NHS staff commit to green lifestyle improvements
Sustainability event leads to improvements in sustainability among healthcare workers
Eating vegetarian food for a week, recycling old clothes, giving office desks a makeover, and swapping the car for a bicycle are just a few of the personal pledges made by environmentally-friendly NHS staff in the Midlands and East of England.
The promises were made during the NHS’s first Sustainability Day of Action, an event that aimed to encourage healthcare organisations across the country to think more carefully about the impact their jobs and personal lives have on the planet and its resources.
And, in the Midlands and East of England strategic health authority (SHA) cluster, staff committed themselves to making a number of lifestyle changes that will help to bring down CO2 emissions and improve overall sustainability.
From the East Midlands SHA, Lorraine Davis from the operations and performance directorate pledged to try her daughter without nappies after hearing that a single baby will use 6,000 disposable nappies before being potty trained. She will also turn her home heaters down and insulate her boiler.
From the East of England, Karl Heidel of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit promised to make a number of changes to his lifestyle, including riding a bike to work rather than using his car, recycling old clothes to give to the Red Cross charity, and eating vegetarian food all week. He also committed to organising sustainability events and spreading the word about the importance of being more environmentally aware.
And Naomi Nortey from the NHS West Midlands workforce deanery said she would sort, straighten, shine and sustain her desk, ensuring all waste and items left unused for a long period of time are recycled and put to good use.
