CARBON REDUCTION
One furniture specialist’s journey toward Net Zero
With the NHS’s target of becoming Net Zero carbon by 2045, suppliers are soon to be required to demonstrate their carbon reduction activities in order to continue to supply the health service. Lizzie Leggatt, Head of Sustainability and Materials at furniture manufacturer, Pineapple Contracts, looks at what that means in practice for the Kent-headquartered business.
As part of its The Greener NHS programme, in October 2020 the NHS in England committed to delivering a Net Zero carbon health service by 2045. As well as focusing on the carbon emissions associated with the daily operation of the health services, this target also includes ‘emissions that the NHS has the ability to influence’ – which includes the carbon emissions generated by organisations which supply the NHS with goods and services.
A significant contributor to the NHS’s
overall carbon footprint is ‘Medicines, medical equipment, and other supply chain’, responsible for 62% of the total carbon emissions, with medical and non-
medical equipment accounting for 18% of the total. The NHS is therefore focusing on ‘decarbonising the supply chain’, firstly by switching to low-carbon product alternatives where possible, but also by encouraging suppliers to decarbonise their own processes too. As a manufacturer supplying the NHS, Pineapple has noticed an increased focus on Sustainability and Carbon emissions in tenders and Pre-qualification Questionnaires, with increasing weight given to organisations which can evidence their current carbon footprint and provide goals relating to reducing their carbon footprint in the form of a Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP). By doing so, the
service has been gradually incentivising those organisations that are able to demonstrate an understanding of their carbon emissions, and a desire to make improvements.
A clear roadmap for suppliers For suppliers who plan to continue supplying the NHS with goods and services in the future, there is a clear roadmap in place. From April this year, all contracts valued at over £5 m per annum require suppliers to provide a CRP, and from April 2024 this requirement will be extended to cover all procurements. Looking further ahead, from 2027 all suppliers to the NHS will be required to
An overview of the three Scopes of emissions outlined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. THE NETWORK | MAY 2023 37
Chart extracted from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, and used with permission.
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