Green Action Trust: Environmental regeneration supporting wider economic and societal ambitions

Scotland has, over many years, positioned itself as a leader in climate and environmental policy. However, the reality of the challenge is stark - with attention urgently moving from the theory of climate change to the practical steps we can take to mitigate and halt the damage we are inflicting on our planet.

This is a journey that the environmental charity Green Action Trust has been on for many years. Working with government agencies, local authorities, businesses, and communities across Scotland, the Trust develops and delivers large scale environmental regeneration initiatives that add green and blue infrastructure - supporting action on climate change, and biodiversity loss in turn.

The pandemic re-focused people’s minds on the spaces around them as they adapted to new working and living patterns. Access to green space is no longer a luxury that is taken for granted. The Green Action Trust’s expertise in environmental regeneration can make a huge difference in urban (and often deprived) communities just as much as across wider rural Scotland.

Our delivery of one of Europe’s largest green infrastructure programmes, the Central Scotland Green Network, is an important example of how environmental regeneration can support wider economic and societal ambitions. As a National Development within the recently-adopted National Planning Framework 4, its aim is to change the face of central Scotland by improving environmental quality across the largely post-industrial landscape - making central Scotland a better place to work and live by 2050.

By drawing together the public, private and community sectors we can bring vacant and derelict land back into public use, build green active travel networks, develop community greenspaces and allotments, and deliver blue and green infrastructure such as parks, street trees, green roofs and walls, and sustainable drainage solutions that create new water bodies and wetlands.

A good example is the Avenue End Road project that we delivered in partnership with Glasgow City Council. With finance from the Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme we have transformed an underperforming site, with no amenity for residents, into an attractive greenspace consisting of a new active travel route and outdoor learning area for the community.

In addition, by planting new native woodland, orchards, wetland and wildflower meadows, we have protected and enhanced a population of water voles on the site - which are also assisting habitat creation and flourishing biodiversity.

Our ongoing collaboration with the John Muir Way Partnership is another example of how environmental ambition can improve quality of life for citizens as well as key habitats by linking vast tracts of the country through nature networks.

These are win-win solutions: creating spaces that make Scotland a better place to live and work, promoting health and wellbeing outcomes - and also accelerating progress towards net-zero targets and increasing resilience to a changing climate.

We are enthusiastic to work with partners across all levels of government and the private and third sectors to turn these ideas into tangible change. For more information on how your project can benefit from a partnership with Green Action Trust, you can contact me at ceo@greenactiontrust.org.

Derek Robertson is Chief Executive of the Green Action Trust