A trail-blazing eco initiative in Glasgow’s Cranhill community led by Thenue Housing was the focus on STV Glasgow on Tuesday.

The popular local TV channel featured the environmentally-friendly project which has just got under way with £150,000 in financial support from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund.

Its aims are:

*To encourage community food growing in gardens based on advice supplied by specially-recruited local volunteers

*To deliver energy advice and help gain access to energy saving grants

*To provide Arts Workshops for adults and kids with a climate change theme

The partners are Thenue Housing, Glasgow Housing Association, Cranhill Trust, Cranhill Area Association and the arts charity Impact Arts.

For energy efficiency advisor Ruskin Gammon and colleague Nic Wood from Impact Arts it was the first time ever in a television studio.

Ruskin told viewers: “My role as the energy efficiency and environmental advisor is to visit people at home and advise them on how to save energy and tell them if there are any grants available. The other strand of the project is to help people to grow their own – even in their own gardens.

“We have young people – nine volunteers – helping with the project all of whom have been recruited from the Cranhill area.

“It is a good example of a housing association doing so much more than collecting the rent – being deeply engaged in the community and doing what housing associations do best by helping others.”