Sustainability

We're committed to making clear progress towards carbon neutrality across all own operations, as well as emissions from the products and services we buy.

We're focused on:

• building emissions – using technology and operational efficiency to cut our emissions from energy and anaesthetic gases by 30% (compared to 2018-19 levels)
• transport emissions – reaching net zero carbon emissions from our own vehicles, and seeing significant reductions in emissions from staff and patient travel
• indirect emissions – accurately measuring indirect carbon emissions in the products and services we buy, identify hotspots including procurement, water and waste, and taking targeted action to reduce these emissions

Nature matters to us all. We are developing our buildings and open spaces with nature in mind.

We're focused on:

• greenspace and biodiversity – maximising the quality and benefits of our greenspace and enhancing our natural assets so our grounds are safe, clean, accessible and buzzing with biodiversity
• food – reducing the environmental impacts of our hospital meals and the food provided by retailers on our sites
• adapting to change – investing to improve local air quality and protect our estate and our people from the impacts of climate change

To conserve resources, we consider lifecycle costs and reduce waste – moving from a disposable culture to one that embraces the principles of a circular economy.

We're focused on:

• capital projects – on a whole-life, all materials, basis, reducing the environmental impact of building works
• reducing single-use – choosing reusable alternatives to single use whenever possible, aiming for a 40% reduction in non-essential single use items (compared to 2018-19 levels)
• circular economy – aiming for a recycling rate of 70% by driving out waste, making savings, standardising what we buy and use, repairing and sharing equipment, and working with our suppliers and contractors

At Guy's and St Thomas' we've long been aware of the close link between nature and health and wellbeing.

In recent years we've built on that knowledge and now our new sustainability strategy sets out a clear path for us to follow until 2031.        

We want to reduce offset emissions from buildings and transport and from what we buy and what we throw away to help us make progress towards becoming carbon neutral.            

We'll look after our environment by creating grounds that are buzzing with life, addressing the impact our food has on the planet, and developing estates that can cope with the effect of climate change and will conserve resources when refurbishing a building, and move away from disposable culture to develop a circular economy in all our activities.

We have made a great start but we know it's not going to be easy.

That's why we're going to be working with everyone at the Trust, including patients, staff, senior leaders and our community to get the help we need to put our mission into practice.           

Please visit our website to find out more.