NHS Property Services (NHSPS) recently opened a new Integrated Care Centre in Devizes in the heart of Wiltshire, which is now is now open to patients. Here, Andrew Strange, Regional Partnership director – Midlands, at NHSPS, gives us ‘a deep dive’ into how the project first started, the challenges faced, what the centre will be used for, and why sustainability is so important for the future of the NHS.
Carbon emissions play a key role in contributing to global warming and climate change. Climate change, of course, not only affects the environment, but also our health, contributing to, and indeed worsening, conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and respiratory diseases such as asthma. By working towards a smaller carbon footprint, we can simultaneously reduce the burden of disease from factors such as air pollution. The NHS estate can play a big part in reducing carbon emissions and helping to tackle climate change, but how much does the NHS estate contribute to our carbon footprint?
As a whole, healthcare buildings belonging to the NHS contribute 15% of the total NHS carbon footprint, and the NHS is responsible for around 5.4% of the UK’s total carbon emissions across all its activities. The NHS is aiming to achieve a Net Zero carbon status by 2040 through the COP26 Health Programme, which aligns with the Government’s ambition set out in its Build Back Greener strategy.
A ‘pioneer in green estate design’
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