This means improving healthcare whilst also reducing harmful carbon emissions and investing in efforts that remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

 Two clear targets are outlined in the Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service report:

• The NHS Carbon Footprint: for the emissions the NHS controls directly, net zero by 2040

• The NHS Carbon Footprint Plus: for the emissions the NHS can influence, net zero by 2045

Increasing recycling is a simple task that all healthcare staff can do make a positive contribution to reducing carbon emissions and conserve natural resources by reducing demand for raw materials.

During 2021/22 Nutricia worked in partnership with The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to implement a project to increase the recycling of medical nutrition packaging. The initial findings and plans for implementation have been published.

J. Callaghan, J. Taylor, E. Baker, G. Steel, P. Coulson, A. Johnston, N. Wayne, J. Brown. Improving the recycling of medical nutrition product packaging in primary and secondary care: initial survey results and plans for implementation of educational support. BAPEN 2021. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN. Volume 48, April 2022, Page 519

The resources created as part of this project can be downloaded here.