Scottish environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, has welcomed the number of "significant and exciting opportunities" to shape and influence legislation, policy and practice, an aspect of their work which is increasingly important as a result of the climate crisis.

Highlights include:

Strategic engagement and working collaboratively

In August, as part of a coalition of over 30 organisations we supported a call from Scottish Environment LINK for an ambitious and comprehensive Circular Economy Bill. The coalition called for the new Bill to include targets for reducing our consumption of resources in order to help address climate change, biodiversity loss and our inequitable consumption of planetary resources.

In September we, along with SCVO, were a partner in the first Global Goals conference, a cross-sector event on the Sustainable Development Goals, hosted by ScottishPower and University of Strathclyde. The event was an opportunity for organisations to come together to look at how to address some of our greatest challenges, including the climate emergency, support for vulnerable people, biodiversity, policy coherence with our global commitments and building capacity to shape the relationships formed at this event.

-- Advertisement --

Developing and engaging with policy

In September we submitted a response to the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee on its Pre-Budget/Financial scrutiny on roads maintenance in Scotland, calling for an increased focus on the issue of roadside litter, which we believe was inadequately considered when looking at road maintenance.

As part of our work taking action on the climate crisis, our staff supported the Global Climate Strikes in September, attending strikes in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Dundee. In addition, we held a Big Climate Conversation in-office, feeding into the Scottish Government’s ongoing consultation on climate change.

Demonstrating expertise and credibility

In August, Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, made the announcement that our Climate Ready Classrooms programme would receive funding to roll it out across Scotland. Climate Ready Classrooms provides an opportunity to support young people’s call for climate action and work in partnership with their schools and communities to take action on climate change.

Also in August we announced the launch of a new initiative in Glasgow which will help community groups in less affluent areas to improve the places that they live in and care for - making sure that everyone in the city can access safe, clean and inspiring green spaces.

Our Annual Review was published in September, this year we used the Sustainable Development Goals that we most strongly support as a framework to showcase how every day actions can have an impact on a local and global scale. Our Annual Review provides examples and highlights of how we have achieved this across the length and breadth of Scotland.

These opportunities allowed us to demonstrate our expertise in a wide range of areas including climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals and circular economy. In addition, it highlights our work around the Global Goals, particularly Goal 4: Quality Education, Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 13: Climate Action and Goal 17: Partnership for the Goals.