Sustainable Hospital Award

The environment in which people live and work, has a key influence on their health. This award recognises the NHS hospital that has made progress towards sustainability through the smarter use of energy, transport, waste management etc in order to strive towards a reduced impact of healthcare facilities on the environment.

2009 WINNER: United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust

According to the Carbon Trust, the NHS is responsible for around three per cent of total UK carbon emissions, and has an annual energy bill of over £500 million. It also has the largest capital spend programme in Europe.

Directors at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust have recently signed up to the NHS Carbon Management Programme, a pledge to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 per cent over the next five years. The programme provides practical support in the form of analysis tools, technical expertise, workshops for staff and management training.

Helping to achieve this is a new state-of-the-art biomass boiler which has been installed at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston. The new boiler replaces 40-year-old boilers that ran heavy fuel oil. The first of its kind to be used in the NHS, the new boiler is powered using mainly locally sourced woodchip from recycling and coppicing. The high efficiency and technology behind the boiler results in very little ash being produced and minimal chimney emissions other than water vapour from any dampness in the fuel.

Before installation of the new equipment, the hospital itself produced between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes of carbon a year, and the new boiler should halve this, setting a high standard for eco-friendly energy sources across the UK healthcare sector. Plans for a combined heat and power plant will further reduce the hospital's carbon footprint by generating its own electricity to provide lighting and power for the hospital, as well as additional heat. The work is being funded through the NHS Carbon Reduction Programme, as well as funding from Lincolnshire County Council's LIGHT Project. United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust is taking the sustainability challenge very seriously indeed, and is a worthy recipient of the first Health Business Sustainable Hospital Award.

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