NHS sustainability day: 10 ways to make a difference

Today is NHS Sustainability Day and across the UK, health care professionals are joining together to try and reduce the carbon footprint of the NHS.

Why is this important? Because the footprint of health care is enormous, the NHS’s carbon footprint is the largest in the UK public sector and bigger than the entire footprint of countries of Estonia and Slovenia combined.

If the US health care system were a country it would be the 13th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world!

Most of this footprint is due to clinical factors, particularly the carbon embedded in manufacturing medication.

We doctors are responsible for ten times the amount of carbon in our clinical practice compared to in our home life.

We clearly need to do something….

BUT, it can be really difficult to know how to reduce our footprint in our day to day work.

Ten ways to make a difference

For this reason, the RCPsych Sustainability Committee have come up with a ‘Top Ten List of Things a Psychiatrist Can Do’ (pdf) to help you improve the sustainability of your practice and reduce your professional footprint.

If you would like to support NHS Sustainability Day, please do check this list out.

Spread the word via your email signature!

Also, how about adding the following line to your email signature, to help spread the word?

"I practise sustainable psychiatry, here's how you can too. See these ten practical steps to becoming a sustainable psychiatrist."