The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare focuses on the interface between health and the environment in order to put health messages at the centre of the climate change agenda. Through our research with clinical communities we are supporting the transition to a healthcare system which is both economically and environmentally sustainable.
Our raison d’être is simple: climate change presents the biggest challenge to 21st century health services. Within the UK, climate change presents a double challenge for the NHS:
Firstly, climate change will impact hugely on people’s health through increased heatwaves, floods & droughts. For example, the 2003 European heatwave was one of the hottest summers on record, killing more than 40,000 people.
These figures will rise as global warming increases and in the longer term, raised temperatures will increase the type of vector borne diseases that are currently only seen in the tropics, such as malaria & dengue fever. Adverse weather conditions also cause stress to our global food systems and the resulting crop failures will lead to famines and malnutrition and also migration of people out of the tropics and into the temperate zones such as Europe.
Secondly, the NHS is one of the biggest carbon generators in the UK Public sector. It is responsible for 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, which represents 25% of all public sector emissions in England. As one of the world’s largest organisations, the NHS has a national and international imperative to act in order to make a real difference and to set an important example.
With the launch of the NHS Carbon Reduction strategy: Saving Carbon, Improving Health by the Sustainable Development Unit, the NHS has made a clear commitment to undergo a transformation for a lower carbon future. It has pledged to adopt the government targets laid out in the Climate Change Act of reducing Carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and a minimum reduction of 26% (on 1990 figures) by 2020.
There are many co-benefits to taking action against climate change in that many aspects of a low-carbon lifestyle are simultaneously good for one’s health. For example, cycling not only reduces travel emissions but also results in a reduction in obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes. In a similar vein, the IPCC argued that "Health benefits from reduced air pollution as a result of actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions… may offset a substantial fraction of mitigation costs" – IPCC, 2007
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare comprises a small, dynamic team. Independent, but with extensive knowledge of the NHS, we are in a unique position to network with NHS trusts and specialties, as well as external organisations in both the health and the environmental sectors. CSH work with experts to achieve sustainability in all areas of NHS activity by:
• Engaging healthcare professionals, patients and the wider community in sustainability
• Assessing current knowledge, barriers and opportunities for sustainable healthcare
• Reducing the NHS’ carbon footprint
Our activities currently focus on four main areas:
• Clinical transformation (e.g. Green Nephrology programme)
• Knowledge (e.g. SHEBA)
• Sustainability as a management priority
• Literally greening the NHS estate (e.g. NHS Forest)
We are currently working on the following projects:
- Green Nephrology
CSH formed a partnership with the Renal Association, the British Renal Society, the NHS Sustainable Development Unit and Baxter Healthcare to improve the sustainability of kidney care through a Green Nephrology Programme. NHS Kidney Care funded a Green Nephrology Fellowship for one year as part of the programme.http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/green-nephrology-programme
-Sustainable Healthcare Education
We are working with the East of England Teaching Public Health Network, the Climate Connection and with the student organisation, Medsin, to promote the inclusion of climate change and sustainability into medical school teaching.
http://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk/sustainable-healthcare-education
-Sustainable Health Evidence Base for Action (SHEBA)
A key problem faced by all those within the NHS working on sustainability is that reliable, well organised information on what will make a difference is not easily available. What’s needed is an evidence base that allows both a sharing of experience and a systematic appraisal of the strengths and weaknesses of different initiatives. CSH has drawn together information on existing projects, industry reports, business cases and scientific articles, as well as providing an ongoing forum for discussion of relevant issues. We intend that SHEBA will play a vital role in plugging the current information gap both within the NHS and internationally.
http://www.sustainabilityforhealth.org/
-Mapping Greener Healthcare
NHS South East commissioned CSH to map activities in sustainable development across all NHS organisations in the South East. The mapping project looks at the areas of energy use, water use, travel planning, procurement, sustainable building, waste management and community involvement. http://map.greenerhealthcare.org/
-NHS Forest
- The project encourages staff, patients and the local community to plant trees, bushes and flowers on or near NHS sites
- Improving health of staff, patients and communities through increasing access to green space on or near to NHS land
- greening the NHS Estates and planting 1 tree per employee amounting to 1.3 million trees, eventually offset approximately 10% of NHS carbon emissions
- The key focus is the mounting evidence about the health benefits of increased access to green space. You can find out more by going to www.nhsforest.org/evidence
- The project is supported by our delivery partners, the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) and the Woodland Trust (WT) who can provide advice or volunteers to carry out the tree planting.
- Finally, for those who want to support the project but can’t get directly involved in tree-planting can Sponsor a tree to celebrate a birth or commemorate colleagues when they retire.
To find out more, visit www.nhsforest.org/sponsor