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February 2012
On the 28th March 2012 the NHS is holding a Day of Action on Sustainability. The organisers (University College London Hospital (UCLH) and the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU)) would like health professionals across the UK to carry out a snap shot audit on energy use in hospitals and clinics. It's easy to carry out, but it needs health professionals in every Trust in the UK to take part.
Today the NHS SDU launches its new publication 'Sustainability in the NHS: Health Check 2012', which contains three piece of exciting new research. A survey of NHS leaders showing the importance of sustainability in driving up quality, productivity and value; An Ipsos MORI public opinion survey demonstrating how sustainable the public think the NHS should be; The latest NHS carbon footprint.
January 2012
The Government published the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) on 25 January 2012, the first assessment of its kind for the UK and the first in a 5 year cycle. The CCRA has reviewed the evidence for over 700 potential impacts of climate change in a UK context. Detailed analysis was undertaken for over 100 of these impacts across 11 key sectors (inclduing health), on the basis of their likelihood, the scale of their potential consequences and the urgency with which action may be needed to address them. Information about the CCRA and copies of the reports produced are available on the Defra website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climate/government/risk-assessment/
The report and presentations from the WHO Health Communities Research Forum event on 14 December: Sustainable Food From Farm to Fork to Farm: the role for public health and planning is now available to download by visiting the WHO/UWE website.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has published (12.01.12) a new draft of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme allocation regulations. There are three key points of interest: 1. Dates for purchase and allocation of allowances; 2. Price of allowances and 3.Fees
Employees could save UK businesses and public bodies £500m and two million tonnes of CO2 thanks to a new, online office tool called ‘Carbon Trust Empower™' launched recently by the Carbon Trust.
University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust (UH Bristol) has won the Environmental Practice Award at the 2011 Health Business Awards. The 5th annual Awards, announced at the Emirates Stadium, London on 8th December, recognise excellence and best practice within the NHS.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change is boosting the Salix interest free loans fund by £20 million pounds. The additional cash injection is to support more public sector energy efficiency projects. These loans must be agreed by the end of March 2012. Salix interest free loans help to remove the barrier of having to find capital to pay for energy efficiency measures at a time of tight budgets. The loans are provided for energy efficiency projects that pay for themselves within five years through lower energy bills. Repayments are made from the money saved on bills, and once the loan has been repaid the organisation will continue to benefit from the low carbon equipment and the savings it delivers. The new money is estimated to fund energy efficiency projects that deliver savings of around £46million on bills and 210,000 tonnes of carbon. Interested public sector organisations need to apply to Salix Finance Ltd.
Emerging clinical commissioning groups are being encouraged to think about the sustainability of healthcare and the wider environmental impact of their work as they move towards authorisation. The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the SDU have developed a range of tools and guidance that would help CCGs at this time including:
According to new reports commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the people who emit the least carbon in the UK are most likely to suffer from the consequences of climate change. This is the first study of this kind. JRF is hoping the reports “Who emits the most carbon” and “Who and where is most vulnerable to climate change” in the UK will be used to inform policy makers. To access the reports visit the Joseph Roundtree website.
December 2011
Prince Charles has congratulated 14 hospitals, including three in the South West, for the work they have done to improve and maintain high standards of food for patients and staff in their organisations. The event in December at Clarence House welcomed chief executives, catering managers, people who serve food on wards, patient representatives, and local farmers who supply the hospitals. HRH The Prince of Wales has been working with the Soil Association since 2004 and has long campaigned to improve the quality of food in hospitals. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation, North Bristol NHS Trust, and Devon Partnership NHS Trust were among the 14 Trusts representing the highest achievements in hospital catering. For more information, see the full press release on the Soil Association website.
The LGA in association with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) have produced a short publication targeted at local authorities, health and wellbeing boards, commissioning groups and health services. It shows how climate change should be part of the conversations about the new structures, responsibilities and ways of working in health and social care. As examples in the publication show, a relatively small investment now in strategic thinking and information gathering could make a big difference to the effectiveness of local action. See the PDF attached or Read more at the LGA website.
The Department for Transport has published a Behavioural Insights Toolkit, providing practical, step-by-step guidance on how to design more effective sustainable transport initiatives using insights from behavioural theory and social research evidence.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change have published a series of interactive maps. The maps bring together DECCs Local Authority datasets into one place allowing users to view trends in fuel poverty, energy use and energy efficiency measures.
November 2011
In association with the Guardian, the Carbon Trust is looking to explore the current challenges and opportunities for the public sector in carbon reduction. Please take 5 minutes to complete this short Carbon Trust survey, and you will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win £100 of Amazon vouchers. Click on the link to participate in the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/carbontrustsurvey
AquaFund is a £700 million grant designed to enable organisations to make water efficiencies and financial savings. Derived from the HM Treasury's ‘Invest to Save Budget', the scheme has been set up to help UK public and private sector organisations reduce water costs and consumption without the need for any budget. Typical grant allocations are £100,000 to £500,000 and can be used for professional water audits and detailed technical surveys; supply and installation of water saving equipment; monthly monitoring and targeting reports against benchmarks, and other projects.Find out more at http://www.adsm.com/aquafund.html
The UK must prepare for extreme weather and ageing population, according to the University of Durham. Researchers have mapped areas of England most likely to face more extreme weather events and increasingly elderly populations, and have called on service providers to adjust their planning to meet these challenges. The new maps, produced by Durham University's Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience and Heriot-Watt University, suggest that many areas in England projected to see an increase in severe weather events, such as floods and heatwaves, over the next 30 years may need to care for high proportions of vulnerable older people. The findings are relevant to the whole of the UK where an increase in extreme weather events coupled with population ageing are also expected. Read more at http://www.dur.ac.uk/news/research/?itemno=12909
Monitor has launched an 8-week consultation on the proposed amendments to the NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reporting Manual for 2011/12. The consultation also covers external assurance on quality reports and in particular includes reporting on sustainable development (SD). It would be useful if Foundation Trusts responded and highlighted the need for SD reporting to be mandatory. More information can be found on Monitor’s website or in the PDF attached below. Responses should be sent to Monitor by the 18th December.
All NHS organisations and their stakeholders are being asked to sign up to a 'Day of Action' on sustainability – on Wednesday the 28th March 2012. More details will follow soon, but see below for information.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has rolled out its respiratory inhaler recycling scheme to community pharmacies across the country following successful trials. The scheme, Complete the Cycle, is run in partnership with TerraCycle UK and was piloted earlier this year in selected branches of The Co-operative Pharmacy. The initiative is just one of the steps GSK is taking to meet its target of having zero waste to landfill by 2020.