By John Challen

As the largest employer in England, the NHS currently has a headcount of 1.7 million, a figure expected to increase to 2.3 million by 2036/37. With those numbers come big challenges around carbon reduction in a world where sustainability and net zero targets are front and centre. To indicate the scale of the issue at hand, the NHS accounts for 4% of the country’s total carbon footprint, with emissions from travel and transport making up 14% of that total.

In 2020, the NHS became the first health service in the world to commit to decarbonising its operations. Specifically, the service said it would reach net zero by 2040 for direct emis-sions and by 2045 for emissions it influences. Drilling down into those figures, there will be an 80% reduction of the two emission types by 2032 and 2039 respectively.

On the transportation side, the NHS fleet is the second larg-est in the country, with more than 20,000 vehicles that travel over 460 million miles a year. This fleet aims to be fully de-carbonised by 2035, with ambulances following by 2040.

Deadlines and timelines

The process will include six key milestones. By 2026, sustain-able travel strategies will be developed and incorporated; from 2027, all new vehicles owned and leased by the NHS will be zero emission (excluding ambulances); from 2030, all new ambulances will be zero emission; by 2033, staff travel emissions will be reduced by 50%; by 2035, all vehicles owned and leased by the NHS will be zero emission (exclud-ing ambulances) and all non-emergency patient transport services (NEPTS) will be undertaken in zero emission vehi-cles; and in 2040, the full fleet will be decarbonised.

Achieving net zero across the NHS vehicle fleet is expected to bring savings in the region of £270m, or around £59m a year. This money, according to the service, will be reinvested into patient care. There will be infrastructure investment costs, however, principally for EV charging facilities and grid up-grades. In addition, cycle parking areas will be built using climate-friendly materials. Finally, EVs and e-bikes will po-tentially be charged by renewable energy sources, such as solar, which will require a large number of panels to be ac-quired across the organisation.

One transportation business that is committed to helping the NHS reach net zero is engineering decarbonisation consult-ants Amey, who will be partnering with NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) on its green framework.

“This second-generation framework has been renewed in line with NHS Green Travel Plans and developed in conjunc-tion with NHS sustainability, estates and procurement col-leagues,” said Anjub Ali, Senior Construction Specialist at NHS SBS. “The aim is to provide a range of sustainable transport services and infrastructure that supports the NHS and [the] wider public sector to lower carbon outputs and achieve carbon net zero targets.”

Read about CIHT’s research into transport mobility and well-being, directly linking transport and health.

Newsletter image: ambulances parked outside Addenbrooke’s Hospital; credit: Shutterstock.