Since 2002, greenspace scotland has provided a national lead on greenspace, working towards our goal that everyone living and working in urban Scotland has easy access to quality greenspace which meets local needs and improves their quality of life.

As Scotland’s parks and greenspace charity, we have been influential in shaping a supportive policy context for greenspace and promoting good practice on greenspace delivery.

We are proud of our reputation of ‘punching above our weight’ and our small staff team works with many partners to make big things happen!

Key achievements include:

Putting greenspace on the map

• Producing the world’s first national greenspace map in 2011 – and working with Ordnance Survey to extend greenspace mapping across Britain
• Demonstrating through research and case studies how greenspace delivers for Scotland’s people, places and communities
• Developing a supportive national policy framework for greenspace in Scotland – embedding greenspace in policy on health, early years, planning, regeneration, biodiversity, etc and securing a National Indicator on Access to Greenspace

Supporting communities and resourcing greenspace

• Developing Scotland’s only crowdfunding platform specifically for parks and greenspace
• Collaborating with Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage to provide fundraising training and capacity building for grassroots heritage groups
• Working with Tesco and Groundwork UK to deliver the Bags of Help grant programme, supporting over 3000 Scottish community projects with over £9million

 Pioneering new approaches to manage greenspaces

• Working with grassroots growing groups to produce the ‘Our Growing Community’ resource pack
• Collaborating with park managers to produce guidance on developing climate resilient parks and greenspaces
• Drawing on best practice from around the world, for example, our partnership with Project for Public Spaces on Community Placemaking and developing Nature-Based Solutions through the Connecting Nature project

 Providing a greenspace knowledge and network hub

• Producing the State of Scotland’s Greenspace reports and Greenspace Use and Attitude surveys
• Collating research and commissioning critical literature reviews on greenspace, health and quality of life
• Connecting park managers and officers from all 32 Scottish Councils through the Scottish Park Managers Forum

 In the beginning…

greenspace scotland was originally established by Scottish Natural Heritage and partners to lead the Greenspace for Communities Initiative. For the first 3 years we were funded by SNH and the New Opportunities Fund. Until 2009, grant funding for core operating costs was provided by the Scottish Government.

We are now a thriving social enterprise…

Since 2010, greenspace scotland has successfully evolved into a thriving social enterprise, with a diversified funding base. Our projects, programmes and services are resourced by a mixture of grants, contracts and other income.

We will keep working until everyone has easy access to quality greenspaces, which meet their needs, and improve quality of life.

Across Scotland too many communities are still blighted by poor quality, purposeless green deserts or neglected and wasted spaces. Scotland’s urban environment is still not consistently or equitably beneficial for communities. Local action on greenspace and green networks is not realising the ambition of national policy or meeting the aspirations of communities. With continued pressure on public sector spending, and as a non-statutory service, parks and greenspaces are coming under increasing pressure.