Smart driving sessions for sustainability champions
During this year’s Climate Week the local provider of mental health and learning disability services is holding special driving efficiency courses for staff who regularly use their cars for work.
The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is fully committed to being a socially responsible organisation, introducing measures that reduce or offset its environmental impact. This includes encouraging members of staff to think about how they can drive down their carbon emissions when travelling to and from work and to meetings.
The Trust is working in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust (EST), which is sponsoring free courses to teach staff how to drive more efficiently.
Smarter driving involves adopting simple techniques to enable drivers to reduce their fuel consumption without increasing journey times. Techniques include using gears, acceleration and powers of anticipation to adopt a more fuel-efficient driving style.
Smarter driving courses aim to improve fuel efficiency and can help staff and the Trust reduce annual vehicle fuel bills by up to 15%.
The training is available to all staff who drive a Trust vehicle as well as staff that have signed up as sustainability champions, who can then pass the knowledge on to their colleagues.
The driving sessions are being held during Climate Week, which runs from 21st March- 27th March.
Climate Week is a national week of events taking place to showcase the many positive steps being taken across the country to combat climate change.
Thousands of charities, schools, councils and organisations including the Trust are running events during the week to show what can be achieved, share ideas and encourage thousands more to act during the rest of the year.
Speaking about the driving sessions the lead for the Trust’s sustainability project Dawn Stephenson, said, "The smarter driving sessions are a cost-free initiative but they have the potential to reduce the Trust’s environmental impact significantly as well as having financial benefits for staff and the Trust. We all like to think we’re good drivers. But are we smart as well? Travel is one of the easiest ways we can reduce energy and by making just small changes to our driving patterns we can cut carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and fuel costs."
You can find out more about the Trust’s sustainability agenda online at www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk/sustainability