About us

Environmental sustainability

How we're working towards carbon free care.

We’re committed to caring for our environment as well as our patients.

The NHS has set a target of being net zero for carbon emissions by 2040, and we are well on the way to meeting that goal, with environmental sustainability one of the Trust’s key objectives.

Some of the measures we have already implemented, with the help of our subsidiary 2gether Support Solutions, include installing solar panels at our hospitals to generate electricity, changing light bulbs for more environmentally friendly LED bulbs, and improving insulation.

The solar panels at QEQM mean the hospital does not draw any electricity from the National Grid during the summer months. They are also installed at the William Harvey Hospital, saving 159 tonnes of carbon per year, and we plan to install more on other sites.

LED light fittings have been installed on all our sites, saving hundreds of tonnes of carbon each year, and we are also upgrading our machinery to make it more energy efficient.

The Trust is also working to reduce waste in all areas, and ensuring any new fleet or lease vehicles are electric or hybrid-powered.

We are also bidding for national funding to help us implement more schemes focusing on carbon reduction, with the aim of reducing our carbon emissions by 10 per cent each year until 2025/26.

We will also be exploring the possibility of a smart metering strategy to give us valuable data on our energy use.

And to encourage staff to choose more environmentally forms of transport, we will only allow parking permits in exceptional circumstances for people who live within two miles of their hospital base.