- The NHS has recognised climate change as a public health priority. Over the next three decades, climate change will increasingly threaten the health and wellbeing of people and communities globally and provoke change in how we deliver health services on multiple fronts.
- The NHS has a central role to play in efforts to reduce carbon emissions and respond to the sustainability agenda more broadly, harnessing its considerable economic and social value, and the support and enthusiasm of its workforce.
- The NHS' ambition to become a net zero health service by 2040 and 2045 provides trusts with the opportunity to plan how they will reduce emissions. However, it is important that the service, including integrated care systems (ICSs), contribute to change before 2030.
- Trusts are at different stages of progress and continue to face significant operational pressures as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in a recent survey, the majority (78%) of trust leaders agreed that tackling climate change and promoting sustainability in how they work is a priority for them in the next year, with many having already changed procurement, transport and consumption practices.
- We identified the following recommendations for leaders within trusts, systems and national bodies:
- Trust leaders should consider how their boards can obtain, and access, sufficient experience and expertise in this area. This issue should be owned across the trust's leadership and become ‘business as usual’ within the organisation.
- Systems will also have an important role to play. Integrated care boards (ICBs) and integrated care partnerships (ICPs) should consider how they can embed sustainability into their strategies and plans, and how the organisations represented on ICBs can have a role and a voice in making change happen across their patch.
- The national focus on sustainability is welcome. But more work is needed nationally to help the NHS to move faster and further. This includes examining where supplier relationships need a clear service-wide steer to support large scale improvement in the sustainability of supply chains; how best to ensure a standardised approach to reporting carbon impact; and how to ensure trusts have appropriate access to capital to support net zero ambitions.