Sustainable Health and Care Week highlights involvement in environmental projects

The end of June 2018 saw a whole week dedicated to supporting the campaign for sustainable development in the health and care sectors.

The week was announced to be a great success. Organisations from all across the UK undertook different inspiring activities during the week, getting staff, patients, service users and families involved in environmental action and sharing ideas and learning.

Those interested can catch up on the week’s activities on Twitter and on the Sustainable Health and Care website at www.sustainablehealthandcare.com.

Links are provided for each day, which had themes of:

• Monday – Waste and resources
• Tuesday – Sustainable travel
• Wednesday – Sustainable communities
• Thursday – Innovation and technology
• Friday – Green space

A communications toolkit is provided to help organisations plan for a future event.

Twitter conversations can be accessed through the Sustainable Health and Care profile – @SustHealthCare – or by tracking #SHCWeek18.

Sustainable development addresses issues such as pollution, waste management, energy and water conservation, transport management and the recycling of resources.  It is about delivering services in a responsible and far-sighted way with regard to environmental impact and the needs of future generations.

The sustainable health and care campaign was launched in April. Its aim is to promote and encourage sustainable practices and action to make real and lasting benefits for patients, staff and for communities through actions such as:

• low pollution healthy travel
• efficient energy use, cutting carbon and saving money
• making the most of green spaces
• supporting local communities with jobs and volunteering.

With more than 20,000 organisations employing 1.6 million people in total, nationally the social care sector can make a huge contribution to government sustainability targets and strategies.

Organisations that are interested in supporting the campaign can sign up to the newsletter at www.sustainablehealthandcare.com/sustainable-health-and-care-newsletter.