23 September 2016

Keep Scotland Beautiful is the charity that provides bespoke environmental services such as audits, surveys and training to help businesses, public bodies and community groups to meet their environmental commitments and responsibilities. It is part of our work to make Scotland clean, green and more sustainable.

We are supporting VIBES 2016 because we know that businesses in Scotland are taking significant steps to improve and reduce their impact on the environment and we support many of them to do this through our activities. The VIBES Awards recognise and showcase best practice and we feel it is important to support this.

What opportunities do you see for businesses in Scotland to improve their local environments?

Business excellence means seizing opportunities. Grasping them with both hands. Ensuring no invitation to do profitable business slips through your hands. 

Imagine, then, the consequences of allowing 20 million opportunities to slip through our nation’s hands. 20 million chances to make a great first impression, and secure an enduring image of Scotland at its best. That’s not the kind of opportunity businesses are used to letting slip through their fingers, so as a country, neither should we.

There are over 20 million visits to Scotland made every year, from across the UK and across the world, they come determined to savour the best Scotland can offer - our stunning landscapes and world-beating towns and cities. Combine that with a massive and growing domestic Scottish market for recreation and we are presented annually with an outstanding opportunity.

No better time to think, honestly, how well we answer that market call for Scotland at its best. We must question whether our environment is in the best condition possible to make that great first impression to visitors from home or abroad. Does our environment support our food and drink sector which draws so heavily on our clean and green credentials and the provenance of all that we produce? 

All the evidence would indicate that we have a problem with the quality of our local environments. Key environmental indicators such as litter, dog fouling and graffiti are officially in decline. Our recently published report highlighted that these are not isolated measurements wavering around the margins, but a clear and consistent indication that environmental quality is getting worse.

Perhaps, some of that might not be a major surprise, however disappointingly. With local authority budgets under sustained pressure, difficult decisions are being taken up and down the country, leading to a lessening of our grip on cleaning up. In previous years, efficiencies were deliverable, now services are being withdrawn and the loser is our environment and those who come here to enjoy it.

However, the national picture is complex, with some striking and humbling examples of people, groups and companies trying to meet the challenge head on.

All over Scotland, communities are stepping forward, determined to be counted in on the national effort to clean up and look our best. In the past month we have announced 70 winners of the Green Flag Award for parks and 60 Scotland’s Beach Award; recognising organisations of all kinds who maintain and improve our best parks and beaches. A number of the entries are purely voluntary groups, hugely determined to do their bit to ensure that their corner of the country provides an outstanding seaside experience.

But individual voluntary effort is just part of the mix - there's a big role for big business too. No longer is the bottom line the sole arbiter of how successful a business is. Environmental impact is a growing and deepening measure of corporate social responsibility, and this past year has highlighted several great examples of corporate best practice.

Whether it is organisations like A G Barr taking the responsibility message to their customer base and distribution network, or Diageo’s attainment of three gold level National Awards for Environmental Excellence at visitor centres, there's a growing view that there has never been a better time for business to deliver for Scotland's environment.

So, it is important to us as an environmental charity to work with corporate Scotland and to take the chance to make our country shine again. 

The VIBES Awards celebrate businesses which are supporting our environment and I am excited to see what the 2016 finalists have achieved.

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vibes at sepa.org.uk