Hitting Net Zero without harming patient safety

One thing that’s often forgotten in the constant public discussion around the NHS is the service’s sheer size. Our health service is the biggest single employer in Europe – comprising more than 1.7 million highly skilled professionals up and down the UK. When it comes to sustainability concerns, this of course doesn’t exclude it from the need to decarbonise, but it’s crucial context when looking at the scale of the challenge of achieving an 80% emissions reduction between 2028 and 2032. 

However, the same thinking applies when celebrating the progress made so far – for an organisation that now makes up 4% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, cutting its carbon footprint by 62% between 1990 and 2020 is huge achievement. The NHS’s Net Zero goal in 2040 for the emissions it directly controls is fast approaching, and this affects everything from the fuel that goes into NHS vehicles, to how it uses water. 

While the drive to a sustainable health service is a top priority for NHS leaders, it isn’t the only focus, and its efforts to reduce emissions in healthcare must meet a far stricter set of rules to ensure that they don’t undermine safeguards on hygiene and patient safety. When it comes to water, the challenge is particularly acute. A huge proportion of the NHS’s emissions come from heating and hot water, making it a prime target for sustainability initiatives, but the health service consumes millions of litres of hot water for a reason: it’s vital for keeping vulnerable patients safe from infection.