Concerted drive to cut carbon footprint

 An independent analysis for the DH, NHS Energy Efficiency Fund Final Report, Summary 2014, by Professor Alan Short of Cambridge University’s Department of Architecture, says the projects are already on track to save 100.6 million kg of CO2 annually, and some 2.4%¹ of the entire 2012 NHS building energyrelated carbon footprint, delivering annual energy savings of 160.⁵ million kWh (equivalent to boiling 3.34 billion cups of tea a year.²)  The Report – reproduced in large part here – summarises the schemes’ preliminary outcomes, and makes recommendations for policy-makers implementing similar energy-saving funding schemes in the future. 

The NHS currently generates 18% of all emissions deriving from the UK non-domestic building stock, at a metered energy cost of £600 million in 2011. This figure ‘excludes the multiple disbenefits³ accompanying the excessive use of energy in the service’. The NHS EEF Programme’s aim is ‘to accelerate current NHS measures to mitigate the effects of climate change by improving energy efficiency across the NHS estate, and to retain the resulting benefits within the NHS organisations for re-investment directly into frontline patient services’. 

In mid-2013, £49.3 m of Public Dividend Capital was distributed competitively via the NHS EEF among successful NHS applicants; projects had to be completed by 31 March 2014. The Fund was heavily oversubscribed; 365 NHS organisations submitted bids totalling £200 m, revealing ‘a latent demand for energy efficiency improvements across the NHS Retained Estate amounting to at least four times the budget available’.