ENERGY AND CARBON-SAVING
ultimately a research one’. He expanded: “Of course we need further research, and of course the technologies that will emerge in 20 years’ time will surpass those we have now, and we must double down our efforts, but demonstration deployments of proven technologies are what we need to carry us to 2050.” Other potential ‘low regret’ measures included the ‘smarter’ electricity grid, and large- scale energy storage to address the issues of ‘intermittency’ Dame Sue Ion had mentioned. Dr Starkey acknowledged that securing better large-scale energy storage would equally be ‘a major challenge’.
One of two key strategic aims Sustainability, he told attendees, ran through much else in the Academy’s work, and was one of its two key ‘strategic aims’ over the next decade. He said: “I’d like to tell you about a piece of work we at the NEPC did called Sustainable Living Places, based around how you create sustainable, ‘happy’ places people want to live in. Of course, everybody has a different objective, and if you get a large housing estate built this way, much of the work undertaken is transferable to the public estate. You have different departments of government, and different levels, and many different stakeholders. Here we took ourselves a mile out of our comfort zone – dealing with housing and residents’ associations, architects, and town planners.” Although he noted ‘the difficulty of getting anything done when everybody has such divergent, but legitimate goals’, and that ‘the people aspects of climate change are just as difficult and significant as the technological aspects’, Dr Starkey said one thing the NEPC had found was that Net Zero was actually ‘a leverage point at which you could start a conversation with all the different, divergent interests, and expect to achieve an outcome’.
A ‘joined-up’ approach
In coming to a close, Dr Starkey said that in ‘taking a true systems approach’, not only do organisations need a carbon policy that is ‘joined up’, but also one with implications for other policies. He said: “We are increasingly finding this in the Royal Academy of Engineering. I have mentioned all the work the Academy, the NEPC, and its partners, have been doing over this past year in response to COVID- 19 – on ventilation, on surfaces, and on how supply chains are doing very quick turnaround work for the Department for International Trade, for instance. IHEEM has been really prominent in this, and has really stepped up to the plate – because its expertise has been very relevant to the challenge.”
The Royal Academy of Engineering had just been asked by Sir Patrick Vallance, the
48 Health Estate Journal June 2021
The Royal Academy of Engineering has been asked by Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor (pictured), ‘to look at what infection- resilient environments might look like in the future’.
Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, to look at what infection-resilient environments might look like in the future, Dr Starkey said: “I have been discussing this with Pete Sellars. We will be looking at areas such as how we design for infection resilience, as well as for low carbon, and how we can manage buildings in a more infection-resilient way.”
There could ‘be tensions here, as well as opportunities’. He elaborated: “For instance, we are looking at whether there is a tension between the way you would ventilate a space to reduce power use for climate change, and making buildings less open to infection. We are just at the start of this work now, so please feed any thoughts through to Pete Sellars or I. We are very much in ‘ears open’ mode as we start this work, and deliver something on behavioural change and measures we can take now, through the summer. We will then look at longer-term measures as to how we design all sorts of infrastructure, including hospitals, in ways that are both infection-resilient, but also ‘green’ and pleasant to live in.”
A wide-ranging address
Here, Dr Starkey closed his presentation, but said he would be delighted to take any questions from the webinar audience. Pete Sellars thanked him for presenting, and noted how much interesting ‘food for thought’ the two presentations by Dame Sue Ion and Dr Nick Starkey had presented. He said: “So much interesting discussion this morning. I was just reflecting, before we go into the ‘Question and Answer’ session, that I have been around healthcare for pretty well my entire career. However, I think for the very first time we have a situation in healthcare where Sir Simon Stevens has set the challenge for the Net Zero NHS by 2040.
“I think this is the first time sustainability, carbon, and energy reduction – all the things the NHS has been traditionally good at over the last 20 years – are at the centre of our policy, and Nick, you alluded to this joined-up thinking and systems approach. I think what we have in the NHS currently is the opportunity to really grab this agenda and move it forward, because at the heart of everything the NHS does nowadays is the conversation around Net Zero.”
A massive new-build programme Pete Sellars continued: “So, the NHS is entering into a massive new-build programme, and no doubt re-thinking how it delivers services – particularly linking to the environment. The pandemic has demonstrated that the existing infrastructure – although very robust – was designed for different parameters, such as situations where any of our key services – our medical gases, or ventilation, failed. Duplication was there to keep the services running, but of course the pandemic led to real stresses and strains on the system. I think the engineering challenge, not just in healthcare, but more widely, will require some really innovative thinking – because at one end of the spectrum we are going to have to design new systems which may well take more core energy to provide the resilience to deal with future pandemics. That will be a trade-off against the sustainability agenda at the other, so I am really interested in how the engineering fraternity can influence the policy to accelerate and understand the real value of this ‘systems thinking’, which in the health sector will be so important for the future planning of our services.” On that note, this absorbing webinar session ended.
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©Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street CC-BY-NC-ND-2.0
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