Glasgow: A Thriving City
Nicola Biggerstaff
Last week saw the launch of the Glasgow Thriving Portrait at Kelvingrove, which I was delighted to attend on behalf of Common Weal. The report applies the model of Doughnut Economics to the current social and ecological landscape of Glasgow, and provides a framework for future steps towards a greener, fairer Glasgow.
During COP26, Susan Aitken, chair of Glasgow City Council, announced that Glasgow would participate in C40’s Thriving Cities Initiative. C40 describe themselves as “a network of over 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities… united in action to confront the climate crisis.”
London is currently the only C40 member city from the UK, but the Thriving Cities Initiative aims to work with local communities and businesses in participating cities to “open up new insights and possibilities for transformation”.
Previous participants in the initiative include the city of Amsterdam, where in April 2020 it was announced that they were able to develop a five-year Circular Strategy Plan to support their sustainable transition from their findings.
The research was conducted at the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Sustainable Solutions, in partnership with GALLANT and other organisations, including the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), Glasgow City Council, UK Research and Innovation, and the Natural Environment Research Council. They consulted with over 130 Glasgow-based organisations, including Common Weal, through workshops over the last two years, and used the Doughnut Economic model to propose globally sustainable solutions to the unique local needs of the city of Glasgow.
Doughnut Economics was a model created by Kate Raworth in 2012. Framed as a “compass for human prosperity in the 21st century”, it essentially theorizes what an economy that sets a ‘social foundation’ and an ‘ecological ceiling’. In short, how do we address and exceed current sociological shortfalls to meet the needs of local communities, without overshooting and impacting global ecology. For a better explanation than I, neither a scientist not economist, can provide, check out Raworth’s Ted Talk from 2018 here.
The Thriving Cities Initiative requires participants to create a City Portrait, a snapshot of where a city currently is in terms of social and environmental impact, and providing guidance on how it can improve this. In the case of Glasgow, they ask:
How can Glasgow become a home to thriving people in a thriving place, while respecting the wellbeing of all people and the health of the whole planet?
To do this, the question breaks down into four parts, inserting the social and environmental limitations of the Doughnut model into both local and global contexts:
What would it mean for the people of Glasgow to thrive? (Local-Social)
Defined in the report as equal, affordable and sustainable access to, among others: food, water, housing, healthcare, education, transport, broadband, culture and community.
What would it mean for the people of Glasgow to respect the wellbeing of people worldwide? (Global-Social)
Defined in the report as equal, affordable and sustainable access to all of the above, without compromising on access globally. For example, ensuring the city does not use more than its fair share of water, and supports sustainable agricultural practices globally. Ensuring it uses sustainable materials to meet housing needs, and does not exacerbate current threats to global health through unsafe industrial practices in supply chains and recruitment.
What would it mean for Glasgow to thrive within its natural habitat? (Local-Ecological)
Defined in the report as access for locals to clean air and green spaces, adopting healthy environmental practices including harvesting renewable energy, protecting the soil and local biodiversity, among other measures.
What would it mean for Glasgow to respect the health of the whole planet? (Global-Ecological)
Defined in the report as reducing Glasgow’s greenhouse gas emissions to limit the city’s impact on climate change, ocean acidification and air pollution, as well as adopting responsible land use practices and reducing our reliance on fertilisers and ozone-harming chemicals, among other measures.
While the outcome of the report may not necessarily tell us anything new, such as secure food, water, housing, healthcare and education will provide extensive social benefits, and that we should all as individuals and as communities be aiming to reduce our environmental impact, it’s the reframing of the issues which provides a fresh perspective.
Highlighting the relationship between the climate emergency and the shortfall in meeting local needs is of course crucial in framing where both debates need to go moving forward. We know that climate change disproportionately affects the less wealthy, and lack of immediate means locks out the less wealthy from the debate by sheer circumstance. Why would someone who can’t feed their family today care about the state of the planet in ten, twenty, or fifty years’ time?
This is why we need solutions which tackle both without compromising on either, and the Glasgow City Portrait is a fascinating conceptualisation of decades of local debate. We hope it can be used as a useful tool going forward for both communities and businesses to map out their own routes to beyond net zero in a way which benefits locals and the planet.
This project is by no means completed, and the report launch last week was in itself a call to action.
The authors say the report should be viewed as:
Provid[ing] a shared goal for Glasgow to work towards. It is not prescriptive, and not intended to work as a ‘map’, but rather as a ‘compass’. These ideas, and possibilities, are intended to inspire changemakers, organisations and individuals to adopt the Portrait’s principles in their professional work and personal lives.
Their next steps include continuing to identify and engage with key stakeholders, including local businesses and communities, to work on solutions which take the report’s findings into consideration. They hope that going forward the Portrait can be used to generate productive conversations on Glasgow’s future and inspire new policy and continued reassessment of the city’s goals and priorities.
Here at Common Weal, we hope our policies speak for themselves. As the creators of the only fully costed Green New Deal for Scotland, and our support of local poverty-reduction and environmental campaigns at both grassroots and political levels show our willingness to contribute to a greener, fairer Scotland, one which puts All Of Us First.