Environmental Issues Current Events

The Glasgow Goes Green Festival returned for its second year on Wednesday.

Approximately 350 visitors enjoyed the free, celebratory showcase of workshops about environmental sustainability at SWG3 TV Studio in Glasgow.

Spela Raposa, Environmental Awareness and Recycling Officer, said: “It is the second Glasgow Goes Green Festival at SWG3 with workshops, films, music, food and drink, all linked together by the mantra ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ and, of course, our favourite city, Glasgow. It is still an experiment, but we can see that it is working thanks to a large public audience.”

The event had been organised by an assortment of institutions, including the Glasgow University Environmental Sustainability Team (GUEST), Strathclyde University (Sustainable Strathclyde), Radial (part of Glasgow School of Art), and Glasgow Caledonian University.

On offer for those who visited were 2 spoken word poetry acts, 4 musical acts, and 22 exhibitors, as well as live mural painting and interactive exhibits where people could contribute their own thoughts and ideas.

The festival particularly focused on shaping professional practices, such as the use of ethical gold and silver, efficient design, textiles making, or chemical printing processes.

Glasgow Goes Green’s aim is to raise awareness and to emotionally engage people with an array of issues, by promoting an evironmentally conscious stance through work.

The workshop also featured creative aspects of environmentalism, delving into hobbies that included introductions to beekeeping, cycle engineering, going vegetarian, and being more resourceful with food.

The theme “What Does Green Mean to you?” was an attempt to initiate dialogue to those who may lack the motivation or interest in participating with environmental issues and green living.

Amy Ritchie, Environmental Projects Assistant, said: “Events like this are a great way to open up conversations between people and raise awareness of some of the issues around climate change and environment… I got to chat to a huge range of people with very different interests and backgrounds last night, and I think that can be really inspiring.

“I think events like GGGF are also a really good way to showcase different local organisations and enterprises, and really highlight how easy it is to get involved, ” she added. “We also hope the make the festival an annual occurrence, so perhaps this may be something we look at in the future.”