Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has become the first NHS Hospital Trust to officially become Carbon Literate, allowing it to take an important step towards its goal of becoming one of the greenest NHS trusts in the UK.

The trust’s Sustainability Team has been working closely with the Carbon Literacy Project since April this year as part of a new  initiative to deliver the first Carbon Literacy training specifically focussed on healthcare and the NHS, to help its staff become Carbon Literate.

As a Carbon Literate organisation the trust has pledged to: develop a plan to decarbonise the heating and hot water across the hospital sites; educate teams further on climate change; continue working from home to reduce travel; establish an energy reduction strategic steering group; reduce printing and encourage digital information sharing; and write a carbon reduction strategy.

Libby Sutherland, Environmental Manager at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Here at the Trust it’s our Director of Estates and Facilities Craige Richardson and his senior team who have led the way, becoming the first Estates and Facilities team in any NHS Hospital Trust in the UK to have their entire senior management team become officially Carbon Literate.

“The feedback from Craige and his team was very positive, and they found the training really useful and very insightful. During the training our staff learn about the impacts of climate change in healthcare, breaking them down by sector and learning what the big emissions are in the NHS as well as what targets are in place to tackle them.

“But the training isn’t just theoretical, staff also learn about practical, everyday ways in which we can go about meeting those targets. As well as being really worthwhile the training is also very flexible, and each department in the Trust is free to decide who and how many members of staff need to be trained.”