Care Without Carbon: a new approach to sustainable healthcare

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1 Care Without Carbon: a new approach to sustainable healthcare How has your project improved sustainable development within your organisation or community setting? In 2010 the Board of Sussex Community NHS Trust (SCT) approved its first Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDMP). Nicknamed 15 by 15, the SDMP set a trajectory to reduce all key environmental impacts from Trust operations (including, most significantly absolute CO2 emissions) by 2015, along with a zero landfill commitment. The SDMP was designed to deliver quick wins, demonstrate the value of investing in sustainability solutions and ultimately create a platform and generate the momentum needed to build a more ambitious long- term strategy. Highlights from the first four years of the SDMP include:! Reducing our carbon footprint by 985 tonnes (15.7%), meaning we have already met our 15 by 15 target.! Recycling almost 60% of our general waste by weight, with the remainder converted into fuel to generate electricity, meaning we have achieved our zero general waste to landfill objective.! Cutting our vehicle emissions by 9.8% by introducing cleaner commercial vehicles, including our first electric courier vehicle, and we are progressively capping engine emissions through our lease car scheme.! Improving our energy efficiency (kgco2e/m2) by 14.5% and our water efficiency (m3/m2) by 40.8% through the introduction of energy efficient and renewable energy technology, improving the way we use our buildings and water efficiency and leak detection schemes.! Creating a comprehensive Business Travel Plan aimed at reducing solo car occupancy and promoting more sustainable and healthy travel modes and established a unique Travel Bureau to support managers and their staff reduce travel time and costs. The result has been a 16.2% reduction in business miles between 2013 and 2014.! Developing a team of enthusiastic Carbon Champions to help deliver sustainability and carbon reduction initiatives through staff engagement, with those staff making the most telling contribution being recognised in annual staff awards.! Initiating collaborative projects with our major suppliers to reduce the environmental impacts of our supply chain.! Since 2011 we have arranged third party validation of our carbon footprint and savings to ensure the accuracy of our reporting and to allow us to better understand the ongoing challenge and our achievements. Each annual report is available to download from our website: us/sustainability.htm

2 In February 2014 SCT s Board approved a new and more holistic sustainable healthcare strategy, which we have called Care Without Carbon. This superseded the original SDMP and set more challenging sustainability targets forward to 2020, with a long term aspiration to become the first carbon neutral healthcare NHS provider in the UK. It was developed to meet the requirements of the new NHS Sustainable Development Strategy and to that end is based on a unique seven step management framework for sustainable healthcare delivery:

3 1. Buildings reducing the environmental impact of Trust estate 2. Journeys minimising the health and environmental impact of travel 3. Procurement creating an ethical and resource efficient supply chain 4. Culture informing, motivating and empowering people to achieve sustainable healthcare 5. Wellbeing enhancing the wellbeing of Trust workforce 6. Adaptation ensuring Trust infrastructure and operations are resilient to climate change 7. Governance & Transformation embedding sustainability in corporate governance structures & transformation programme The strategy has been designed to dovetail into all other major Trust strategic and operational initiatives, including its Transformation Programme, Clinical Care Strategy and Estates Strategy and embed sustainability into our core operations. It sets the Trust on a trajectory to deliver a 2020 carbon reduction target of at least 34%, with the ultimate aim to be a carbon neutral healthcare provider. Delivering CWC will deliver a CO2 saving of over 5,000 tonnes between now and 2020, with cumulative cost savings of around 4.75M. What role does sustainable development play within patient & staff services within your organisation? At its heart are three key objectives that closely mirror the NHS Sustainable Development Strategy s goals: enhancing care quality, improving resource efficiency and maximising productivity. Our new strategy therefore takes an holistic approach in which healthcare delivery and staff wellbeing are

4 integrated into and aligned with our sustainable development strategy. For example, the principles of sustainability are fully aligned with our Clinical Care Strategy, which is the blueprint document that describes how we will achieve our vision of delivering excellent care in the heart of the community. The Clinical Care Strategy directly supports sustainability in a number of key ways:! By minimising the environmental impact of care. In order for our vision for excellent care to be sustainable it needs to be deliverable within the resources available now, and in the future. We have therefore made sustainability a strategic priority for our Trust, with an explicit commitment to delivering low carbon, environmentally sustainable healthcare underpinned by challenging carbon reduction targets.! By linking sustainability and quality through our transformation agenda. The Trust is taking forward an ambitious transformation programme, focusing on improving quality and efficiency to deliver increased productivity in ways that will lead to better and more economical and sustainable ways to provide the very best patient outcomes. Sustainable development is a key component of this programme.! By promoting and enhancing preventative healthcare. We aim to improve health and wellbeing and develop preventative healthcare as key part of the Trust s business function. This includes: recognising, anticipating and responding to the changing health needs of the local population; working with partners to tackle the preventative agenda; utilising marketing techniques in order to influence and achieve specific sustainable behaviour changes; embedding prevention in care pathways; delivering innovative prevention services for improved health outcomes, reducing health inequalities.! By introducing integrated and enabling approaches. Our aim is to support individuals to live independently with integrated care and support services that are delivered in the patient s home or as close to home as possible. To that end we are leading on the development of integrated, multidisciplinary teams and invest in assistive technologies to ensure that the patient s needs are safely met in the home.! By implementing a new cultural programme for staff. The Trust is implementing a new cultural change programme, Living Room to Board Room, developed locally with the involvement of frontline staff. As part of this approach, clinical leaders and senior managers across the organisation are developing the SCT way ; a shared set of values and behaviours, underpinned by a collegiate approach to delivering high quality clinical services, that will create the right culture for quality and excellence to flourish. As part of this cultural programme we have developed our Dare to Care staff engagement campaign. This creates a platform for learning about the Trust s sustainable healthcare strategy and aims to encourage grass roots action across the Trust s workforce. The centrepiece of the campaign is our new website: The website will become an important engagement tool for us, not just with staff, but also with our patients, the wider community and even other NHS Trusts. The website allows anyone to make a dare (or pledge) we have selected seven dares for staff to choose from to make it an inclusive as possible.

5 Each dare is designed to deliver an environmental benefit, a financial benefit and most important, a health and wellbeing benefit. We re seeking to demonstrate that taking action to be more sustainable, both at work and at home, is not only easier than people think, but can also be fun and genuinely impactful. The campaign has been sponsored by local businesses so that we can incentivise and reward staff that have signed up through quarterly prize draws. We will be monitoring the success and impact of the campaign and communicating this through the website. We also provide tips and advice about how to live more sustainably. Campaign posters inserted below.

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10 Who has led the way on sustainable development within your organisation? Our sustainability strategy is formulated by our in- house sustainability team, which was established in However, the programme would not have been as successful as it were it not for the support and backing of our Trust Board (pic below, posing for the launch of our Dare to Care staff campaign). Our Board- level sponsor is our Director of Finance and Facilities and Deputy Chief Executive, Jonathan Reid. Our Chief Executive Paula Head summarises what sustainability means to Sussex Community NHS Trust: We believe that all healthcare organisations should aspire to delivering care in a way that eliminates harmful environmental impacts and puts sustainability at the heart of the business model

11 SCT Chief Executive, Paula Head SCT Board Chair, Sue Sjuve Emma Horrex Business Development & Marketing Capita Health Partners Infrastructure West Building Pinesgate Lower Bristol Road Bath BA2 3DP Mobile: