Combined Healthcare NHS Trust commits to carbon offset paper with local printers

North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust is taking steps towards being a greener organisation with its commitment to use only carbon offset paper from its main print supplier.

Rowtype Printers Limited, based in Stoke-on-Trent, has a partnership with the Woodland Trust to provide carbon offset paper to use in its production line. Under the Carbon Capture programme, in partnership with The Woodland Trust, both Combined Healthcare and Rowtype can reduce their environmental impact with the simple swap.

The CO2 emissions from paper purchases are offset by capturing this carbon through planting new trees in native woodland in the UK, through the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon Scheme.

All printed work that Combined Healthcare now orders with Rowtype, such as posters, leaflets and brochures, will be printed on carbon offset paper. This move is part of the trust’s progress towards its local sustainable development goals and the national commitments set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Liz Mellor, Chief Strategy Officer at Combined Healthcare, said:

“At Combined Healthcare we are excited about the change. Rowtype will be able to update the trust on how many trees have been planted to offset the carbon generated and provide the trust with a certificate showing how much carbon has been captured. Through The Woodland Trust, tree planting events could be arranged for the trust, as a reflection on the carbon saved through using carbon offset paper.

There is also no additional cost to the trust as Rowtype takes on the extra cost as part of its own sustainability initiatives. All of our printed material will now feature a small identifier/logo to verify its carbon offset status.”

Derrith Turner, Director at Rowtype, explains the importance of using carbon offset paper:

“As a printing company, Rowtype takes sustainability seriously and one of the ways we do this is through signing up to a carbon offset paper initiative through The Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon scheme. Woodland Carbon balances, or offsets, the average carbon impact for paper through the preservation of high conservation forests, saving threatened habitats and their biodiversity.

When we partner with likeminded businesses that also take sustainability seriously, all of the paper we use for them has been carbon offset through the planting of trees across the UK.

We are pleased to be in partnership with North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust on this and to see how seriously it is taking its impact on the environment, which will see a far more sustainable printing process for us all.”

For more information about Combined Healthcare’s sustainability commitments click here, and click here for further details on the NHS Long Term Plan.

Further information about the Carbon Capture Programme and the Woodland Trust can be found here.