North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is excited to launch its new sustainability campaign, Proud to be Green.
Combined Healthcare has a crucial part to play in reaching the national ambition for the NHS to be the first national health service to be net carbon zero, a target set as part of the Greener NHS commitment made in October 2020.
More locally, the trust is committed to continually putting sustainability at the forefront of its agenda with the knowledge that becoming net zero benefits our local communities of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent as well as the planet and protects the future of the next generation.
As a part of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System, the trust has targets to reduce carbon in nine areas of focus.
The central focus of the Proud to be Green campaign groups these nine areas together to shine a spotlight on them over the next 12 months.
Each quarter will look at 2–3 areas of focus, each with their own set of goals which are displayed on this poster below.
Throughout each quarter, Combined Healthcare will focus on exactly what each target means, analysing the work already going on in the trust and sharing ideas on how these areas of focus can be developed.
To share this campaign across the trust, Proud to be Green was launched to Combined Sustainability Champions last month. With over 80 champions across acute sites and corporate functions, the engagement from these champions provides an overview of the work that is already going on and enables sustainability to be prioritised in a wide range of areas.
Watch this video below to see how the launch event went and to hear from some of the Sustainability Champions.
Shortly after, we released an episode of the Combinations podcast, which was recorded on Earth Day (April 22).
You can listen to the episode here as it follows the launch of the Proud to be Green campaign and the group discusses quarter one’s focus, which is on workforce and adaptations.
They also share their thoughts leading up to quarter two, where the emphasis will be on how the trust can be more sustainable in relation to food and nutrition, and travel and transport.
Liz Mellor, Chief Strategy Officer at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, shares her excitement for the launch of this campaign as a continuation of all the work the trust has already been doing:
“We’ve really embedded greener working into our trust and we’re starting to see some real differences in how we organise and think about climate change and sustainability.
“It’s really important that we think about the future, future generations, the future for our organisation and the future for our planet.”
As Proud to be Green progresses over the coming months, the trust will share updates and news about the way sustainability is continuing to be prioritised by its staff.
For more information about the Greener NHS commitment, visit the website.