Switch on to Sustainable Energy Week

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This year’s EU Sustainable Energy Week runs from 11th – 15th April and a local NHS Trust is encouraging its staff to save energy and support the Trust’s commitment to sustainability.

The South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has been taking a range of actions which include reminding staff to turn off lights when they are not needed – using simple stickers by light switches that ask ‘does this light need to be on?’

The stickers have been distributed across the Trust in Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield and is just one example of how the Trust is introducing measures that reduce or offset its environmental impact.

The Trust is fully committed to being a socially responsible organisation and has established a sustainability agenda that looks at more than the environment; but at the Trust’s whole approach as an organisation to sustaining itself and the local communities it serves.

By switching lights off when staff leave a room or when there is enough adequate natural light the Trust hopes to slash the amount of energy it uses at the same time as saving money, which can then be put towards providing care for local people.

Other actions being introduced during Sustainable Energy Week is the implementation of a screen saver that asks staff to put their computers into standby mode when they aren’t using it to save energy.

The screensaver message is a great way to make staff aware of the sustainability message without adding to their work load.

While these low cost actions are small the Trust recognises that by working together and making small changes where it can, collectively it can help lead the way to a better, more sustainable future.

As part of the Trust’s ongoing plans to reduce their carbon footprint and optimise resources it is joining the Carbon Trust’s NHS Carbon Management Programme; this project will support the process of setting energy efficiency and carbon reduction targets for the next one, three, five, and ten years.

The Trust’s deputy chief executive Alex Farrell said, “The screen saver and energy saving stickers are simple initiatives but they have the potential to reduce the Trust’s environmental impact significantly as well as having financial benefits. We are asking all staff to consider their actions at work to help work towards a more sustainable way of working.”

You can find out more about the sustainability agenda on the Trust’s website www.southwestyorkshire.nhs.uk

Switch on to Sustainable Energy Week

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