City of Glasgow College Plays Host to the Climate Chamber Mission
By Liam Murphy and Patrick Leonard
The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce held its Climate Chamber Mission at the City of Glasgow College today. More than 100 delegates from more than 15 countries attended the event on the 2nd November.
The conference gave businesses the opportunity to help spread the word with their circular economy solutions, sustainability and climate targets. With COP26 in town, corporate leaders around the world exchanged ideas and came together on potential cost-savings. They also explored solutions for changes to governmental climate regulations.
This year’s Climate Chamber Mission is the largest ever to be hosted by a British Chamber of Commerce. With the city hosting COP26 this year, the conference came at the perfect time with the issues discussed relevant to what is taking place in Glasgow currently.
Dr Warren Bowden, who is a pioneer in circular manufacturing, explained how his company produces the world’s lowest carbon leather from a net zero supply chain.
“At Scottish Leather Group, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. We decided to circularise manufacturing and set targets to reach net zero.”
Warren outlined the importance of the decisions that the community makes and how change needs to happen immediately. He said: “You’re going to drive the change, this is real, this is happening today.”
Espen Karlsen, CEO at Norwegian company Jernia, explained that his company are in the process of abandoning their use of Styrofoam. The chemicals that are used in the production of the foam have been found to have negative environmental and health effects.
He said: “It’s obvious that we cannot continue the way that we are, we must change. Eight out of ten people said they want to live a more sustainable way, but most people do not know how to do it.
“We must stop selling cheap products and concentrate on durable products made as far as possible from recycled materials.”
Dr Christoph Brussel, CEO at the Senate of the German Economy, explained how businesses can become eco-friendlier in their manufacturing of goods through sustainability.
He said: “We try to find solutions of the major problems of our time.
“The future is now, we are not talking about grandchildren or our children, we are talking about right now. And more, the politicians can restrict where necessary, change is very much possible.”
The Glasgow Chamber of Commerce is the oldest Chamber in the English-speaking world with continuous records dating all the way back to 1783. Their earliest missions included raising the quality of goods, abolish smuggling and lobbying the Government to lower taxes.