Glasgow’s Climate Week 2025

Congress of Business (COB25) is back on 13 May 2025, during Glasgow Climate Week.

Building on Glasgow’s Climate Pacts established at COP26, COB drives meaningful change by turning sustainable strategies into actionable results. ​

Bringing together some of the UK’s most prominent businesses alongside leading academics, COB sends a clear message – business and cities can and will play a leadership role in transforming our economy sustainably. COB drives collective action by uniting businesses on a global scale through the British Chambers of Commerce international network.

The GRREC is a state-of-the-art residual waste treatment facility at Polmadie which was designed and is operated in partnership between Glasgow City Council and Viridor (Glasgow) Ltd.

The GRREC is a key component of the council's response to the climate emergency and designed to help drive Glasgow towards becoming a more sustainable city. Visit will detail how the GRREC works and how it fits into Glasgow’s wider waste strategy.  The following agenda will be followed:

• Short induction to the site (H&S information etc)
• Office-based presentation around what the GRREC does and how it works.
• Following this there would be an opportunity to look into the workings of the plant via an observation office which has an enclosed window allowing viewing of some of the plant workings.
• Q&A

Please note there will be no tour of the workings of the facility, the GRREC is an extremely busy complex and tours whilst it is operational is not possible.  As part of the presentation there are graphics and videos of how the plant operates and works, which gives a good understanding of how the GRREC works.

The University have been operating a gas-fired energy centre and heat network since 2018 and are progressing plans to decarbonise our buildings and heat source.

Delegates will be treated to a short tour of the Energy Centre and maps showing the wider city plans.  The tour will be conducted by Sustainability and Building Services professionals.  There will be plenty of opportunity to network and ask questions.

To combat fuel poverty and enhance energy efficiency, NG Homes implemented a comprehensive energy efficiency solution across 13 tower blocks in Glasgow. The key upgrade was the installation of a large-scale Air Source District Heating System, replacing outdated electric storage heaters.

The visit will incorporate a tour of the Air Source Heat Pumps on the rooftop of one of the high-rise blocks (with some of the best views in Scotland), a chat with the client on some of the challenges the project faced, as well as the benefits the project has had on residents. 

Clyde Gateway strives for net zero carbon, putting people and places at the heart of delivering increasingly sustainable developments. 

Established to tackle inequality and multiple deprivation through wide ranging and holistic regeneration activities, Clyde Gateway is not only supporting the development of solutions to decarbonise the built environment but has operationalised these developments, putting into practice what can often be intangible and complex national priorities for the green agenda and the transition to net zero – particularly as these relate to sustainable economic growth. This includes substantial investment in new buildings, refurbishing existing buildings, providing sustainable heat networks to new developments and engaging with leading academics, businesses and residents to inform future delivery particularly through Scotland’s first Green Regeneration Innovation District status area.

Noventa Energy is a provider of proven, fully-engineered technology alternatives for heating and cooling buildings. Noventa draws on their portfolio of exclusively licensed technologies and internally created IP to develop customised renewable energy solutions that reduce carbon emissions and manage energy costs for their customers.

Visit to UK Geoenergy Observatory in Glasgow – an opportunity to visit an at-scale minewater geothermal and thermal energy storage research site. The Glasgow Observatory is a research facility designed to investigate shallow, low temperature mine heat energy. A short presentation about the purpose and aims of the Glasgow Observatory followed by  an opportunity to walk around the site to see the boreholes and heat centre.

Queens Quay is the only large scale high temperature heat pump in Scotland. Delivering up to 5.2MW of heat at up to 80°C, it produces heat with very low carbon footprint- sometimes as low as 1.5% of burning gas (depending on local grid carbon intensity).

It does this by harvesting heat from the Clyde Estuary using two ammonia heat pumps manufactured in Glasgow by Star Refrigeration.

Delegates will see three aspects of the project, which is owned by West Dunbartonshire Council:

• Abstraction system and Energy Centre– led by project leaders, Vital Energi;
• Project overview and connections- West Dunbartonshire Council; and
• Heat pumps- Star Refrigeration