SUSTAINABILITY
Surveysuggestsacceleration needed with Green Plans
In January this year HEJ conducted a survey on behalf of business utility and sustainability consultancy, Inenco. Issued to all the magazine’s readers, and also available to complete online, it sought to identify how far advanced NHS Trusts across England were in developing and implementing a ‘Green Plan’ as part of the national drive for the NHS Carbon Footprint across England to be Net Zero carbon by 2040, and for the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus to achieve the same goal by 2045. Here, with input from Inenco Senior Account manager, Beth Goodwin, we report on the responses.
In March’s HEJ, we reported on an informative webinar held in conjunction with the magazine late last year, during which Beth Goodwin of Inenco, and her colleague, Product and Insight manager, David Oliver, explained to the audience the background to, and rationale behind, Green Plans. The Inenco speakers also set out the key steps in creating an effective such plan, and suggested some of the best ways to encourage staff employed in a wide range of NHS roles to play their part in achieving the targets set. The aim of the follow-up survey undertaken via HEJ on Inenco’s behalf this January was to gauge how far NHS Trusts across England had actually already progressed in developing and implementing their Green Plans, and, equally, to find out more about how they propose to play their part in the NHS’s publicly stated goal of becoming the world’s first Net Zero Carbon national health service. In this article we list the questions posed, and the responses obtained.
1: Does your Trust currently have a plan in place to achieve the Net Zero Carbon targets of 2040 and 2045 outlined by NHS England?
In October 2020 NHS England published Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service, which outlined the goals NHS England has set in the quest to become the world’s first Net Zero carbon national health service. Two deadlines were set – for the NHS Carbon Footprint to be ‘Net Zero’ by 2040, and the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus to achieve the same goal by 2045 (see the article in the March 2021 HEJ for fuller details). “Encouragingly,” said Beth Goodwin, “the majority (56%) of Trusts surveyed are already working towards a sustainable future. However, 44% surveyed have not currently got a plan in place to achieve net zero, which indicates that many still have work to do to begin to address one of NHS England’s key priorities going forward.
46 Health Estate Journal May 2021
Regulatory compliance
Is this the right thing to do
To benefit the local community
Pressure from key stakeholders
Other (please specify)
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 Percentage
Question 3: What is your Trust’s main driver internally for reducing its carbon footprint (choose one)?
Over 50% of respondents did indicate in a later question however, that COVID-19 has understandably slowed down their progress.”
2: Do you know what your Trust’s carbon footprint is currently? This question suggested about 47% of the survey respondents do not know their Trust’s current carbon footprint. Beth Goodwin said: “At Inenco, one of our core principles is ‘What gets measured, gets managed’. The success of any sustainability strategy will depend on being able to measure against an accurate baseline, and therefore we would argue that determining the current carbon footprint should be a key starting point for all Trusts.
“Service Condition (SC)18 of the new NHS Standard Contract states that all Trusts must make efforts to reduce their impact on the environment, particularly in relation to greenhouse gases and air pollution, and that the goals set must be in accordance with the guidance published in October. Data collection and analysis are therefore crucial to not only knowing what your Trust’s carbon
footprint is, but also to be able to set realistic goals, and measure against those goals in accordance with the updated contract.”
3: What is your Trust’s main driver internally for reducing its carbon footprint?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, 40.6% of respondents stated that regulatory compliance was the main driver for reducing their Trust’s carbon footprint. Encouragingly, another 40.6% indicated that it was ‘the right thing to do’, suggesting an acknowledgement that a net zero NHS will not only benefit the health service, but also the wider communities in which they operate. Beth Goodwin commented: “Just 6% said that pressure from key stakeholders was the main driver, suggesting that perhaps the sustainability agenda is still not being driven at Board level. Our experience suggests that while sustainability is an initiative placed at the door of Estates Departments, in order to achieve the ambitious targets set by NHS England last October, all areas of Trusts will need to make changes to drive change.”
60 70 80 90 100 6.25 12.5 40.63 40.63
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