Environmental sustainability Supporting the delivery of net zero in the NHS, Phil Shelton, Sustainability Lead at Eastern AHSN. At Eastern AHSN, we are committed to helping the NHS to achieve its goal of becoming the worlds first net zero national health system. The climate emergency is also a health emergency, and we have a key role in enabling sustainability across healthcare. We do this by supporting innovators with green solutions or by helping healthcare providers to identify and make better use of existing innovations. Improving carbon literacy Our healthcare system accounts for more than 4% of the UKs total carbon Submit your sustainability innovation: If you have an innovation that could help the healthcare system reach its sustainability goals, we want to hear from you. emissions, which offers both a complex challenge and huge potential to help make an impact via carbon-reduction programmes1. Eastern AHSN has partnered with sustainability experts Carbon Action to develop and deliver training for colleagues across the healthcare system innovators, healthcare professionals, corporate sustainability leads, small businesses, and NHS providers or suppliers who want to enhance their carbon literacy, quantify emissions and implement carbon-reduction plans. The training also helps them understand how sustainability scoring impacts on their success in navigating requirements within NHS procurement. Sessions will run throughout 2023 and 2024. The session was well delivered and made a technical session very accessible. I found it informative and engaging throughout sustainability lead, NHS trust Towards a greener NHS through innovation Across healthcare, we need to see where we can help make small changes that could make a big difference. Healthcare isnt the only industry looking to reduce emissions, and some of these solutions already exist; we just need to find them and see how they can be used in healthcare services. Thats why, this year, we have launched a pipeline for innovators whose products may not have been designed specifically for healthcare, but that have the potential to have an impact. Eastern AHSN is well placed to help the NHS achieve net zero because it has the expertise required to identify innovations that deliver impact and, further, help establish and evaluate trials to measure their impact in a health setting. Thats why we have been confident to introduce Eastern AHSN to organisations and individuals who are passionate about improving sustainability in the NHS Stella Cockerill, regional Net Zero Programme lead, NHS England East of England We have already brokered a trial of Apollo BioPCM Panels to enable precise temperature control in refrigeration across three GP practices. The panels were developed by Phase Change Solutions and are made using plant-based materials. When fitted inside a refrigerator, they reduce energy consumption and regulate temperature for longer, which we hope will prevent medicines being wasted. The trial is being run in partnership with Phase Change Solutions, Suffolk and North East Essex integrated care board and Sudbury Primary Care Network, and will run until autumn 2023. Eastern AHSN has helped design the pilot and will be evaluating its impact. Read the full story. Trialling a greener gown Protective clothing used in healthcare, such as surgical gowns, are typically made from plastics and disposed of by landfill or burnt at high temperatures. These disposal methods contribute significantly to plastic waste and carbon emissions. We are working with Greenleaf Surgical to test a fully recyclable and biodegradable surgical gown at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, with a view to a trial in clinical settings by late 2023. Share this article Return to About Us If you want to discuss how innovation can support sustainability in healthcare, contact philip.shelton@eahsn.org. Up next: How we help innovators and organisations build strong patient insight into their innovation projects. References 1 No harm global. (2019). Healthcares climate footprint. [Online]. No harm global. Last Updated: September 2019. Available at: https://noharm-global.org/sites/default/files/ documents-files/5957/Appendix%20A_final.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2023].