SUSTAINABILITY


developing a ‘consolidated, system-wide’ Green Plan by 31 March, ‘to be peer reviewed regionally and subsequently published’.


System-wide priorities The NHSE / NHSI guidance explains that these ICS strategies should summarise the Green Plans of relevant member organisations, ‘comment on system-wide priorities and co-ordination’, and ‘focus on the integration of Trust Green Plans with the efforts of primary care, local authorities, and other local care partners’. Given the diversity of the built estate and plant / equipment of the acute and mental health / community NHS Trusts across England, how similar, or indeed different, have Trusts’ approaches been to creating their Green Plans? One experienced sustainability professional with an informed view is Beth Goodwin, a Senior account manager and NHS specialist at energy and sustainability management consultancy, Inenco. Healthcare is a key target market for Inenco, and over the past decade it has worked extensively with Trusts and private sector healthcare providers providing guidance and support on reducing their energy consumption, carbon footprint, and energy bills. In the past 2-3 years, with the NHS’s focus on sustainability intensifying, but with ‘internal resource not keeping pace’, it has found increasing demand for its expertise.


Day-to-day contact Beth Goodwin is in regular contact with Energy and Sustainability managers in the healthcare arena, predominantly in the NHS, but also in private healthcare. To get her perspective on how NHS Trusts across England have been approaching their Green Plans, I recently spoke to her via ‘Teams’, and began by asking how many Trusts Inenco had delivered Green Plans for to date, and how many others it had simply advised on the optimal process.


Decision not to ‘over-commit’ She explained that Inenco had provided significant support with Green Plan delivery, and ‘broader sustainability support’ for a number of acute NHS Trusts,


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as a full-time role. However, we believe there’s scope for the role at ICS level, with, say two or more neighbouring Trusts sharing a professional, working with a council, or multiple local bodies. This would foster collaboration, and we’ve also discussed involving universities. Some might, for example, be happy to provide appropriately qualified students to come in ‘for a year in industry’, and create a plan for the Trust’s sustainable transport activities. A central tenet of Green Plans, after all, was the need for NHS organisations to collaborate with their local community.”


Anaesthetic gases could account for 6-8 per cent of some acute Trusts’ carbon footprint.


and one mental health Trust, and ‘advised and supported’ a number of others. She said: “Interestingly, we recently created a parallel Green Plan for a private healthcare provider keen to align its Green Plan targets with the NHS .” I asked about her typical input when helping an acute or mental health NHS Trust deliver its Green Plan. She said: “My role is principally about being available as somebody with specialist knowledge gleaned from a number of different healthcare providers on how they have approached key sustainability initiatives, such as formulating a Green Plan, talking to an Energy or Sustainability manager about the associated learnings, and suggesting some best practice and practical carbon reduction opportunities to them.”


Common issues, common solutions In its work on Green Plans to date, Beth Goodwin said Inenco had uncovered ‘a number of common issues and solutions’. She explained: “For example, few Trusts really have a Sustainable Transport co-coordinator; in smaller healthcare organisations particularly, it’s not seen


Inenco’s Beth Goodwin: “Access to open space has, for instance, been shown to really benefit mental health, but although mental health Trusts often have several properties with considerable green space, their gardeners are rarely trained to assess their biodiversity”


38 Health Estate Journal May 2022


Multi-agency working potential What about other areas within Green Plans with the greatest opportunities for multi-agency working? Beth Goodwin said: “One is biodiversity, which is growing in importance.” Indeed last November, in a letter to NHS Trust CEOs, Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, highlighted the importance of biodiversity when he said: ‘Tackling climate change while protecting and enhancing our natural assets, and the biodiversity that underpins them, is crucial to achieving a sustainable, resilient economy. It is also crucial to maintaining a sustainable and resilient NHS.’ Beth Goodwin stressed that the old SDAT tool included a number of key biodiversity goals, but for Inenco, working with Trusts on their Green Plans, the key was understanding where they were currently. She said: “Access to open space has, for instance, been shown to really benefit mental health, but although mental health Trusts often have several properties with considerable green space, their gardeners are rarely trained to assess their biodiversity – which presents another potential opportunity to involve universities, because their students can go out and do biodiversity studies.”


Use of chemicals Another area within the ‘biodiversity’ arena that healthcare providers were focusing on was the use of more ‘environmentally friendly’ chemicals. Beth Goodwin explained: “Many chemicals have a high toxicity, and can damage the environment. Unless people adhere to good central practices – for instance via a register of chemicals used, there is considerable potential for harm. Cleaning chemicals, and anything used clinically, are generally well-recorded, but, for example, many gardeners working on NHS sites are sub-contracted, and tend to bring in their own equipment and chemicals. There’s a lack of understanding of how environmentally damaging some can be.” Beth Goodwin stressed that it was now ‘relatively straightforward’ to switch to more ‘environmentally-friendly’ estate and grounds maintenance products. She said: “Much of this is about educating those doing the work, and ensuring it’s included when people go out to tender.


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