Glasgow The Caring City - About Us

Green Policy


Glasgow the Caring City prides itself on upholding its record as one of the Greenest charities in our sector.

At every stage of our operating cycle, we think Green and act clean, all in aid of a better, safer and more sustainable future for our local communities. Below, you’ll find brief summaries of our many Green initiatives:

Landfill Diversion

A lot of the work we do involves aiding UK companies to make ethical use of their excess goods. UK manufacturing has such high standards that even the slightest imperfection, wrong colouring or detail can result in perfectly good products being sent to landfill. We therefore work closely with UK manufacturers to divert surplus stocks from landfill and use them for a better purpose. For example, we often ship rejected soap bars to children in Burundi or Haiti, saving their lives from water-borne diseases. This means that Glasgow’s communities benefit from reducing their landfill use, all in the name of a worthwhile cause.

Green Vehicles

Our work as a charity depends on the use of several vehicles including vans to transport the items people wish to donate around our community and lorries for the movement of freight across the UK. To protect our environment, we make sure these load carrying vehicles run on Green fuels and energy efficient technology. Additionally, we minimize road miles by geographically 'sectoring' our transport activities and work closely with the UK’s leading hauliers to make use of Hollow Road Miles, allowing vehicles which run part empty to be used for carrying our donated items.

Textile Handling Policy

Glasgow the Caring City operate several textile recycling points across Scotland which enable our communities to donate old and unwanted clothes for direct re-use or recycling purposes. Our 10 years of experience in delivering aid and development materials to people in need means that we can best establish which donations can be best used in which locations. One of the central benefits of our method of textile re-use is its impact on reducing demand for textiles, which has a knock-on effect in preventing new slave labour and sweatshops opening up. Not only does this increase trade ethics; it also decreases use of fossil fuels and raw materials, helping to protect our planet.

For items that do not meet a standard that enables their re-use, we will recycle the donation for its 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. 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, we believe it is of ethical importance to employ quality standards and ensure any unusable surplus does not become a burden on the environment.

Education

Glasgow the Caring City prioritises educating people in the ways of environmental sustainability, which undoubtedly contributes to the protection of our climate. We work with schools in Glasgow to teach kids about the practical side of being Green. Through the eco-school initiative and us, they learn how to reduce waste, reuse goods and recycle unwanted items. Educating young people about the importance of caring for the environment lays foundations for a much more sustainable future.

Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint of Glasgow the Caring City is reduced through a variety of off-setting measures. We place carbon neutrality high on our agenda, investing time and money in a variety of tree planting initiatives across Scotland. For example, we planted several hundred tree-saplings on the banks of Loch Lomond, which annually absorb more carbon than we produce. This initiative will be expanded in the coming years allowing Glasgow the Caring City's schemes to offset more and more carbon each year.

International Shipping

Being an aid agency we are always shipping vital aid and supplies overseas to our development projects. Due to such a high level of transportation, we place high importance environmental concerns, carefully selecting how and who we ship with based on Green standards. Shipping is currently the most environmentally efficient means of moving goods around the world, with the industry incorporative several Green intiatives such as:

  • 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

In combination, the above mean our transportation methods use only 0.025 Kilowatts per ton of cargo per Kilometre and 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 three times more efficient than a truck.