11 June 2021
Frimley Health pledges its commitment to reduce its operational carbon emissions to net zero by 2040.
The Trust is stepping up its environmental sustainability action and will publish a detailed 2021-25 Green Plan by the autumn with a programme of initiatives that will place them firmly on the trajectory to net zero. The ambition is to reach a 90% reduction by 2035, reducing the harm to health from carbon emissions and environmental degradation as quickly as possible.
Significant carbon reductions have already been made at the Trust and the current focus is on three main sources of emissions and climate concern - medical gases, transport use and water supply.
By 2024, the Trust’s target is to reduce anaesthetic related emissions in the service by over 2,350 tonnes of CO2e, equating to a reduction of over 70% in the space of five years. The volume of anaesthetic gases in surgery has already reduced by almost 40% in two years. This is largely as a result of reducing the use of desflurane, the most potent of these gases, by almost 50%, and reducing the volume to less than 12% of the three main anaesthetic gases. This new plan commits to reducing this proportion to under 5% by the end of this year.
In terms of transport, the Trust reduced emissions from business miles by 25% in the three years before Covid and an initiative by the Stroke ESD team is saving over 12,000 miles and 1,300 kg CO2e annually, by transporting patients from hospital to home by electric car and providing home assessments. In addition, any cars that are newly leased by the Trust will be ultra-low or zero emission from October 2021.
On the infrastructure side the Trust is embarking on a project this year to bring a disused water bore hole on the Wexham site back into service by April 2022, which will provide the majority of the site’s water supply requirements and will use pumps powered by renewable electricity. This project is expected to reduce the emissions related to water supply on site by over 50,000 kgCO2e annually, a saving of over 75% on supply emissions and £125k per annum.
Richard Hilson, Head of sustainability at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “While the carbon footprint of health and social care has reduced during the last decade, the NHS overall is still responsible for 5% of the UK’s carbon emissions and 3.5% of all road travel. Environmental sustainability needs to run through every element of how a hospital and its staff operate and we are working alongside all of our partners across the local healthcare system to identify areas of shared mutual environmental interests and objectives.
“Over the three years up to March 2020 the Trust reduced the carbon emissions it controls directly by over 3,000 tCO2e, from a baseline of approximately 40,000 tCO2e. With new action plans being released by autumn, we are confident we are well on the way to net zero, but there is still a long way to go! “