Healthy Low Carbon Aspirations

The NHS is the biggest employer in Europe and a major contributor to the public sector’s carbon footprint. Collectively it has been set some ambitious targets, with the organisation as a whole to reduce its carbon footprint by 80% (on 1990 levels) by 2050 and an interim target of 10% reduction (on 2007 levels) by 2015. We took a look at how University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust is looking to achieve these targets.

In 2009/2010 University Hospitals Bristol was recorded as being responsible for a carbon footprint to the size of 24,000 tonnes of CO_2, with a utilities and waste bill adding up to £4,083,053!

It seems there is plenty of opportunity for improvement but the Trust faces some challenges when tackling its carbon footprint. Firstly, their primary concern is always providing a reliable health service. Secondly, the estate is comprised of both older and modern buildings on a spatially challenged site. Both these difficulties mean that more sustainable energy sources are unlikely to be used, with some more carbon intensive sources (oil burning generators) being installed to ensure a resilient backup supply. Thirdly, only 35% of the footprint is accounted for by building energy use and travel. The remaining 65% is down to procurement, (goods, services and pharmaceuticals) meaning that the majority of the Trust’s emissions are scope 3 and therefore more difficult to reduce.

However, they have made a really positive start to achieving the 10% cuts. Between 2010 and 2011, the trust has allocated £900,000 to put towards improvements. The following steps have already been taken:

• Appointing and training over 200 “Green Champions”. The Green Champions raise awareness throughout the NHS workforce by passing on their gained knowledge.
• Installing lighting and heating controls and upgrades. This included adding sensors to those areas less frequently used and adding controls to the boilers to reduce the amount of energy being consumed.
• Using steam meters to monitor energy usage
• Using CHP and looking to expand to maximise efficiency
• Making physical improvements to the fabric of the buildings. This included installing better insulation
• Optimising building management systems
• Considering environmental efficiency when building new additions to the hospital (the new Heart Institute is one example).

An independent survey of the Trust, performed by Sustain, has shown that these improvements are already having an effect, reporting that energy performance as recorded by the display energy certificates is up 25% on the previous year. These projects are also expected to deliver annual savings of over 415 tonnes of CO₂, which amounts to a cost saving of around £150,000.

Proposed actions to be taken include:

• Energy data to be displayed around the hospital to raise awareness
• Embed sustainable practice into work and decision making by training the workforce with consideration also given in future policy and procurement choices
• Erect a weather station to promote interest in climate conditions
• Regulate heating and cooling systems to provide a more uniform temperature to enable better control e.g. by moving thermostats to more appropriate places.
• Install PV solar power and use solar hot water
• Install flue gas heat recovery to capture the heat being lost from the boiler house

The hospital also wants to continue working with staff to raise awareness and motivate them to take up the green cause. They are following Bristol University’s example by taking up the Green Impact Scheme, which was launched on the 28th September. The Scheme has been successfully running in universities across the country and is now being piloted in Bristol Royal Infirmary. Participants are required to sign up in groups and work through tasks in a workbook. Completion of these tasks, which are designed to be of little or no cost, will then result in Bronze, Silver or Gold recognition. Green Impact is a bottom-up project where individuals organise themselves, focusing on the actions which most interest them and finding their own ways of implementing the actions. Hopefully next year we will see high numbers of Gold Awards being dished out!