Annual Report 2022-23
Read our Annual Report for 2022-23 here
Find out how we are doing against the three goals of the Climate Emergency Strategy, as well as our plans for the year 2023-24.
Regent Point Decarbonisation
The vast majority of our ‘Newcastle Hospitals Carbon Footprint’ is related to the energy we use to
heat and power our buildings, so we are happy to report that a successful bid was made for Public
Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funding to fully decarbonise our Regent Point office building. This
will include air source heat pumps, solar panels, LED lighting and Building Management System
upgrades.
We have also submitted a bid for the next round of funding and will keep you up to date with our progress, as we work to transition our estate away from fossil fuels and onto renewable energy
sources.
Children’s Garden
Architects are busy re-designing the children’s play area at the RVI into a ‘place to play and grow’
following a children’s competition.
A summary of the project to date is available on our Green Spaces page, and we promise to keep you up to date as things progress!
Clinical Sustainability Fellows
Funded by the Newcastle Hospitals Charity and co-managed by the Centre for Sustainable
Healthcare, we have two Clinical Sustainability Fellows in post for the year to work part time on
sustainable healthcare, and part time in clinical practice.
Dr. Fatima Tahir will be working within Oncology, and Dr. Emma Vittery will be working within
Children’s Services.
Fellowships have a strategic role in accelerating transformation towards sustainable healthcare. They can focus on the clinical specialty or on a cross cutting theme such as education, quality
improvement or on a specific topic such as single-use plastics.
Emma and Fatima are both very keen to connect and work with Green Champions, and would welcome you getting in touch – [email protected] and [email protected]
Objectives for the fellowship are:
- Increase knowledge about resource use and opportunities to improve value within specialty
care pathways. - Support the transmission of good practice through a network of local representatives within
clinical departments. - Accelerate progress in the specialty via policy development, commissioning and education.
- Professional development of the fellow as an ambassador for sustainable healthcare.
Green Champions
Following an uplifting and inspiring Green Champions meeting, the theme of which was ‘What Next for the Green Champions?’ the meeting slides and the poster displays have been added to the Green Champions Teams Channel.
Plans for the Green Champions include the development of information packs, specific campaigns and an overall aim to increase the effectiveness of the group by working together and collaborating more.
One way to do that is through the use of the Teams Channel, please make sure you have been added and that you have your settings to receive notifications when there are new posts.
Community Recycling
Following the establishment of a Green Working Group for Community Directorate (following the 10 steps to embed sustainability), it was quickly established that facilities for recycling were not consistent across all community sites.
The Waste Team have already begun working to put solutions in place, and a lot of community sites now have the recycling provisions in place.
This has increased engagement in the Shine programme for Community, which has other ideas such as improving green spaces and the use of electric bikes.
Sustainability Survey
Our annual sustainability survey is out now – please take a few minute to let us have your views. There is even a prize draw for the chance to win a National Trust family membership, or one of three single-use family admission tickets.
Your views and suggestions really do make a difference! For example, comments were fed into the Red Flag edition of the Annual Sustainability Report which then led to investment in key Net Zero Engineer roles within Estates.
New team members
We are pleased to welcome two new team members – Valentin Kokorin joins us taking up one of two posts as Net Zero Project Lead. Valentin will be working with Estates Engineers to progress our transition to a Net Zero Estate at the Freeman Hospital, through energy demand reduction and renewable technology projects.
There are plans to have a similar Net Zero Project Lead for the RVI in the near future, much needed
for us to achieve our goal to be to Net Zero by 2030!
We also welcome David Coxon to the team as Assistant Energy Manager. David will be working closely with Valentin on projects including improving the use of metering and data to support decision making as we develop our carbon reduction plans.
Some good-byes
As well as new additions, there are also two team members leaving. Laura Middlemass is leaving the role of Assistant Sustainability Manager at the end of December to take up a new role
as Sustainability Manager at Sunderland University.
Laura’s replacement Karen Taylor will start at the end of February, but in the meantime please contact Anna-Lisa Mills, Sustainability Manager [email protected] or [email protected] with all of your sustainability queries and ideas.
Amy Johnston is also moving on from the Trust to take up a new role as Waste and Environmental Manager for Northumbria Healthcare. Amy’s replacement John Fay will join us in the New Year, and in the meantime please contact Jason Mitchell on [email protected] with any waste related enquiries.