What are we doing to be more sustainable?
Our key areas of focus for sustainability are:
- Embedding Green Impact into our organisational culture
- Improving our energy efficiency
- Implementing our lighting responsibility plan
- We have started to look into Green procurement
- Sourcing food and drink responsibly and avoiding use of plastic where possible
- Reducing waste and increasing recycling
- Promoting sustainable transport
- Purchasing sustainably
- Reducing our use of paper
- Reducing prescribing
- Implementing the NUS/RCGP Green Impact Toolkit
- Supporting health and wellbeing
Embedding Green Impact into our organisation
- Sustainability is one of our core values
- We ask staff to reflect on how they have helped sustainability as part of our appraisals
- Green Impact is a standing item on agendas for meetings
- We regularly ask our staff to feedback ideas for improvement
- We work collaboratively with our PCN and Islington Integrated Care Board to improve our goals of net zero
Improving our energy efficiency
- Radiators are turned down where possible
- Equipment is turned off at the end of each day
- Lighting is on timers but lights can also be turned off when not needed
- Energy – gas and electric – is provided via green energy suppliers
Sourcing food and drink responsibly
- Commitment to sourcing Fairtrade / local / healthy refreshments when possible
- Avoiding food products that do not use sustainable palm oil
- Purchasing glass bottled local sourced milk
- Offering plant based oat milk alternative for staff
- Providing tea and coffee for staff which is Fairtrade
- Reducing single use plastic
- Sourcing plastic free tea bags
Reducing waste and increasing recycling
- Ensuring only confidential waste is collected for shredding
- All other paper recycled
- Clearly labelled bins in clinic rooms for domestic / recycling / sharps / clinical waste
- Recycling plastic bottles
- Recycling of other materials, including cardboard, printer toner cartridges and batteries
- Encouraging patients to consider switching inhaler use to more sustainable version and encouraging recycling of inhalers at certain pharmacies in (Boots on Seven Sister’s roads Where To Recycle Asthma Inhalers – KnowYourAsthma.com
Reducing our use of paper
- Working towards being a paperless Practice where possible
- Ceasing use of fax machines
- Promoting health education messages to patients via patient information screens in waiting areas, to reduce the use of leaflets
- Setting photocopiers to print double sided by default
- Photocopiers are able to scan and email documents, to reduce printing
- Patient communication uses paperless systems where possible
- Online forms being introduced to website and the use of these to increase
Reducing prescribing
- Where possible, the Practice is reducing polypharmacy and over prescribing
- Reducing prescribing of opiates – we are working with patients to review their opiod use and reduce where possible
- Reducing prescribing of over the counter medicines
- Where appropriate, switching prescriptions for inhalers to dry powder inhalers
Implementing the NUS/RCGP Green Impact Toolkit
- Whole Practice commitment to achieving the NUS / RCGP Green Impact Award
- Commitment to support the National Green Impact Agenda to reduce carbon emissions in line with the 2030 United Nations Sustainability Development Goals
- Supporting other Practices and providers to implement the Green Impact Award