ESG
Consider care, carbon and cost together A roundtable convened by Nightingale Hammerson with Care England and the Green Economics Institute brought together residents, providers, suppliers, academics, council representatives and frontline staff to consider where sustainability and care quality meet. The discussion did not stay with boilers and solar panels. It looked at how everyday operational choices affect cost, residents and carbon at the same time. One example concerned a care home in
Lincolnshire which recorded an indoor temperature of 46 degrees during the 2022 heatwave. For residents living with severe frailty, the environmental performance of that building was directly connected to comfort, safety and dignity. It was not simply an estates issue. Work to improve heating, cooling, ventilation or insulation can therefore be part of good care as well as carbon reduction. Procurement creates similar connections. A
product with the lowest purchase price may cost more to dispose of, generate more waste or be poorly suited to the person using it. Food that is ordered and prepared but not eaten carries a financial and environmental cost. The point is not that carbon should override care or cost. It is that all three should be visible when the decision is made. This also changes the affordability discussion. The evidence considered through the Nightingale
Care England’s view is that carbon reduction needs to be made practical and proportionate.
Hammerson coordinated event suggested that behaviour and culture changes can reduce energy costs by between 10 and 25 per cent. Reviewing waste contracts, challenging tariffs and measuring what is being thrown away may require management attention, but they do not begin with a major capital programme.
Begin with information the service already holds A useful starting point is to bring together information that already exists in energy bills, finance systems, procurement records and waste contracts. Energy should be compared in units used, not only pounds spent, because price movements can disguise whether consumption has actually risen or fallen. The purpose of a baseline is to establish a
consistent point from which decisions and changes can be tracked, not to produce a perfect number on day one. Without a baseline, strong work may go unrecognised and ineffective practice may be repeated. This is one of the gaps a proposed GREEN CARE
research programme is designed to address - Care England is supporting the development of a study intended to establish a clearer baseline for care-home emissions, examine changes already made by real services, analyse financial costs and payback, and understand what helped or blocked implementation. The intention is to combine operational data with the experience of providers, staff, residents and families, then turn the findings into guidance and tools that services can use. A credible sector approach must be able to
distinguish between a promising idea and an intervention that has worked under real care conditions.
10 THE CARE HOME INDUSTRY HANDBOOK 2027
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