How can healthcare achieve net zero? Where do sustainability considerations stand in the long list of priorities for England’s National Health Service? And could your anaesthetic be better for the planet?
Dr Cliff Shelton, a consultant and professor in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine in the NHS and at Lancaster University Medical School; and Dr Fanny Burrows, Senior Lead on Net Zero Research and Innovation in the Greener NHS Programme for NHS England (which means more than painting the walls), are two people who can provide the answers to these and many other questions.
We learn why the NHS in England has committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2045, what the implications are of this goal, and how patient care will be affected and even improved by the actions necessary to reach it.
We look at how research and innovation can help healthcare sustainability, what changes have already been made, how waste can be and has been cut, and why some anaesthetics can be bad for the environment.
Cliff and Fanny talk to us about why patients should not feel responsibility for the carbon footprint of their care; how other health services around the world are following the UK’s lead; the realities of net-zero surgery; and attitudes to net zero among NHS staff generally.
Plus, Jan relives long-jumping and rollerblading trauma; Cliff tells us about inadvertent stockpiling of laughing gas; and stuffed badgers make a welcome (albeit brief) return.
Find out more about NHS England’s approach to net zero here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/greenernhs/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2022/07/B1728-delivering-a-net-zero-nhs-july-2022.pdf And this is how things look after five years: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/five-years-greener-nhs-progress-forward-look/
This is an explainer on what net zero means for anaesthesia: https://www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007-0912(20)30547-X/fulltext
Read Cliff’s work on identifying and mitigating nitrous oxide waste: https://associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/ftr/10.1111/anae.16211 And the resultant national consensus: https://rcoa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2024-07/Consensus%20statement%20on%20removal%20of%20pipeline%20nitrous%20oxide.pdf
Net zero versus carbon neutral distinctions are discussed here: https://www.carbonneutral.com/news/carbon-neutral-vs-net-zero
Transforming Tomorrow
Sustainability is key for any business that wants to build a lasting legacy. From carbon footprints to biodiversity to modern slavery, seabeds to factory floors, everything matters.
On Transforming Tomorrow, we make the complex understandable, the theory practical, as we guide you through the ever-changing and often exciting world of sustainability in business.
Speaking to internationally renowned experts and business leaders, we uncover how to mainstream environmental, social and economic sustainability into purposeful business strategy and performance.
Whether you are leading transition in your business, want to build a corporation with a green heart or change your individual actions, or just want to know more about how space weather might affect your operations, Transforming Tomorrow is the show for you.
Hosts Jan and Paul bring insight, perspective, and not a little amount of disagreement, to all the subjects, helping you find the message among the madness.
Join us every Monday to uncover new insights and become a little more inspired that you can make a difference.
You can find transcripts for most episodes at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/resources-for-education-and-practice/transforming-tomorrow-podcast/transcripts/
Send your questions on any of the issues we discuss in Transforming Tomorrow to [email protected] or fill in our feedback form here: https://forms.office.com/e/7Bw4rDiRDt
Find out more about the Pentland Centre and its work here: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/pentland/
Meet the Hosts
Professor Jan Bebbington is the Director of the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University. Jan is an expert on accounting, benchmarking (to her co-host’s annoyance), and how business and sustainability intersect.
Jan loves nature and wants to protect it – and hopes she can change the world (ideally for the better). She is also motivated to address inequality wherever it is found and especially to eliminate forced, bonded or child labour. Transforming Tomorrow is one small step on that quest.
Paul Turner is a former sports journalist who now works promoting the research activities in Lancaster University Management School – a poacher turned gamekeeper as his former colleagues would have it.
Paul has always been interested in nature and the natural environment – it comes from growing up in Cumbria – and has been a vocal proponent of the work of the Pentland Centre since joining Lancaster University. He does not like rankings and benchmarking, and is not afraid to say so.