At Derby Hospitals we are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and helping to create a sustainable healthcare service and society. This is done through good housekeeping, awareness raising and innovative projects.
Earthbeat
Earthbeat is our campaign for all environmental issues and we keep our staff and patients up to date through Synapse, news articles and posters. As part of this campaign we run an Energy Month during November with information stands offering advice on how to be environmentally friendly, Earthbeat news, and giveaways of items such as energy saving light bulbs.
Over the past five years by working hard with our partners we have saved nearly £2m in energy costs. This has been achieved through the move to the new, more energy efficient Royal Derby Hospital, raising awareness among our staff and the launch of our Environmental Champions.
We have also signed up to the national 10:10 Campaign for Health, which is a collaboration between The Guardian newspaper and the Age of Stupid filmmakers and aimed to reduce carbon emissions by 10% during 2010. The NHS has a carbon footprint of 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year and has one of the largest carbon footprints of any public sector body in the world. The campaign’s aim for the NHS is for it to reduce its 2007 carbon footprint by 10% by 2015.
Environmental Champions
Environmental Champions are enthusiastic people who help the Trust in raising awareness about waste, energy costs and water saving. This is done by helping with anything from events and putting up posters, to being the person who says ‘Remember to turn off the lights’. Derby Hospitals already has 100 Environmental Champions who all attended a day’s training.
Our green hospital
The Royal Derby Hospital has been designed with reducing our energy costs in mind.The building control system is controlled by one central computer that adapts the heating and cooling in relation to the outside temperature, all WC and bathroom lights automatically switch on and off by detecting movement, the glass frontage at the main entrance means lights do not need to be switched on all the time, and all of the WCs are set to reduced-flush mode saving large amounts of water.
Did you know?
- Lighting an empty office overnight wastes enough energy to heat water for 1,000 cups of coffee
- A PC monitor left on overnight wastes enough energy to laser print 800 pages
- A photocopier left on overnight wastes enough energy to print 1,500 A4 copies
- A window left open overnight wastes enough energy to drive a small car 35 miles
Travel Plan
In March 2010 we launched our Travel Plan, which updated the existing 2008 plan to take into account the move to the Royal Derby Hospital and changed travel circumstances. The Trust’s planning obligations for the Royal Derby Hospital site and Manor Car Park means a Single Occupancy Vehicle target of 48% must be achieved for staff commuting journeys by 2012.
A number of awareness weeks have been held to encourage staff to use sustainable and alternative means of transport to travel to the Royal Derby Hospital, including Walk 2 Work Week, Cycle 2 Work Week, Public Transport 2 Work Week and Green Travel 2 Work Week. A Royal Derby bus link is also in operation, a Cycle 2 Work scheme for staff is available and a new dedicated in-house car share scheme for staff has been launched called Parking Partners.
Carbon Trust Standard
In May 2011 Derby Hospitals wasawarded the Carbon Trust Standard for reducing its carbon emissions by nearly 4%.
The Carbon Trust Standard is a mark of excellence that is awarded to organisations for measuring, managing and reducing their carbon emissions and committing to make further reductions year on year. It is valid for two years and is the world’s first such award.
Derby Hospitals staff, together with partners Derby Healthcare and Skanska Facilities Services, have worked hard to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard and the Trust was assessed on a series of robust criteria. Only 20 hospital trusts in the UK have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard.
In total Derby Hospitals has cut its carbon emissions by 1,198 tonnes of CO2equivalent, which is equivalent to one year of electricity and gas for 160[1] homes.
Reducing the Trust’s carbon emissions has been achieved through the move to the new, more energy efficient Royal Derby Hospital, raising awareness among staff and the launch of the Environmental Champions.
[1] This has been calculated using the figure for the average home’s cost of electricity and gas for one year (£1,155), as quoted in the Office for National Statistic’s publication for the Department of Energy and Change ‘Quarterly Energy Prices March 2011’, 2.2 Domestic Electricity Bills.
