They say that a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. Making a difference in environmental sustainability will be a long journey but we at Chrysalis Healthcare are jumping in with both feet.
We know we cannot combat climate change by ourselves, but we also know our small footsteps can have a big effect if we all stride in the same direction.
That’s why we have put together a raft of initiatives as part of our #ChrysalisCares campaign, to reduce our impact on the environment and support our teams to maintain their sustainability mindset.
Healthcare is, arguably, one of the largest single sectors that cause environmental damage, and we and our medical and dental partners are acutely aware of this impact.
The Lancet Report 2015 suggested that addressing climate change is the greatest opportunity to improve global health, and the healthcare sector has climate change high on its list of priorities.
This week, NHS England announced an end to the use of Desflurane, an anaesthetic gas that causes significant damage to the environment. The switch to lower-impact gases will have a 10-year impact equivalent to powering all the homes in Plymouth for a year – while our own 40-strong team might not have the same effect we know that we need to play our part.
We all need to do what we can. Small actions lead to big impacts.
So, what are we doing at Chrysalis Healthcare? We have three clear areas:
Things we do every day
Changes our company will make
Choosing partners who share our values
Things we do every day:
We are office-based, but our 40-strong team is based around the country. Like our team, the 2,000 medical and dental clinics and hospitals we serve are also based right across the UK. We have the potential to make a significant travel reduction, so we are using online meetings when we can and, if we do need to travel, we use car-sharing or public transport.
Daily routines like recycling are in place in our office as well as in our own homes. We are pleased to say that we now recycle 100% of everything that we can do in our office. In addition, we try to avoid creating materials which are recycled in the first place, moving to a paperless environment as far as possible and avoiding plastics
.
Changes our company will make:
We have changed our travel and meeting policies so that we avoid transport if we can – and our commitment to fuel use does not stop there.
Our rural location in Cheshire means that we have had space to install a ground source heat pump so that the geothermal heat from the ground now powers and heats our office. We are also looking at other renewable energy sources.
We support our teams from a company point of view too – before Christmas, we sent each staff member a reusable coffee cup having realised that together we were using a lot of single-use cups from coffee shops. Even though some single-use cups are recyclable, we learned that 99.75% went to landfill. Now, colleagues use their own.
We have plans for more company-led initiatives to reduce the use of plastic single-use bags. Watch this space!
Choosing partners who share our values:
Our Group Chief Executive Officer William Harris wrote recently about the importance of trust and values for our company. As much as we place an emphasis on environmental stability, it is important that the medical and dental clinics and hospitals with whom we partner also uphold those same values.
We are working hard with our partners, from the largest private hospital groups to the smallest single-clinician clinics, to do our part for environmental sustainability in healthcare.
It is no coincidence that our three-part environmental promise overlaps; we are keen to develop and implement initiatives where we all work together. If we join together as much as we can, then those small steps become huge strides with the biggest impact on our environment.
Friday- 9:00am – 5:30pm
Saturday- 10:00am – 2:00pm
