Hywel Dda University Health Board (UHB) has set out its commitment to reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint over the next eight years.
The health board’s plan is in response to NHS Wales’s Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan that sets interim targets of a 16% carbon footprint reduction by 2025, and a 34% reduction by 2030 for NHS organisations across Wales.
Lee Davies, executive director of strategic development and operational planning at the health board, said: “We are a large public-sector body and we have a collective responsibility to do what is needed to meet the interim targets and embed decarbonisation at the core of our operations and business to support the wider public sector ambition to address the climate emergency.
“Our carbon footprint is measured at 98,854 tonnes of CO2e, equating to 9.87% of the total NHS Wales footprint.
“This plan sets the strategic direction of travel for the health board for the next decade and details deliverable decarbonisation actions from March 2022 up to 2025, as an initial programme.”
Achieving something this ambitious requires swift action and a step change across areas of carbon management, buildings, transport, procurement, estate planning and land use, and the health board’s approach to healthcare including promoting clinical sustainability.
Many of the identified opportunities centre around buildings and infrastructure.
However, the largest reductions between 2022-2025 arise within the purchase of goods and services as this accounts for the greatest proportion (62%) of the overall carbon footprint.