SEC retains Gold Award for Green Tourism Business Scheme

The Scottish Event Campus (SEC) has retained its Gold Award for the Green Tourism Business Scheme, having continued to excel in sustainability practices across the venue.

The Green Tourism Business Scheme began in 1997 and aims to encourage and enable people to make sustainable choices that reduce their impact on the planet. The organisation has 2000 members across the UK, Ireland, Italy, Canada and Zimbabwe, making it the world’s largest sustainable certification programme of its kind.

The SEC has been a member of the initiative since 2009, and this was the first audit since April 2013. Since then, the campus has welcomed The SSE Hydro to its offering, but this has also meant an additional million visitors per year to the venue.

Despite these additional visitors, which means increased waste, traffic emissions and water usage, the campus has managed to increase sustainability across nearly all areas of the site.

The campus has managed to reduce waste to landfill by 5%; increase dry mixed recycling by 32%; metal recycling by 244%; glass recycling by 101% and food recycling by 102%.

A top score of 100% was also given for “Site Innovation” which was largely down to the introduction of the SEC App, which keeps staff informed of any updates across the campus. Other innovations include the new wildlife-friendly planting regime introduced by gardener, Calum, and introducing the SEC honey bees, who have just produced their first batch of honey.

Mark Laidlaw, Director of Operations at the SEC, said: “These initiatives are fantastic and clearly working. Whilst our team have done a great job, we are extremely grateful to our visitors. We only provide the mechanism for our audiences to recycle, and it is up to them to make the right choices whilst they are on-site.

“We are delighted with the progress that has been made and proud to retain our gold award.”

The award follows the recognition of the wider City of Glasgow on the Global Destination Sustainability Index, rising to fourth place this year.

Aileen Crawford, Head of Conventions at Glasgow Convention Bureau, said “Glasgow is working towards becoming one of Europe’s most sustainable cities by 2020 and has recently been recognised as one of the world’s leading cities for sustainable business tourism after rising to fourth place on the Global Destination Sustainability Index. The SEC is a central component of Glasgow’s business tourism offering so it’s fantastic to hear that it has retained the prestigious Green Tourism Gold Award – many congratulations!”

www.sec.co.uk