The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) is delighted to announce the outstanding results of the Green Team Competition it recently ran with the Christie NHS Foundation Trust. The competition resulted in projected annual savings of £554,525 and 99,403 kgCO2e for the Trust, which is the carbon equivalent of 286,299 miles driven in an average car, or 734 return trips between the Christie and Kings Cross, London.
In the depth of mid-winter, may you find beauty in the world around you. As we prepare for 2023, it is time to reflect on the past year and to look forward to new opportunities.
This month saw the conclusion of CSH's 12-month group scholar programme, SFERIC, which was administered in collaboration with NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, Cardiff and Vale UHB, the Green Health Wales Network and the Dragon's Heart Institute. We bid farewell to a variety of scholars with backgrounds in ENT surgery, dermatology, paediatrics and more, with a variety of interests, including inhalers and laboratory tests. The programme is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 40,920 kg each year (or more than 331 round trips from Bangor to Cardiff), and it will also save money—an estimated £28,000 per year. Congratulations to all!
This year's Lancet Countdown report on health and climate change, a collaboration of over 120 leading experts from academic institutions and UN agencies across the globe, warns that "the health of people around the world is at the mercy of a persistent fossil fuel addiction".
Healthcare systems have a key part to play in maintaining health in the face of the threat of climate change, however delivery of healthcare is also undermining the health of our populations, by contributing to the problem. If healthcare were a country, it would be the 5th largest carbon emitter in the world.
We are looking for an inspiring Nature Recovery Ranger to improve the quality of green spaces in and around Mount Vernon Cancer Centre and optimise the role green space plays in patient care, staff wellbeing and community engagement.
Location: Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, Northwood, London
Healthcare systems consume large quantities of materials, energy, chemicals, water, and they generate vast amounts of waste. If the United States healthcare sector were a country, it would rank thirteenth in the world for greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of the entire United Kingdom.
