Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust

Case Study taken from the Guardian.  To view article, click here

With around 12,000 staff, more than 1,600 beds and one of the busiest emergency departments in the UK, it is the volume of people rather than its premises that make up the bulk of carbon emissions for the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust. But in the past year the trust introduced a series of carbon-reduction measures that have now earned it both the regional and national Health and Social Care awards for low carbon.

One key initiative was to reduce the amount of travel required of staff and patients moving between the trust's two busy campuses, John Simpson, the trust's director of estates and facilities, told the Guardian 'in partnership with the council we have put on a free medi-link bus service, which runs every 10 minutes'. This links in with Nottingham's tram system and its park-and-ride scheme, transporting 1.2 million passengers in its first year. The service has proved successful and when a 750-space multistorey carpark was closed for structural reasons it provided a well-established alternative transport infrastructure that helped prevent 800,000 car journeys, or the equivalent of 300 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Another less obvious transport reduction strategy comes down to the food miles the trust's hospitals produce. By introducing a sustainable procurement initiative each of the 7,000 pints of milk consumed by the hospitals each week are now sourced through contracts with local farmers, says Simpson, as are £300,000 worth of local produce and £300,000 worth of meat. This has reduced its food miles by at least 90,000 miles, making the trust the biggest purchaser of local food in the NHS. And in addition to food, even pharmaceuticals and equipment procured now have to meet stringent energy standards.

The trust is also now testing a waste segregation scheme aimed at reducing incineration and landfill waste. Even clinical waste can now be recycled into plastic blocks for reuse in making building hoardings.

Further cuts are have been made through a green IT scheme, says Simpson. 'Energy-saving programs shut down PCs and printers when they are not being used', he says. And the trust has been replacing bulbs and switches with low-energy lighting that turns on and off automatically, saving an estimated 300,000 kWh a year.

Other measures designed to reduce the energy demands of its premises have also been brought in, including a wood fuel and biomass burner for generating renewable electricity and heat for its central processing unit and carbon-neutral kitchen, where the hospital meals are prepared. Other buildings make use of greywater harvesting (or reusing water from places such as sinks in efficient ways), solar panels and roofs covered in a grass-like plant called sedum, as well as extensive insulation and double-glazing.

To find out more about Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust's involvement in the 10:10 campaign, click here

To find out more about 10:10 and to join the campaign, visit the 10:10 website