Caring City is one of the 'Greenest' charities in our sector?

At every stage of our operating cycling we think green and act clean, all in aid of a better, safer and more sustainable future for our communities. Here are some facts about Glasgow the Caring City and our Green initiatives.

Textile Handling Policy

Glasgow the Caring City tries it's hardest to link your donations of clothing directly with people who need such goods, as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

Glasgow the Caring City has 10 years of experience in delivering aid and development materials. Our wealth of experience means that we can establish which donations can be best used in which locations. Occasionally donations do not meet a standard that enables them to be used in the manner intended by the donor. In these cases we will recycle the donation for the textile value. This not only satisfies our ethical consideration for the environment but also means that we can use the financial proceeds to propagate the good work for which the donation was in fact intended, directly satisfying the charitable intention.

Some donors are happy for their items to be recycled into the social enterprise stream of second hand clothing shops and other income generating activities.

For donors who do not wish their items to be sold or recycled, we try our hardest to enable your donation to reach people in need, overseas. However, due to a variety of factors including storage space, costs of shipping and scheduling, there maybe delays in despatching your goods. Typically, if textile goods reach a storage lifespan of 12 weeks or more, we cannot guarantee the quality or condition* inside our packaging containers and as such we may chose to recycle those goods to maintain our high product standards.

Glasgow the Caring City believes that our reputation, in the field of aid & development materials, is built upon our high quality & standards. Our systems for recycling are designed to protect these standards and not simply to generate income.

We pledge to be open and responsive to the views of our supporter community when receiving textile donations.

*Glasgow the Caring City does not operate a climate controlled warehouse. As such our materials are open to environmental changes which may affect textile quality.

Green Vehicles

In Glasgow we operate two collection and deliver vehicles, moving the items people wish donate around our community. To protect our environment we make sure that these vehicles run only on Green Diesel Technology and additionally, we minimize road miles by geographically 'sectoring' our transport activities.

Green UK Haulage

The movement of freight around the UK is large part of how we operate so successfully. Delivering this success is a green and ethical manner is high on our agenda so that is why we work with UK hauliers who use Green Fuels, emission reducing technology and energy efficient vehicle to carry our loads. The green thinking doesn't stop there we also work closely with the UK leading hauliers to make use of Hollow Road Miles, allowing vehicles which run part empty to be used for carrying our donated items.

Diversion from Landfill

Diverting goods and equipment from landfill does not mean that we simply target waste in fact the opposite is true. UK manufacturing has such high standards that even the slightest imperfection, off colour or detail can result in perfectly good items being sent to landfill. This is why we work with UK companies to make use of these redundant and surplus stocks providing an alternative to landfill. Our emphasis is not on reducing waste but rather on extending life-cycle and using these highly valuable items for the purposes for which they were created.

Education

Educating people in the ways of environmental sustainability will undoubtedly contribute to the protection of our climate. This is why education is a high priority within Glasgow the Caring City. Working within Schools as part of the eco-school initiative and our own, stand alone education programmes are helping to teach kids about the practical side of being Green. We work with children to educate on the reduction of waste, the reuse of goods and recycling of unwanted items.

Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint of Glasgow the Caring City is being reduced through a variety of off-setting initiatives. Seven years ago we realised that being a carbon neutral charity should be high on our agenda. This is why we invested time and money in a variety of tree planting initiatives around Scotland. On the banks of Loch Lomond we planted several hundred native tree saplings which annually absorb more carbon than we produce. This initiative is to be expanded in the coming years allowing Glasgow the Caring City's schemes to absorb more and more carbon from our atmosphere.

International Shipping

Being an aid agency we are always shipping vital aid and supplies overseas to our development projects so this is why we have to be selective and careful about how we ship and who we ship with Shipping companies have come along way in the past ten years to being more environmentally friendly and today, in 2009, shipping is the most environmentally efficient means of moving goods around the world. Initiatives to clean up the shipping industry include:

Building ships to be 98% recyclable
Creating 100% recyclable shipping containers
Optimum travel speed technology via GPS
Hull & Propeller technology to reduce drag and increase efficiency
Low sulphur fuels and a cap of 4.5% sulphur in Marine Heavy Fuels
Cleaning, Filtering and purifying of fuels, on board, before use
Environmentally friendly anti-fouling' paints for ship hulls
10% efficiency gain through paint technology on ship hulls

Combined, the above help to maintain a transportation method which uses only 0.025 Kilowatts per ton of cargo per Kilometre & 12.97 grammes of carbon per ton of cargo per Kilometre. This makes our choice for distributing aid overseas; 40 times more carbon efficient than a cargo plane and 3 times more efficient than a truck.