Working towards environmental sustainability

Project overview

In 2022, East Cheshire Hospice won the ‘Progress Towards Carbon Neutrality’ prize at the East Cheshire Chamber of Commerce Awards. This was awarded for their work on a campaign to raise money for solar panels at the hospice.

The campaign started as a way to save money on energy costs, but it sparked a movement within the hospice to be more sustainable.

The hospice set up an Environmental and Sustainability Group, which has managed to implement a number of changes to the way the hospice operates.

Outcomes

A lot of the group’s initial work has been to raise awareness about the good practice that already goes on at the hospice.

A survey revealed that staff weren’t very aware of the sustainable practices that were already in place. For example, there was a perception that the hospice didn’t recycle because most rubbish went into the same bin. However, the hospice was already employing a company to sort all recycling off-site. 

The group has implemented lots of small, practical changes:

Key facilitators

Volunteers have offered environmental expertise to the hospice. One volunteer was heavily involved in gaining green lab certification at a large pharmaceutical company. She was able to put the hospice in touch with the company, who helped produce leaflets and stickers to raise environmental awareness. 

Winning the award has helped raise the profile of the hospice’s environmental sustainability work. As a result, the hospice has been approached by several organisations that can provide useful environmental services. One company has offered to install a device that reduces electricity usage free of charge. This could produce savings for the hospice of about £200,000 a year and would usually cost around £25,000 to install.

There was an overwhelmingly positive response from hospice staff to the project, and people from a range of departments have been keen to get involved. For example, the facilities manager has been invaluable in helping to source environmentally sustainable products. 

One of the hospice’s trustees works in environmental sustainability and has joined the group. It has been really useful to have such high-level backing.

Challenges

Changing ingrained ways of working and breaking bad environmental habits can be difficult, particularly in clinical areas. Clinicians often use lots of electricity, water and single use personal protective equipment (PPE) to comply with infection prevention and control guidelines.

To tackle this, the group has worked to help clinical staff understand how they can use lower levels of these resources, while still following guidelines. It’s also important to highlight why people should cut down.

The hospice had one supporter who was against the idea of raising money for solar panels, instead of using funds to improve patient care. To overcome this, the hospice explained how environmental work can benefit patient care in the long run. Because solar panels help reduce the cost of electricity bills, more of the hospice’s income can go directly to patient care. 

The Environmental and Sustainability Group realised early on that some environmental issues are out of their hands. Sadly, these things can have quite a big impact. They try not to be discouraged by this and focus on what they can control. For example, the hospice can’t choose its PPE supplier, as this is arranged via the NHS. But it can take steps to reduce overuse.

The hospice is looking forward to putting up the solar panels that were paid for by the funding appeal. The building already has some solar panels, which are used to charge an electric car that is part of the Hospice at Home fleet. Eventually, the team aims to make all of the Hospice at Home fleet electric.

The hospice is in talks to create a kitchen garden, which would mean they could grow their own vegetables and herbs for the catering team. Patients and carers would also be able to get involved in gardening.

The hospice is redeveloping its Day Care and Wellbeing Services unit. The design team is being supported by the Board to make sure the build is environmentally sustainable. This includes using as many sustainable materials as possible.