Trust graduates from carbon reduction programme
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is among 140 public sector bodies that have successfully graduated from the Carbon Trust’s public sector carbon reduction programmes, demonstrating the public sector’s ongoing commitment to carbon reduction.
The Government has identified the NHS as key to delivering carbon reduction across the UK in line with the Climate Change Act targets, and the carbon Trust’s NHS Carbon Management programme is designed in response to this helping NHS Trusts save money on energy and putting it to good use in patient care, whilst making a positive contribution to the environment by lowering carbon emissions.
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust first partnered with the Carbon Trust on the NHS Carbon Management programme in 2010 in order to realise substantial carbon and cost savings.
As part of this a Carbon Management Plan was produced committing the Trust to a target of reducing CO2 by 18% (2407.14 tonnes) by 2015-16 and underpins potential financial savings to the organisation of around £1.9 million by that date.
The Carbon Management Plan defines its carbon management programme of activity and sets the strategic context and the ‘case for action’. It details current carbon emissions and includes a programme of proposed projects and actions to reduce our emissions, detailing how much this will cost and save
Successful initiatives already in place across the Trust are car sharing schemes, recycling, use of community venues rather than commercial private venues, a bike scheme and sustainable procurement.
Dawn Stephenson, director of corporate development and sustainability lead for the Trust said, ”The Trust is committed to being a socially responsible organisation and this includes introducing measures that reduce or offset our environmental impact; including carbon reduction. Sustainability isn’t just about the environment; it’s about our whole approach as an organisation to sustaining ourselves and our local communities.
In these economically challenging times it is important that we focus the resources we have available on providing the very best quality of services. It was therefore important for us to work with the Carbon Trust to ensure that we spend no more than absolutely necessary on fuel costs and take action to reduce our use of resources and carbon emissions, at the same time as supporting our service users and communities to live in a sustainable way.”
To mark the graduation of 140 organisations from the Carbon Trust’s public sector programmes organisations from across the public sector gathered for the Carbon Trust’s annual public sector carbon management conference and
Over 600 organisations have now worked with the Carbon Trust on public sector programmes, helping to identify over 93m tonnes of carbon savings and net cost savings of over £2.6 billion.
