News / Carbon project aims to pinpoint hotspots

The NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) and Shared Business Services (SBS) have launched an initiative that aims to help trusts identify where they can reduce their carbon footprint and potentially cut costs.

The project is part of the SDU’s wider aim of helping the NHS meet the 10% reduction in its carbon footprint between 2007 and 2015.

According to SDU lead analyst Imogen Tennison, in 2009 the organisation had found that procurement made up 60% of the NHS’s carbon footprint and the latest project would focus on this area.

‘Organisations will be able to see their carbon footprint and where the hotspots are – whether that is in medical instruments or pharmaceuticals – allowing them to ask questions of their suppliers,’ Ms Tennison said.

SBS Commercial Procurement Solutions managing director Peter Akid said the 130 trusts that take the company’s finance and accounting service would automatically be part of the project.

Using their accounts payable information – which amounts to £40bn for SBS customers – spending will be analysed using a new tool developed by software company @UK.

This will identify and categorise the individual items being purchased and assign carbon usage – the first time that this has been possible.

He said non-SBS customers could also take advantage of the service, adding that SBS would not disclose their accounts payable data.

All NHS organisations participating in the project will receive a summary of the carbon footprint of their current procurement activity and will be offered the option to upgrade to chargeable services providing spend analysis and carbon analysis.

The spend analysis will provide a detailed breakdown of potential cash savings, while the carbon analysis breaks down in detail an organisation’s carbon footprint to further inform their carbon reduction plans and actions.

However, Ms Tennison said: ‘Although the additional services are great, the summary carbon footprint, which is free of charge, is plenty good enough for organisations to see where hotspots are and to make decisions.’

Mr Akid hoped as many trusts as possible would get involved in the project. ‘It would be interesting to put the results of a spending analysis against the procurement carbon footprint. Potentially, it could lead to reduced costs and fulfilling the carbon reduction duty,’ he said.