SOUTH Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust is bringing a greener approach to its services.
Its new strategy will build on a carbon management plan created in 2011, and along with reaching the trust’s goals will also meet targets set in the NHS Long Term Plan and Net Zero NHS report.
Eco-friendly activities include creating a garden of wellbeing at Stratford Hospital for staff and the community to provide opportunities to use gardening as means of patient rehabilitation, developing a programme to reduce food waste, establishing low-carbon travel opportunities for staff including a car-sharing scheme, a cycle to work scheme and the use of electric vehicles for staff travelling between sites and developing electronic systems to keep records, prescribe medication and transfer results.
Sustainability manager Cris Calleja said: “Due to the scale of our services and estates, we have a responsibility to play a leading role in driving sustainable healthcare services and promoting environmental good practice wherever we can. It’s an ambitious target, but by using a combination of performance improvement projects, innovative technologies and behaviour change campaigns we’re aiming to reduce our carbon footprint by 30 per cent by 2024.
“Our strategy will help us to get there. It’s the result of months of work across the trust which really highlights the enthusiasm with which people are embracing our drive for a greener future.”
Chief executive Glen Burley added: “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made towards becoming a more environmentally conscious organisation since we introduced our first carbon management plan in 2011. It has been particularly exciting to see how a focus on sustainability can help create a better experience for our patients as well as contributing to staff wellbeing.
“Our new five-year strategy now challenges us to go further and to make sustainability a key priority both in the design of the services we provide and throughout the day-to-day operational activity that makes those services possible.”
