NHS to set out low-carbon prognosis

The NHS will tomorrow launch arguably the most ambitious and wide-reaching low-carbon strategy to be proposed by a single organisation, detailing how it plans to slash carbon emissions through everything from new transport links to green incentives for staff, and sustainable procurement policies to meat-free hospital meals.

The strategy, Saving Carbon, Improving Health, will set out carbon emission-reduction targets in line with the government's commitment to cut emissions 80 per cent by 2050 and outline how the organisation intends to meet the targets.

It will include a wide range of proposals covering almost every aspect of the organisation's activities, and could result in a complete revamp of many of the NHS's core services.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper ahead of the launch of the plan, Dr David Pencheon, director of the NHS sustainable development unit, said that if enacted, the strategy would revolutionise the service.

"This is not just about doing things more efficiently, it's about doing things differently, because efficiency is not going to provide big cuts," he said. "What will healthcare look like in 2030-2040 in a very low-carbon society? It will not look anything like it looks now."

Central to the new strategy are proposals for a more decentralised health system that reduces the number of journeys staff and patients have to make.

For example, it will propose that surgeons travel to GP surgeries for follow-up consultations to reduce the need for patients to travel and calls for an expansion of GP phone-in surgeries. It also calls for an overhaul of local transport links to make it easier for people to travel to hospitals on public transport and the adoption of home-working schemes for staff, as well as financial incentives for employees who drive more fuel-efficient vehicles.

In addition, the plan proposes a major low-carbon overhaul of the NHS's huge property portfolio, including short-term steps to enhance energy efficiency through the installation of automated lighting and building management systems as well as a long-term goal of providing energy for hospitals from onsite renewable technologies such as biomass combined heat and power plants.

It also includes potentially controversial measures to slash food-related carbon emissions by providing meat-free menus to patients and reduce the embedded emissions associated with new medical equipment by proposing the sterilisation and reuse of more equipment.

The document will argue that all these proposals will deliver huge benefits to the NHS over and above cutting emissions, helping to lower energy bills and operating costs, enhance working conditions for staff and improve services for patients.

The impact of the strategy is likely to be felt far beyond the NHS itself and large numbers of firms will be watching to see how effective the plan proves to be.

In particular, suppliers to the NHS – which is the UK's largest single employer and has an annual procurement budget of £20bn a year – will face direct calls to address their own carbon emissions or risk losing contracts. And the world's pharmaceutical giants can expect to come under pressure to improve their environmental performance, with the plan calling on them to not only cut emissions but also provide drugs with a longer shelf life to decrease levels of waste.

Other large businesses will also be looking to the NHS to provide guidance on how a large, multi-faceted organisation can expect to meet the government's ambitious target to cut emissions 80 per cent by 2050.

According to figures published last year, the NHS accounted for more than three per cent of all UK carbon emissions in 2004 and the organisation's carbon footprint is continuing to grow, with a fifth coming from transport, a fifth from buildings and the remainder from its extended supply chain.