Featured below are a selection of case studies that showcase some of the excellent climate action across North Lanarkshire and beyond….

ACS are Europe’s largest rental specialists and have been successfully providing rental services to High Street Retailers and Independent Stockists for over 20 years. The company are now a fulfillment centre for a female and baby’s Clothing Rental Companies and also providing recommerce services.

Fashion retail has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic and now faces a bigger long-term crisis. Growing customer awareness about its impact on people and the planet is seeing the rapid growth in rental and resale eat into retail profits.

Traditionally it’s been hard for fashion retailers to incorporate rental and resale into their businesses. ACS’s award-winning team offers ‘plug-and-play’ solutions so they can embrace more sustainable rental and resale revenue streams overnight.

We offer a complete solution for traditional fashion retailers:  

easy-to-integrate software making it easy to manage every aspect of resale and retail  

zero waste to landfill through innovative sanitisation and reuse

expert consultancy helping our customers take advantage of the multi-billion-pound opportunity offered by rental and resale

Biodiversity and Climate Emergency Network

The purpose of the Biodiversity and Climate Emergency Network is to support Community and Voluntary Sector organisations, staff and volunteers with an interest in adapting to the climate emergency, to support each other and achieve more individually and collectively by sharing information, learning and collaboration to support improved action and impact. 

Getting Better Together, based in Shotts, is a community-based health initiative seeking to champion the health, education and wellbeing of residents in North Lanarkshire. Amongst a variety of different services, the project provides accessible community transport to residents in the area.

Getting Better Together, along with fellow community transport operators CACE and Glenboig were successful in attracting approximately £800,000 of funding for 8 new electric vehicles – which comprises roughly half of North Lanarkshire’s community transport fleet – as well as the charging infrastructure required to operate these electric vehicles.

It is estimated that through operation of these vehicles some 40 tonnes of carbon emissions are saved every year when compared to the diesel equivalents that they have replaced.

These investments represent a substantial advance in combatting the climate emergency in North Lanarkshire, as well as demonstrating the project’s commitment to ensuring its environmental sustainability.

Sustainability has been recognised as part of New College Lanarkshire’s refreshed Strategy 2025 values and is a key focus for the College moving forward.

The Sustainability Project Team is working within NCL and in partnership with external organisations to ensure not only that our involvement in COP26 is maximised, but also that Sustainability principles are fully embedded in NCL culture, now and for the future.

The project team will carry out a range of activities aligned to COP26 themes, reflecting NCL’s Purpose, Mission and Values. This includes a commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – we have joined the ‘Race to Zero’ and have pledged to become carbon neutral by 2042.

We have distilled the COP26 themes into five distinct areas we are focusing on, these are:

• Students & Enterprise
• Community & Volunteering
• Education
• Arts
• COP26 Hub

Students, staff and the wider community, in NL and beyond, will be:

• Engaged – through an integrated campaign, project activities will reach and connect with a range of audiences.
• Informed – audiences will have an understanding of the importance of taking action against climate change, plus what they as individuals can do.
• Upskilled – people will be shown the skills needed to make small, easy lifestyle changes and the confidence to utilise them e.g. clothing restoration/repair.

Eight budding young film makers enjoyed a directorial debut as their powerful short film, tackling the subject of climate change, was screened as part of the Youth Climate Film Awards (YCFA).

Their film, ‘Dear World Leaders’, was showcased online to a select audience to stimulate discussion about climate change, with its message aimed directly at world leaders urging them to take action to tackle the climate emergency.

Dear World leaders was made as part of the Youth Climate Film Project (YCFP), which was delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful with funding from the Scottish Government and The National Lottery through Screen Scotland. Films will also be celebrated nationally during April and May by Keep Scotland Beautiful and Screen Scotland. They will also be featured in the Take One Action Film directory. The YCFP culminated in the Youth Climate Film Awards event where the North Lanarkshire group were presented with a microphone as a prize for their entry.

The North Lanarkshire group discussed, remotely, a range of topics which were then developed into a script, which had to be no more than 90 seconds long. As well as raising awareness of climate issues the film also includes solutions to help protect our planet.

Hazel (13) from Coatbridge loved being part of the project. She said: “Being involved in the climate film project was great because it gave me a chance to get my voice heard and speak up about the important issues that affect me, I think it’s important that all young people get an opportunity to raise awareness on situations that affect them.”

Two council development officers, Kirstin Thomson and Amy Reynolds attended film making training to support the young people and help them create their movie exploring the climate emergency from a young person’s perspective.

Kirstin Thomson, Development Officer, explained: “One of the most unusual aspects of producing the film was that, due to the pandemic, everything was shared via WhatsApp. The group spent time talking about the main issues and how these could be tackled. We allocated lines and roped in our friends from the ‘Acting up’ drama group to help. We think we did pretty well considering we never got to meet one other and hope our film’s strong message has a positive impact on people coming together to tackle climate change.”

Des Murray, Chief Executive of North Lanarkshire Council, watched the premiere and said: “I’m proud of the drive and passion our young people have in raising awareness of, and offering solutions to tackling our climate emergency. They have produced such a thought-provoking and powerful piece of film.

“As a council we’re already making significant progress in tackling climate change and reducing our carbon footprint. We’re also championing sustainable growth ahead of the Conference of Parties (COP26) event being held in Glasgow later this year and are planning a series of events to address key issues around climate change, involving partners, businesses and communities. Only by everyone coming together, raising awareness and taking action can we protect our environment for future generations.

In addition to film making the group have hosted a Q&A session with senior council officers, conducted a litter pick, learned about a variety of climate issues and taken part in a political leader’s debate in the lead up to the Scottish elections. They are inputting their ideas at the planning stages of a north Lanarkshire pupil climate conference and have 2 reps on the ACT Now steering group. They have now teamed up with the Eco Warriors group in Wishaw and planning lots of new activity.

In general, resources to support climate action within youth work settings is being developed and shared and all youth workers are encouraged to build this important topic into their programmes.

Contact details

Kirstin Thomson thomsonki@northlan.gov.uk   

twitter @climate_nl  

Instagram nl.youth.ambassadors

North Lanarkshire Youth Climate Ambassadors

Registered Eco schools in North Lanarkshire

Eco Schools is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world with 19.5 million children, young people and educators engaged worldwide in 67 different countries with delivery In Scotland by Keep Scotland Beautiful. 

Completing a Green Flag Application is recognised by the Green Flag Award, a visible indication of a school’s commitment to Learning for Sustainability and an internationally recognised accreditation for excellence in sustainable education.

As part of ACT Now we will support more schools in North Lanarkshire to become Green Flag accredited.

You can view a list of Green Flag accredited Eco Schools currently in North Lanarkshire by following this link.