Climate Emergency Strategy
Since the previous edition of Green News we have launched our Climate Emergency Strategy! Within the strategy we have set out our vision for sustainability:
To be a global leader in sustainable healthcare delivery through collaboration and innovation, helping our patients and communities to thrive within the means of our planet.
In this issue:
- Our Goals
- Carbon Budget
- Energy Update
- Climate Emergency Action Fund
- Waste Update
- Shine Rewards
Our Goals
To achieve our vision we have set three long-term goals:
Zero Carbon Care
- By 2030 the emissions we control will be net zero – our ‘Newcastle Hospitals Carbon Footprint’ ï‚·
- By 2040 the emissions we can influence will be net zero – our ‘Newcastle Hospitals Carbon Footprint Plus’
Clean Air
- By 2030 our operational transport activities generate no harmful air pollution ï‚·
- By 2040 our healthcare facilities are accessed by only zero emission travel
Zero Waste
- By 2030 we will reuse and repair everything that can be reused and repaired ï‚·
- By 2040 we will produce no waste. We will manage resources within the circular economy, with items surplus to requirements becoming a resource in another part of the system
Zero Carbon Care
We have followed the NHS England and NHS Improvement report ‘Delivering a Net Zero NHS’ and set two targets within our Zero Carbon Care goal.
By 2030 the emissions we control will be net zero – our ‘Newcastle Hospitals Carbon Footprint’
This is everything within the orange segment – building energy, water and waste, anaesthetic gases and business travel and fleet.
By 2040 the emissions we can influence will be net zero – our ‘Newcastle Hospitals Carbon Footprint Plus’
This is everything else we have influence over:
- patient and visitor travel
- staff commute
- medicines and chemicals
- medical equipment and
- other supply chain
Energy update
A global carbon budget is the limit on how much carbon dioxide the world can emit cumulatively over a set period of time, while still limiting global mean temperature to a specified level.
The Tyndall Centre for Climate Research has provided UK local authority areas with recommendations that translate the “well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C” global temperature target in the Paris Agreement to local carbon budgets, and one has been calculated for the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
We have taken the Tyndall Centre methodology and taken it down to an organisational level to give us a carbon budget for Newcastle Hospitals. This is shown as the green bars in the graph with the pink bars being our performance to date.
We now know that to stay within our carbon budget and meet our target to be Net Zero Carbon by 2040, we need to reduce our building energy carbon emissions by 12.8% year-on-year.
Climate Emergency Action Fund
The Climate Emergency Strategy includes a series of actions that will be undertaken in the next 5 years.
Here are some recent highlights of progress that we are excited to be able to tell you about:
- An application has been submitted to the £1bn Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme for over £2.5 million to be spent on LED lighting, BMS upgrades and solar PV.
- Passivhaus core principles are being adopted into the building designs for the new hospital building. Examples include super insulated walls; super efficient, low energy equipment & lighting; and the integration of renewables such as heat pumps and solar PV. This will enable us to achieve the lowest possible ‘in use carbon emissions’ for these buildings.
Sometimes sustainability projects require a small amount of funding to get them off the ground. There is £50,000 available in our Climate Emergency Action Fund, and applications are welcome from any member of staff with a sustainability idea that they would like to try and implement in their area of work.
The fund is designed to offer quick turnaround, small-scale funding to kick-start Climate Emergency projects led by our people across multiple departments and disciplines.
As long as the project aligns with one or more of the Shine themes of Energy, Water, Waste, Buildings & Land, Journeys, Procurement, Models of Care and People, and would not have otherwise gone ahead, it will be considered for the fund – further guidance can be found on the intranet under Sustainability along with the application form!
We have already approved one application for the purchase of materials to manufacture and trial re-usable inserts for the air tube system for the transfer of urgent blood samples to laboratories.
If the trial is successful this has the potential to remove approximately 57,000 plastic bags from the waste stream.
We are certain there are many more brilliant ideas like this out there with our brilliant Green Champions—why not submit an application to the fund?
Waste update
We are very grateful to those wards and clinical areas that have allowed us to carry on with our new waste audit process this year. A new procedure was implemented at the start of 2020 to enable us to better ensure there is a good level of understanding of appropriate waste segregation by all staff working in clinical areas.
To support with this we have created a Waste Information Pack which can be found on the intranet here or by going to Waste and Recycling, as well as a 20 minute video presentation.
We recommend that all staff who work in clinical areas have taken a look at these resources as the new audits do now include a review of staff understanding of the different waste streams, and how to properly dispose of the different types of waste generated.
If you are a manager in a clinical area we recommend making this part of the local induction pack, and reviewing the content regularly with your staff.
The waste team are always happy to help with any questions you might have regarding this material. You can contact them by emailing [email protected]
Waste and the Climate Emergency
Waste and recycling is an integral part of the Climate Emergency Strategy and the work of the sustainability team. Within the strategy the Trust has committed to achieving the following by 2025:
Generate less waste; reuse and recycle more, and ensure unavoidable waste is disposed of in the most sustainable way:
- Reduce the amount of waste we create by working and purchasing in more resource-efficient ways
- Increase the number of items we reuse with a focus on reducing single-use plastics
- Repair or reuse more items that can be repaired or reused
- Increase the amount of waste that we reuse or recycle to 35% of consigned waste by volume
This is a huge challenge and one that can only be met with the help of all of you. So please keep championing reduce, reuse and recycle in your areas of work!
Shine Rewards – Winners!
Shine Rewards is a new programme for Newcastle Hospitals staff to recognise and reward your sustainable actions.
We’re delighted to announce our first round of winners, who earned the most Green Points this month for their positive actions.
This month, Amy S and Joanne H topped our leader board to earn a £20 voucher. Of everyone who earned Green Points, Richard W, Jack B and Sarah M were selected as our raffle winners. Congratulations!
We have had over 1200 sustainable actions logged on the platform now which is excellent!
Tree Planting
This December we have been busy planting trees at the Freeman and RVI – 50 have been planted so far and there are 50 more to go!
Ecosia, the default search engine at the Trust, teamed up with NHS Forest to dedicate the revenues from searches made by UK users to show their appreciation for the incredible efforts of NHS key workers.
Combatting climate change, cleaning the air, providing oxygen and creating a nice environment for staff, patients and visitors – trees are amazing!
If you have any ideas for areas that could be improved for both nature, and for patients, visitors & staff, please get in touch on our email address [email protected]
