NHS – England, 4 July 2022
How to produce a Green Plan: A three-year strategy towards net zero (June 2021 update)
In October 2020, the Greener NHS National Programme published its new strategy, Delivering a net zero National Health Service. This report highlighted that left unabated climate change will disrupt care, with poor environmental health contributing to major diseases, including cardiac problems, asthma and cancer.
The report set out trajectories and actions for the entire NHS to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 for the emissions it controls directly, and 2045 for those it can influence (such as those embedded within the supply chain).
To support the co-ordination of carbon reduction efforts across the NHS and the translation of this national strategy to the local level, the 2021/22 NHS Standard Contract set out the requirement for trusts to develop a Green Plan to detail their approaches to reducing their emissions in line with the national trajectories. Given the pivotal role that integrated care systems (ICSs) play, this has been expanded to include the expectation that each system develops its own Green Plan, based on the strategies of its member organisations.