Green Measures Saving NHS Trust Tens of Thousands a Year

Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust have set their sights on reducing their carbon footprint and saving money by targeting paper and lighting in two climate-friendly initiatives.

Together, the two initiatives are saving the trust approximately 86 tonnes in carbon emissions, as well as monetary savings of around £45,000 a year.

East Surrey Hospital has made the switch to LED lights

Thanks to a government grant of £100,000 for energy efficient lighting, East Surrey Hospital will replace old, fluorescent tubes with 720 longer lasting and more energy efficient LED fittings.

With funding awarded to NHS by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Department for Health and Social Care, the Trust was among 48 successful bids for the grant out of a total 170.

The Trust estimates savings of £35,000 a year and a reduction of 41 tonnes of carbon emissions once the LED fittings are in place, equivalent to more than 70 passenger’s roundtrip flights to Munich.

Paul Simpson, Deputy Chief Executive of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and SASH green plan lead, said: “We go above and beyond to secure vital opportunities like this, with the best interest of our patients, staff, local community, and the planet in mind.

This grant is another great step in our green plan as we work towards achieving a net zero NHS by 2040.

The wider trust is continuing to build on their paper-focussed initiatives

This news comes just days after the Trust announced their entering into a contract with the NSH Supply Chain to shift all internal printing to unbleached paper.

Over a number of years, the Trust have been attempting to reduce their paper consumption and consequently save money, with initial usage reduced with the implementation of multi-functional printing devices, reducing the number of pages required for each job.

The contract comes after a successful trial period, which observed benefits not only in cost and paper reduction, but also in the ability to alleviate visual stress for those who find it more difficult to read the stark contrast of black writing on white paper.

In order to transition patient communications to the new paper as quickly as possible, the Trust have partnered with Cerner, a Texas-based integrated technology company specialising in cloud technologies, applications, databases, storage, and servers.

The scheme is anticipated to produce savings of £10,000 a year and a reduction of over 38,000kg in carbon emissions, equivalent to the emissions produced from charging 4,622,421 smartphones or the amount of carbon absorbed by 628 young trees over 10 years.

On top of this, the Trust’s procurement team have also explored further climate-friendly solutions, including implementing the electronic DocuSign system, which enables users to upload, sign and return documents digitally.

This was found to save an additional 2,113lbs in carbon emissions, or the equivalent of 2 trees and over 4000 sheets of paper, in 2023.

Paul explained the importance of combining initiatives to observe greater carbon and monetary savings, stating: “We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint in a way that benefits our patients, our staff Trust and our planet.

“Each initiative like this shows what we can do, even if it means changing how we work and what we use. Those initiatives add up to become a significant contribution to the Trusts’ green plan goals, which we look forward to improving with every new contract signed.”