NHS suppliers find out what it’s like to ‘Be Green’

A NEW ‘Be Green’ campaign launched by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust aims to persuade its suppliers to reduce the impact their services have on the environment. More than 60 local and national suppliers of hospital goods and services attended a special event earlier this month to learn how they could be more sustainable and help reduce CO2 emissions. The event was organised in response to research which showed that procurement of goods and services accounts for nearly 60% of the NHS’s carbon footprint. Iain Thompson, non-executive director at the trust, said: “As one of the largest organisations in Sheffield, we have a responsibility not just to provide hospital care, but also to play our part in protecting the environment. We have recently launched our Be Green initiative and we were delighted to have met with our suppliers to look at how they can provide us with more sustainable products and services to reduce the impact on the environment, energy use and CO2 emissions. We are confident that working together we can Be Green.” The event, organised in partnership with Yorkshire Forward and the Yorkshire and the Humber Commercial Procurement Collaborative (CPC), included training and presentations from local organisations with experience in developing green projects, stalls offering information and speeches encouraging local partnerships to develop sustainability in purchasing. 

Food for thought at Surrey hospital

AN ECO-friendly initiative to bring locally-sourced fruit and vegetables to patients, staff and visitors has been launched at St Helier Hospital in Surrey. The Veg Van, a converted electricity-powered milk float, recently rolled into the hospital grounds and set up stall at the Re:treat restaurant, offering people the chance to buy fresh, local and seasonal fruit and vegetables. It will be returning every Wednesday from 12pm-3pm. Marilyn Knight, catering services manager, said: “It is a brilliant idea. It’s kind to the environment because it’s driven by electricity and the locally-sourced produce means it has cut out a lot of food miles. It’s also very convenient for people. For example, we know that our staff lead busy lives and we hope that giving people the chance to do some of their shopping while they’re at work will not only help them to make healthy and sustainable food choices, but will also save them time.” Even the restaurant chefs have got on board by serving a Veg Van-inspired dish of the week, helping customers go home armed with ideas of how to use the produce. Epsom, Sutton and St Helier Hospitals NHS Trust signed up to the initiative as part of the ongoing work to reduce its carbon footprint. The Veg Van is part of a three-year One Planet Food project, which is being delivered by local environment charities BioRegional and EcoLocal and aims to improve access to fresh local food for local people, support local food producers and reduce the pollution from food miles. It is funded by the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Programme, Sutton Council, NHS Sutton and Merton, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and through in-kind support from Southern Railway. To further reduce CO2 emissions, the trust has also recently installed a special device that turns all of the trust’s 2,000 desktop computers to hibernate when they haven’t been used for 30 minutes.

Energy-saving measures bring down operating costs

A NEW energy-saving programme introduced by Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust is not only reducing carbon emissions, but is also bringing down operating costs at both Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals. Following a full energy audit, a host of initiatives were identified by consultancy, Schneider Electric. These included adjusting some of the building energy management system settings, reducing pump sizes, fitting variable speed drives and replacing obsolete and faulty controls. Energy-saving lighting and the addition of soft start capabilities on motors and pumps further enhanced the savings. The trust’s energy manager, John Green, said: “Like all other trusts, we knew we had to improve the efficiency of our energy consumption without reducing the quality of patient care. Working with Schneider Electric we have been able to meet our energy saving targets in a relatively short space of time. With some very simple measures we immediately saving 5% on annual utility costs and the other projects increased this saving to 10%, and up to 29% at the Bridlington site.” James Hayward, director of facilities, added: “The board is fully committed to this initiative and recently agreed a carbon reduction strategy. Within this we are looking at a wide range of measures to reduce our energy consumption and become more carbon efficient. This project is an excellent example of one of the many work streams which is contributing to our overall efficiency objectives.”

Schneider Electric

STAFF at West Suffolk Hospital were given the chance to road test a bike with extra pedal power as part of a drive to encourage more people to leave their cars at home and find alternative ways of travelling to work. Recently, Peter Smulders from St Edmundsbury Borough Council demonstrated the electric bike in the hospital car park before giving staff the chance to test one for themselves. Anyone who wanted to buy a model was then able to do so through the national cycle to work scheme, which gives employees the chance to offset the cost against tax. The demonstration has been arranged following a request from members of staff who are keen to cycle to work, but felt they would need some extra assistance getting up hills. It is just one of a series of initiatives being put in place to encourage people to explore alternative ways of getting to work, which include a new online car share scheme and upgrades to changing and shower facilities for those who walk, run or cycle to work. Jan Bloomfield, executive director of workforce and communications at West Suffolk Hospital, said: “Over the past few months, we have been working closely with our colleagues, unions and governors to find ways to make it easier for staff to leave their cars at home and find alternative ways of getting to the hospital site. This demonstration has been organised as part of that work, and comes after a number of staff showed an interest in cycling, but said they were concerned about the extra pedal power needed to get up hills. The electric bike will help with this by giving riders a boost when they need it. It also brings other benefits as it helps increase fitness and is a cost-effective, more environmentally-friendly alternative to the car.”

A TOTAL of 41 energy-efficient lifts have been purchased from Kone for the new Southmead Hospital in Bristol. The contract was awarded by Carillion, the main contractor for the €500m PPP scheme and covers lifts featuring Kone’s regenerative drive systems, which can recover up to 20% of total energy consumption, reducing the trust’s carbon footprint and providing cost savings. The technology will also help the hospital trust reach a BREEAM energy rating of ‘excellent’ for the completed site. “We are delighted to have been chosen by Carillion for this exciting development,” said Noud Veeger, Kone’s executive vice president and area director for Central and North Europe. “The award strengthens our good relationship and we are looking forward to working together to deliver an outstanding hospital for the people of Bristol.” The new 800-bed super hospital will concentrate on acute services, currently provided at Southmead and Frenchay hospitals, and will provide world-class healthcare to more than 500,000 people in the area. Advanced construction work started in August last year and the hospital is due to open in early 2014.

STAFF at the Royal United Hospital Bath are helping the environment while at the same time getting fitter as part of a cycling challenge. Celebrating the opening of new cycle facilities at the hospital, staff recently took part in a Big Bike Day event to promote the benefits of cycling to and from work. The new facilities include covered cycle stores, a secure cycle compound and improved showering and changing areas. Dr Colin Payton, consultant occupational physician at the hospital, said: “We’re encouraging lots of staff to get into cycling, which is a great form of exercise and a good way to get fit as well as being a very green form of transport, which will help us to cut our carbon footprint.”