The NHS intends to be the world’s first net-zero carbon health service and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is determined to play its part.
The Trust’s new Green Plan comes with commitment and strives to meet three key aims:
- Reduce our impact on the natural environment and deliver Net Zero Carbon care
- Support the health and wellbeing of our patients, staff and communities by encouraging them to make healthy choices
- Invest in the future through forward thinking, sustainable decision making.
Angela Stevenson, SASH chief executive, said:
“We’ve already made small steps to becoming a greener NHS service - our nurses’ uniforms are made from recycled plastic bottles, we’ve got 100% renewable electricity and we planted 150 trees last year. However, further action is required to drive down the NHS’s carbon footprint as quickly as we can. The SASH Green Plan will ensure that our local community, and wider world, is a safer, cleaner place for future generations to come.”
SASH will kick-start its venture with an aim to reduce our carbon footprint by 57% by 2025. The Green Plan sets out seven action plans to ultimately help the NHS deliver Net Zero Carbon by 2040, including changes to culture, journeys to work and ensuring that the Trust’s workplaces protect local biodiversity.
National research shows that limiting climate change will lead to remarkable health benefits, including saving 5,700 lives per year from improved air quality, saving 38,000 lives per year from a more physically active population and saving more than 100,000 lives per year from healthier diets. Let’s make sure we play our part.
The Trust will be raising awareness of the Green Plan’s stand-out themes over the next few months via team leads at the organisation. It will also encourage everyone to commit to making a difference to their day-to-day lives, such as taking public transport, cycling to work more often or using a reusable coffee cup and as a result, make a positive impact on the wider environment.
Read the full Green Plan here.