The NHS is incredible at saving lives but can it help us save the planet too?

If the climate crisis is humanity’s greatest threat, buildings are one of its biggest enablers.

In the UK alone, the built environment contributes up to 42% of our total carbon footprint. And as the UK public sector holds the country’s largest property portfolio, the state must make considerable changes to ensure we remain a sustainability world leader.

The government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, first announced in October 2020, aims to cut emissions in public buildings by 75% by 2037.

As part of phase 3, ministers have recently allocated over £400 million to help decarbonise 144 public sector bodies across England, including schools, leisure centres and, perhaps most crucially, hospitals.

The NHS has already pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 80% by 2032, with a view to becoming the world’s first carbon net zero national health system.

However, healthcare in England is still responsible for around 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year. If the average car produces around one tonne of CO₂ for every 2,500 miles, the health service’s annual footprint is equal to around 20 million cars driving from John o’ Groats, at the very tip of Scotland, all the way to Sicily, at the very bottom of Italy.

Of this total footprint, healthcare buildings themselves make up 15%, which not only impacts its emissions but its resources too.

Altogether, the organisation spends an ever-increasing half a billion pounds on energy each year—money that could instead go towards training doctors, hiring nurses, and meeting critical patient care.

A rethink is needed to create more sustainable hospital buildings that will drive down energy costs and help the NHS comply with net zero targets, without compromising its care. The NHS is incredible at saving lives but can it help us save the planet too?

The NHS has already pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by 80% by 2032, with a view to becoming the world’s first carbon net zero national health system.

Managers need to be able to identify which sites need modernising and what areas can be improved to provide immediate benefit. Enhancements to healthcare clinics aren’t as simple as standard buildings: NHS hospital trusts have very complex and specific utility requirements.

This includes the critical need for reliable power and similarly reliable heat and ventilation for the comfort and care of patients, which have a dramatic effect on patient stay times. Therefore, it’s vital for facilities management teams to have access to analytics and software that monitors and regulates patient care alongside energy usage.

Building software platforms offer a suite of analytical services. They provide real-time insights into a building’s operations by tracking the performance of systems and appliances. Plugging this software into all aspects of a hospital is a crucial step in its decarbonisation roadmap.

The right software will help leaders automate and centralise energy and sustainability data collection, establish and track carbon, water, and waste footprints, streamline reporting, and access and apply data insights with confidence. Plus, insights from the analytics will help them to mobilise their next steps as well as realise resource benefits from condition-based approaches.

The second phase of a hospital’s decarbonisation roadmap focuses on the deployment of physical solutions. Historically, healthcare facilities have used carbon-intensive, fossil-fuel-based energy to power heating, transportation, and building requirements. Hospitals will need to replace systems, like gas-powered heating and petrol transport, with newer and cleaner alternatives, like electric heat pumps and vehicles.

Building-wide electrification allows hospitals to solely use energy from renewable sources, which is not only more sustainable but also increasingly cost-effective. Trusts can purchase this energy from external providers, or even produce it themselves. Generating renewable power, such as via solar panels, and then integrating it with microgrid technology further supercharges a hospital’s energy resilience. There is also the option of opening revenue streams by storing and selling any excess electricity back to the grid during peak demand.

Hospitals will need to replace systems, like gas-powered heating and petrol transport, with newer and cleaner alternatives, like electric heat pumps and vehicles.

Finally, the installation of a modern building management system (BMS) is key to maintaining a safe, efficient environment for both patients and staff. Many hospitals already employ a BMS, but newer, advanced systems unify power consumption, low-energy lighting, microgrids, electric vehicle charging, and more, all to be controlled by a single system.

The system will monitor the building and flag any inefficiencies or faults. Managers can then make improvements themselves, or even automate the software to address them.

Equally important is the ability to report on the building’s progress. Patients, employees, and particularly the government are becoming increasingly strict and conscious of sustainability. A centralised BMS helps management to publish accurate data on the hospital’s performance, ensuring compliance with the latest low-carbon requirements.

Climate change isn’t simply driving the rate and risk of severe environmental disasters. It’s also threatening human health and access to care. Currently, hospitals worldwide are stuck in somewhat of a catch-22 — the emissions they produce through caring for people today are likely to harm humans further down the line.

Fortunately, we do have the opportunity to enact real change. New systems can inform decision-making, reduce downtime, increase operational efficiencies, and transform sustainability today.

In fact, Nottingham University NHS Trust reported a 30% energy use reduction thanks to HVAC optimisation alone. Taking this type of action to combat climate change demonstrates a commitment to both the wellbeing of patients and the planet.

But for the NHS to achieve its world-first net zero goal, what we’ve accomplished so far must only be the beginning.