Blog by Director of Strategy, Tom Pharaoh
Today, Wednesday 8 June, is NHS Sustainability Day and I am proud to announce the publication of our Green Plan – Creating a Greener CCC.
The NHS is the first health service in the world to announce the ambition to achieve net zero carbon emissions and NHS Sustainability Day is a day for highlighting and celebrating the importance of sustainable development across the NHS.
Climate change has been widely recognised as one of the greatest threats to public health globally, nationally and in our region. As one of three specialist cancer centres in the UK, we want to drive improved outcomes and experience across Cheshire & Merseyside. The environmental consequences of climate change and air pollution could mean increased risk of cancer so it’s important that we act now and play our part in tackling this threat.
We have already taken a number of steps to reduce carbon emissions, adopt sustainable working practices and deliver social value. ‘Creating a Greener CCC’ describes how we can go further to adopt greener, more sustainable ways of working to help us achieve our goals – from saving energy to greener travel to reducing waste.
Of course, the scale and pace of change required is challenging and success largely depends on innovations in other sectors (particularly in energy and technology) but we are absolutely committed to being a more sustainable organisation and achieving net zero carbon emissions in the next two decades.
Our award winning flagship site in Liverpool was built with sustainability at its core – something we plan on replicating as we look to refresh and refurbish our others sites; starting with our Wirral site. In the coming year we will launch an engagement campaign and Green Travel Plan to encourage staff and volunteers to get involved in sustainable practices. We will also explore sustainable, recyclable and reusable solutions for the consumables and products that we use.
The Green Plan was developed with staff and to make it a reality we will need staff across the Trust to lead change and champion the cause of environmental sustainability.
To find out more, read our plan here: