Five organisations across Dorset are joining forces to create a sustainability programme this week, as the NHS continue to level up their net zero efforts.
The scheme, called ‘Ecoearn!’, will allow the involved Trusts to track and measure their carbon footprint via an app and online platform, ultimately helping them work towards their net zero goals from 2020-2025 and the health sector’s wider plans for 2045.
The programme will roll out to over 24,000 staff across Dorset, aiming to encourage sustainable behaviour changes in things like energy, travel, health and wellbeing, and waste reduction. The scheme will allow participants to compete in intra-Trust teams and earn ‘Green Points’ for any sustainable actions they carry out, with individuals with the most points winning vouchers to spend in shops around Dorset.
The programme is the first of its kind with a group of NHS Trusts under the Dorset Integrated Care System leading the launch.
The organisations in question are:
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
- Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust
- NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group
- South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Stuart Lane, Sustainability & Carbon Manager at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are pleased to have launched the first collaborative ICS sustainability programme of its kind, which will assist us all as a group of Dorset healthcare organisations to move cohesively towards our goal of net zero.
“The Ecoearn programme is already causing a buzz amongst UHD staff and we’re excited to start competing for Green Points.”
More information about the programme is available here.
Also, it’s still not too late to register for our upcoming NHE365 Net-Zero NHS virtual event discussing all things sustainability on the 26th of May 2022.
