1 April 2010
Epsom, St Helier and Sutton hospitals are stepping up their fight against climate change by creating a special ‘taskforce’ to tackle how much energy the Trust is using.
The sustainable development committee, which includes a cross section of staff from across the Trust, will be looking at how it can further cut the amount of waste the hospitals produce and the amount of gas, electric and other energy sources used.
Nick Gorvett is the Trust’s Director of Corporate Infrastructure and chairs the new committee. He said: "We’ve made good progress in reducing our levels of waste and increasing our energy efficiency over the last few years. However, we want to step up a gear and this new committee will allow us to focus our attention on this crucial area.
"We’re going to be looking at all the options available to us to make sure that we’re doing all that we can to cut down our carbon footprint. With a target of slashing our carbon emissions by 10 per cent by the year 2015, we need to make sure that no stone is left unturned when we look at how we can become more environmentally friendly.
"As one of the largest employers in the area, the Trust has a clear obligation to lead by example - and that’s exactly why we’ve set up this committee."
The committee is focusing on seven key areas, including:
Nick continued: "We all know that we need to do our bit to protect the planet, and I’m sure that most people wouldn’t think twice about turning lights off when they’re not needed and recycling what they can while they’re at home. Now it’s time that people think in exactly the same way while they’re at work."
The Trust already has a number of energy saving initiatives in place, including upgrading our boiler controls to improve energy efficiency, replacing light fittings using new high-efficiency lighting and providing special recycling zones for glass, cans and plastic bottles.
In addition, the Trust’s information services team has installed new technology which turns all of the Trust’s 2,220 computers to hibernate when they are not in use. This is having a marked impact on the Trust’s energy use, and will save the Trust approximately £45,000 per year - money which can be put directly back into improving patient care.
We have also recently unveiled ecoDriver, a system which monitors energy usage, how much money the Trust is spending on energy bills and how much waste we’re producing. This information is then shown on television screens across the Trust for staff and patients to see.
