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Welcome to our newest SusQI Academy members and Beacon Sites

This spring, we are delighted to welcome colleagues from North East London Integrated Care System, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust, and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to our growing community of SusQI Academy members and SusQI Beacon Sites. They will be working towards embedding the principles of sustainable healthcare and sustainable value into improvement work and programmes in their organisations. 

Aligning improvement initiatives with sustainability goals

Embedding sustainability into current improvement teaching and practice aligns existing educational and improvement programmes, engages all healthcare staff, avoiding additional demand, and strengthens priorities such as:

• Delivering green plans and net zero targets, including the drive towards low carbon models of care, focusing on prevention, patient empowerment, and lean service delivery 
• Health inequalities, by promoting the use of practical tools that guide improvement teams to target the social determinants of health and measure the social impact of all QI
• Reducing costs related to waste in clinical care
• Staff wellbeing and time saved are being utilised for higher value care delivery for patients 

What is CSH Academy programme?

Our Academy programme supports both health-education and health-provider institutions, is tailored based on organisational need, and aims to achieve the following:

• Easily integrate the core concepts of sustainable healthcare into existing improvement methodology
• Adapt existing tools and templates to capture and measure the sustainability impact of any QI initiative, inc. carbon footprinting and social impact
• Measure the environmental, social and financial impact of current or planned QI initiatives
• Build connections and strategic links between sustainability, clinical and quality improvement teams
• Build organisational capacity and capability to deliver sustainable models of care
• Increase motivation for engagement in QI

What is the SusQI Beacon Site accreditation?

The SusQI Beacon Site accreditation recognises healthcare organisations that lead by example in sustainable quality improvement. This prestigious accreditation highlights institutions dedicated to embedding sustainability within their quality improvement (QI) processes and aims to:

• Demonstrate Excellence in Sustainable Healthcare: Beacon Sites showcase how sustainability principles can be integrated into daily practices and improvement efforts, setting benchmarks for others to follow.
• Support and Share Best Practices: Accredited sites actively share their approaches, successes, and lessons learned to inspire and guide other organisations on their sustainability journey.
• Promote Measurable Impact: Through rigorous measurement, Beacon Sites evaluate and report on the environmental, social, and financial impacts of their QI projects, including areas such as carbon reduction and social responsibility.
• Foster Collaboration and Leadership: Beacon Sites build strong connections between sustainability, clinical, and QI teams, serving as models of collaborative, forward-thinking healthcare.
• Build Capacity for Long-Term Change: Accredited organisations are committed to growing internal expertise and capacity to deliver sustainable models of care, ensuring lasting change and resilience in the face of healthcare’s environmental challenges.

Spotlight on our newest SusQI Academy members and Beacon Sites

We’re excited to introduce the latest members of our SusQI Academy and Beacon sites from across the UK and around the globe! These organisations are dedicated to integrating sustainable quality improvement (SusQI) into healthcare, setting inspiring examples for greener, more sustainable practices. Hear directly from our new members as they share their insights, initiatives, and impact within their communities.

University of Melbourne – an aspiring Beacon Site 

Over the past year, Dr Sonia Chanchlani and Dr Ben Dunne have piloted SusQI workshops for various inter-professional subjects, courses and modules, including the EXCITE Masters of Clinical Education, Sustainability and Healthcare, and the student-led ChangexUnzipped Global Health Conference. They have also piloted a Green Team style Environmental Sustainability Competition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital resulting in reduced carbon emissions by 2.5 million kgCO2e and financial savings of $500,000.  As an aspiring Beacon site and current Academy member, the team is working with CSH to equip their faculty with the resources and skills to deliver tailored sustainable healthcare teaching and embed SusQI across inter-professional training. 

“Action-focused education is key to enabling the clinical workforce to understand, manage, and mitigate the health effects of climate change and apply the principles of environmentally sustainable healthcare to build the skills necessary for system transformation at the speed and scale required.”

Dr Sonia Chanchlani, Sustainability, Climate and Health Senior Fellow, University of Melbourne, Medical School

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) – an established Beacon Site 

Over the past year the NES Quality Improvement team has focused on incorporating sustainability into existing QI education resources for staff working in health care, social care, and the wider public services in Scotland. The collaboration with CSH’s SusQI team and other Academy members has supported this focus and journey to becoming an established Beacon Site.

“Being part of the Academy provided access to expertise and advice on carbon-foot printing as well as opportunities to learn, share and network with other organisations working to incorporate sustainability into quality improvement training and education resources.”

David Maxwell, Professional lead, NHS Education for Scotland

Moving forward the NES QI team will continue to promote QI as an approach to support improvements related to sustainability and share resources and case studies via the Quality Improvement  Zone.