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Care Without Carbon

Our health, our environment, our commitment

We understand that climate and health are intrinsically linked; therefore, we take sustainability, and in particular climate change, very seriously at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust.

Not only in terms of how we operate, and deliver care as an organisation, but also in relation to the health of our communities now and in the future.

We are seeing real improvement in the quality of our clinical services, our staff are more engaged and better supported and our efforts to support a more sustainable health and care system are having a positive impact.
Siobhan Melia, Chief Executive

The largest emitter of CO2 in the public sector, the NHS' carbon footprint is 4% of our national total footprint.  

1 in 20 vehicles on our roads are on NHS business, significantly adding to air pollution as well as climate change; both having a negative impact on our health.  

The difference we can make is huge. This is why NHS England have committed all NHS Trusts to achieving Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2040.

In Sussex, we are particularly impacted by the changes in weather, such as heatwaves and increased flood risks. For example, every summer we see excess deaths in our region related to extreme heat.

We need to tackle climate change on two fronts:

  • firstly to reduce activity through reducing the need for care by helping people to stay well and reducing waste and duplication in our processes and pathways
  • secondly to reduce the carbon intensity of the care we do need to provide

What our patients are telling us

In a joint collaborative piece of work alongside NHS Sussex, Care Without Carbon and Surrey County Council, we sought to understand how our communities perceive sustainability in healthcare, how they view changes to health care that support sustainability and what we can do to better integrate their concerns and views into the actions we take in delivering our Green Plan.

How was the research collected?

Working with Pearl Research, we took both a qualitative and quantitive approach to the research to ensure the data was as comprehensive as possible. This included:

  • deliberative workshops in Surrey and Sussex
  • in-depth interviews with audience with specific needs such as mobility or long-term issues
  • online survey of over 800 people representative of Surrey and Sussex populations
  • desk research
What were the findings?

Overall patients felt that the NHS, by its very nature was not ‘bad’ in terms of carbon emissions, however there was also a sense that the NHS could do something, especially around waste.

Once participants were made aware of the carbon impact of the NHS they did appreciate the need to take action although there wasn’t a clear understanding of the links between our changing climate and health.

Encouragingly, there is strong patient support for a wide range of sustainability interventions, with very low levels of opposition to the majority measures presented in the research.

Governments change, but we are all passionate about the NHS – so it’s nice to see that this is the NHS setting an example.
Surrey based participant in research
How useful is this research?

The research findings will be invaluable in supporting the actions set out in our Green Plan.

From how we travel to how we deliver care, projects are rolling out across Sussex that could change the patient experience (while always ensuring levels of care are not compromised) as we strive to reduce our carbon emissions. This information will ensure we do this with the patient at the forefront of our planning and actions.

Together to Zero

Climate change directly impacts human health; by reducing carbon emissions we can reduce patient admissions. That's why we're committed to cutting our emissions to Net Zero Carbon by 2040. And we need all our staff to support us getting there.

With 80% of our carbon footprint determined by clinical decision making, we need to change the way we deliver care, and integrate sustainability into our day-to-day decision making.

Watch this short animation to find out more about how climate change impacts health and the ways we are trying to tackle this.

We're joining with NHS trusts and organisations across Sussex to encourage as many people as possible to get behind our Net Zero target through a dedicated engagement campaign called Together to Zero.

Together to Zero will help people understand:

  • the impact climate change is having on our health
  • the ways that healthcare is adding to the problem of climate change
  • the route to Net Zero set out in our Green Plan

We're asking everyone to start by adding their voice to the call for Net Zero Carbon healthcare on our new website.

On the website you can also find out more information on Green Plans, what else is happening across the NHS and resources to share lower carbon ways of delivering care as well as find more about our Zero Heroes, celebrating the change makers making care more sustainable.

Together we can deliver change; reducing carbon for healthier lives.

Holding ourselves to account

Clearly stated commitments

Like all NHS Trusts in England, we are fully committed to reducing our carbon emissions to Net Zero Carbon by 2040. Our Green Plan sets out our route to Net Zero, based on our award winning Care Without Carbon framework with an interim target of 57% by 2025 to ensure we stay on track.

This target commits us to achieving Net Zero Carbon for our direct emissions by 2040.

Direct emissions are those that we can control such as energy use, travel and medical gases. We’re already doing lots to tackle this from investing in solar panels at our Chailey site to EV charge points at BGH and other sites across Sussex.

We are not starting from zero; we have already significantly reduced our carbon emissions with actions in our Green Plans already in progress. We must build on this progress to ensure we meet our target.

We must achieve Net Zero Carbon for indirect emissions by 2045.

Indirect emissions are those that we can’t directly control within the NHS but must work in partnership with suppliers and others to reduce. For example, we have built a clause in our procurement contracts to ensure suppliers meet sustainability criteria and are working to reduce their emissions too.

Annual Sustainability Progress Reports

Clear and open communication about our work, why it matters and what we're achieving is at the heart of our Care Without Carbon strategy.

We actively encourage a conversation about what is meant by sustainable healthcare, which is why we share our work and progress in an Annual Sustainability Progress Report.

Read the most current Annual Sustainability Progress Report.

We are proud of our work so far but recognise that there is still a lot for us to do to achieve our goal of Net Zero Carbon by 2040.

Green Plan Oversight Group

At Sussex Community we have set in place a Green Plan Oversight Group, chaired by our Board lead for Sustainability Mike Jennings, also our Chief Finance Officer. This group meets every other month to lead on governance of Green Plan actions, ensuring we make progress on our delivery commitments.

Find out more

Contact us if you would like to find out more about our award-winning work on sustainability.

We have a dedicated team based within our Estates and Facilities department, and liaising with teams across our Trust to develop and deliver Care Without Carbon.

Susie Vernon, Associate Director of Environment
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For all media enquiries please contact our Communications and Engagement team.

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Page last reviewed: 27 August 2024