Chris Holmes
Director of Supply Chain, NHS Supply Chain
By delivering wholesale sustainability initiatives, we can help the NHS become the world’s first net carbon zero health system.
Following the commitments we made at COP26, NHS Supply Chain are working with NHS partners to raise awareness of the relationship between health and the climate crisis, the NHS net zero ambition and its alignment with core-purpose activity – the improvement of health now and for future generations.
Considering environmental impacts
We deliver clinically assured, value for money products that meet the needs of our NHS colleagues and patients. We deliver a critical service every day to the NHS and have a responsibility to deliver this sustainably and with the utmost consideration to the impact on the environment. In line with the wider NHS mission to be carbon neutral by 2040, we are working with our suppliers, service providers and NHS trusts to optimise our impact both today and for the future.
We have committed to doing this through:
- Reducing our direct CO2 emissions, eliminating single use plastics where possible and reducing all packaging used in our operations.
- Championing the supply of environmentally sustainable products and services to the NHS, including these requirements in all our future tenders.
Managing scope three emissions
The biggest contribution to our carbon footprint comes from scope three emissions from our suppliers and products, which come from all over the world. One of our key priorities for this year is mapping our scope three emissions to better understand what opportunities there are to work with our highest carbon emitting suppliers to reduce their impact.
The biggest contribution to our carbon footprint comes from scope three emissions from our suppliers and products, which come from all over the world.
Environmentally friendly vehicles
We are transforming our vehicles and with our logistics service provider Unipart Logistics we have recently rolled out a new fleet of environmentally friendly vehicles that offer the lowest level of carbon emissions to date, supporting a 200 strong final mile fleet delivering to NHS trusts.
This allows a CO2 reduction of 2.1 tonnes per vehicle per year. The engines are HVO ready, meaning they can run on hydrotreated vegetable oil in the future which could reduce our fleet emissions by as much as 80-90% and reduce local air pollution.
We have also introduced new technologies in our warehousing to reduce our gas consumption and install LED lighting.
This work has helped us removed more than 6,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the last year, but we recognise there is much more to do. Integrating sustainability into the DNA of everything we do is crucial, not just for the patients of today, but for future generations.