Hospital trust launches new Green Plan
A Green Plan details how one of borough’s biggest employers will help tackle climate change during the next three years.
LNWH, which employs more than 9,000 people across multiple sites in Brent, Harrow Ealing, is contributing towards a Net Zero NHS by 2040 by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
It builds on the work of the trust’s previous Green Plan launched in 2022 which has already reduced the hospital trust’s carbon footprint, secured more than £13m in decarbonisation funding as well as introducing improved waste segregation and recycling.
The 2025-28 plan will make improvements across 11 workstreams from estates and medicine to travel, transport and waste and resources.
Pippa Nightingale, CEO of LNWH Trust, said: “This is a trust-wide effort. Every member of our workforce has a role to play. We are not only responding to climate change but helping shape a healthier and more resilient future for our communities.”
The impact of climate change, such as extreme heat and weather, are already causing severe disruption to the NHS. In 2022, almost half of all NHS hospitals in England forced to close wards and services due to flooding, power cuts, and structural problems.
A fifth of hospitals had to cancel operations in the same year during summer because theatres’ overloaded cooling and ventilation systems couldn’t cope with 40C plus temperatures. Heat-related deaths cost the NHS £6.8m a year.
Proposed improvements in the Green Plan range from a 50% improvement in domestic waste recycling, greater use of reusable equipment and PPE, suppliers having a carbon reduction plan for contracts worth more than £5m and reducing over prescribing and pharmaceutical waste.