Top 5 Sustainability Tips For Care Homes
The UK Government set an ambitious but necessary target of achieving net zero by 2050. Reducing our carbon dioxide emissions is critical to achieving this goal and mitigating the effects of climate change and global warming. As part of this, the Care Quality Commission has now included environmental sustainability in the Single Assessment Framework. The NHS Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment is now part of their supplier selection process.
A key action to achieving net zero and a more sustainable business, is to identify where your emissions are coming from. This can be from your direct use of energy such as electricity or could be in the emissions created from the travel of your staff to and from work.
1. Analyse
Analyse your bills to assess how much electricity, gas, and water you are using. Switching to a green supplier can help immediately reduce emissions and save money.
2. Audit
An ‘energy audit’ can identify opportunities to improve the efficiency of your operations. For example, you may have old light fittings and bulbs that can be replaced with new LED lighting. Beyond Procurement can help with audits to give pointers on how to improve insultation and your heating systems. This can significantly reduce wastage of electricity, reducing your costs and carbon emissions. The payback for such an investment can be within as little as 2 years.
3. Hold an internal meeting to share and explore ideas
Your staff know your building and operations well. They can often have great ideas of how the business could be run more efficiently and where wastage can be avoided. Involving them also has the benefit of gaining their buy-in to any changes you want to introduce.
4. Consider what consumables could be reused or recycled
Replacing single use plastic with reusable alternatives is a simple way of reducing waste and increasing your environmental sustainability. Examples of this are refillable soap dispensers, biscuits and snacks not individually wrapped. Provision of recycling bins and their careful positioning is crucial to establish a habit of recycling. Naturally, these measures need to be balanced with health and safety, infection control, and other medical considerations.
5. Think about ways to shift to renewable power
Switching to a ‘green’ electricity tariff or even better, fitting solar panels to your roof is a great way of bringing down your ‘carbon footprint’. The cost of solar panels typically pays back within 6-7 years depending on your usage and the current price of electricity. Beyond Procurement has established a trusted network of such suppliers.