Trust launches Green Plan to tackle Climate Change
22 Apr 22
The Trust has launched a major new and ambitious initiative to tackle the issues of Climate Change as part of the NHS’s wider commitment to invest in protecting our environment.
The Green Plan, revealed today on Earth Day (Friday 22 April), is a call to action across the organisation to focus efforts on ensuring that future generations can live healthy lives on a healthy planet.
The Plan is a ‘root and branch’ response to help address the issues of Climate Change which affect everyone. Every aspect of the Trust’s work and activities is covered in the plan, including the food we buy, the medicines we use, how we travel and the energy that runs our buildings.
As an NHS organisation, we have an obligation to work in a way that has a positive effect on the communities we serve. Sustainability means spending public money well, using natural resources smartly and efficiently and building healthy, resilient communities.
Nationally, the NHS has set a credible, ambitious date to reach two clear and feasible targets:
- For emissions we control directly (the NHS Carbon Footprint) to be net zero by 2040
- For emissions we can influence (our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus) to be net zero by 2045
The Trust’s three-year Green Plan is aligned with the wider NHS’s commitment to achieving these objectives, and ensuring that all parts of the NHS work together to make this possible.
The plan outlines the Trust’s aims, objectives and delivery plans for sustainable development and sets out the carbon reduction initiatives already under way and its plans for the subsequent three years. Areas of focus include:
- Sustainable Models of Care
- Digital transformation
- Medicines
- Travel and transport
- Estates and facilities
- Supply chain and procurement
- Food and nutrition
The plan aims to help our service users, their families and carers, our staff and our partners to ‘think and live green’ and create a green movement in partnership with our wider communities.
Maria Wheeler, Executive Director of Finance, Performance and Improvement, said: “We are playing a leading role through our Green Plan in helping create a better future for our children and our children’s children.
“Climate Change is a health crisis because all our lives depend upon us living on a healthy planet. The founding principles of the NHS centred on better health care and better health outcomes for all and, as an NHS Trust, we are determined to ensure that every aspect of our organisation is geared up to building a better, brighter for our communities and the planet we all live on.”