Sustainability in your trust

The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) and the College Centre for Quality Improvement (CCQI) at the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) have developed a report and educational resources on delivering greener, more sustainable and net zero mental health care.

Find out more on our Net Zero page.

A Green Plan, previously known as a Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDMP), is a board-approved document outlining the organisation’s aims, objectives, plans and priorities for improving their local and global environmental and socio-economic impacts. It aims to help NHS trusts to drive improvements in the best interests of the public’s health, and ensure services remain fit for purpose today and for the future.

Estates and facilities have led the way with NHS organisations using more renewable energy and having far greater scrutiny on sustainable procurement. But we know that the majority of the carbon footprint of health care is not due to energy or travel but clinically related

The Green Plan sets out a vision, action plan and ways to report and track progress of how NHS trusts work towards meeting their carbon reduction targets. These include a number of areas such as capital projects, asset management and utilities, human resources, travel and logistics.

Many Trusts are at this moment writing their Green Plans because these are now a requirement. You will probably find that the offer of clinical input to the Green Plan is welcomed.

There are also a number of areas where clinician input is particularly important. These include:

• sustainable care models such as a recovery orientated approach, integrating physical and mental health care and linking up with local community services to provide more holistic social support
• green spaces and biodiversity such as green walking projects, growing food and planting to increase biodiversity in hospitals
• sustainable use of resources such as choosing wisely when prescribing, electronic referral forms and reducing the amount of clinical waste.

Helping to develop and implement a Green Plan will help your organisation to improve the health of the local community and the health of the planet.

• NHS Green Plan guidance
• NHS guide: How to produce a Green Plan: a three-year strategy towards net zero

In order for the Green Plan to achieve its full impact there needs to be buy-in across the trust. As a clinician you could have a key role in this through shaping how your trust implements and oversees this process.

One of the ways to do this would be to ensure that your trust sets up a Sustainability Executive Committee that has key members across the trust that could oversee the implementation and reporting of the Green Plan.

How your Sustainability Executive Committee structures will look will depend on how your trust usually runs. We have included some general guidance based on our experience. In general, a successful sustainability forum will involve the following:

• meeting at least twice a year
• leadership and overall oversight from an executive trust board member
• someone who is in charge of the overall logistics and reporting, usually the Sustainability Officer
• prescribing clear roles and responsibilities for forum members
• including representative across Estates, Transport, Procurement, Human Resources, Service Users, Quality Improvement and Clinical (nursing, psychology, medical, occupational therapy)
• engageing and empowering all staff to get involved and create change.

The Green Plan Sustainability Executive Committee could have an impact in the following ways:

• working across the trust to reduce unnecessary travel, waste and energy use
• connecting with local care resources to better support people in the community
• improving staff wellbeing and therefore job satisfaction, retention and reduce burn out rates through improving hospital environments, the quality and sustainability of hospital food, or investing in learning opportunities.

Attendee	Role and responsibilities	Contribution to Green Plan	Green Plan Module
Executive Director	Chair and key influencer	Reviewer	Corporate Approach
Non-executive Director	Vice-Chair and key influencer	Reviewer	Corporate Approach
Sustainability Director/Officer	Operational lead	Main author of Green Plan report	Carbon/GHGs, however would have overall responsibility for all the modules
Estates and Facilities Officer	Green spaces, travel and energy use	Reporting on reductions in emissions from buildings and travel and improving active travel options	Asset Management and Utilities, Travel and Logistics, Adaptation, Capital Projects
Procurement Officer	Sustainable procurement	Reporting on lines of procurement and reducing cf. associated. Introduction of recycling schemes for furniture etc	Sustainable use of Resources
Human Resources Director	Embed sustainability into job descriptions Develop initiatives to support staff wellbeing Cascade information amongst staff	Reporting on recruitment, retention and staff wellbeing	Our People
Medical Director	Care models Champion sustainability in QI projects Support staff training and development	Reporting on care models, QI projects, staff training and development	Green Space and Biodiversity, Sustainable care models, Our People
Nursing Director	Inpatient facilities waste and care models Champion sustainability in QI projects Support staff training and development	Reporting on care models, QI projects, staff training and development	Green Space and Biodiversity, Sustainable care models, Our People
Allied Health Practitioner Lead (occupational therapy/psychology/health support worker)	Social prescribing and green care Develop resources for care in the community and social inclusion	Reporting on community projects/partnerships	Green Space and Biodiversity, Sustainable care models, Our People
Charitable funds – i.e. representative from an associated charity	Funding of sustainable initiatives
IT	Electronic communications
Pharmacy Lead	Reducing waste in prescribing	Reporting on prescribing and medicine waste	Sustainable use of Resources
Psychiatry Resident Doctor Representative	Cascade information and enthusiasm to trainees Leadership learning opportunity Support medical lead in championing sustainability in QI projects and supporting staff training and development		Green Space and Biodiversity, Sustainable care models, Our People