First Glasgow and Glasgow City Council teamed up to support some inspirational Climate Change campaigners from St Joseph’s Primary School at an event on Wednesday, October 9th as part of the pupil’s climate week activities.

First Glasgow staff first met the inspirational kids at the city’s Clean Air Day event in George Square earlier this year and were delighted to answer the call from pupils to support their climate week activity at the school.  

First’s visit to St Joseph’s primary was part of a week of activity for the children, which included joining every school in Glasgow in each planting a new tree, as well as exploring careers in environmental topics and further visits from Three Discovery and Ricardo Air Quality.

The City’s largest bus operators were able to take along one of their brand-new ultra-low emission buses for the kids to experience first hand and driver Jimmy Lillis was on hand to give the pupils a talk on how to use the bus safely.

Some parents were also in attendance as the children and staff aim to explain the benefits of taking the bus over driving their cars.

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He also discussed the improvements in air quality achieved in switching to the new eco-friendly buses as well as the many other measures the company are taking to reduce their carbon footprint.

For example, their eco-friendly Caledonia depot on Cathcart Road, harvests rainwater which is then recycled to wash the vehicles with, and solar panels on the building helping to power the depot, with the excess power generated going back into the grid.

First Glasgow and Glasgow City Council staff were also on hand to promote their work to achieve 40% compliance with Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone ahead of the December 31st, 2019 deadline.

First Glasgow are also set to launch the city’s first fully electric vehicles to operate on a commercial service later this year in partnership with SP Energy Networks.

First Glasgow Operations Director, Duncan Cameron said: “We were delighted to accept the invitation from St Joseph’s pupils to attend their Climate Week activity. The opportunity to educate parents and kids alike on why bus can be part of the solution to help reduce emissions and ease congestions on our roads was vital for us. It is important that we do all we can to try to change habits and get more people to ditch the car to use public transport instead especially when travelling to and from the city.

“Bus has an important part to play and the more we can promote active and sustainable travel to the next generation to make them aware of the benefits to the environment as well as the hard work and investment we are putting into improve air quality across our fleet, the way we operate in general and in improving the standard of our offering to customers.

“I would like to commend the children for the hard work and enthusiasm they have put into their Climate Week activity. It is important that bus operators and the local authorities continue to work together in partnership to build on the recent momentum gained from the global climate emergency.”

Glasgow City Councillor Anna Richardson said: “Delivering cleaner air is a priority for the health of our city and we are leading the way with Scotland’s first Low Emission Zone, and other initiatives that encourage the uptake of active and sustainable travel.”

“There is clearly a commitment from bus operators towards improving air quality and today has been a wonderful opportunity for pupils and their parents to see this investment for themselves with the chance to hop on board a new, low emission bus that is helping to increase the attractiveness of public transport, offering it up as a convenient and sustainable alternative to the car.

“The council has worked very closely with bus operators to phase in the LEZ and we’ll continue to work in partnership to improve services that are vital to the lives of Glaswegians."

Miss Singer, Primary Teacher and event organiser at St Joseph’s PS: “At St Joseph’s we are continuously exploring engaging and creative ways of delivering Learning for Sustainability, an entitlement for all learners. It is important to us that Climate Action Week is not a series of stand-alone events but a vehicle for showcasing and developing on-going learning and partnerships.

“This is supporting our pupils to be environmentally responsible citizens of the future. Our children were inspired by what they experienced at the Clean Air Day event in George Square this summer and were particularly impressed by the friendliness of the staff at First Glasgow.

“As a result, we were keen to request a school visit so that all our children from P1-P7 could learn more about the sustainable travel options that they can make use of in Glasgow. We have also invited parents to come along so they can become familiar with this mode of travel, especially given the close proximity of the school to the city centre Low Emission Zone.”

For more information on First Glasgow click here: www.firstglasgow.com