Transcript ENVI1110 Public sector 2006

Sustainable Development in
the UK – the public sector
Claire Marsh
[email protected]
What’s it all about?
From an ‘unsustainable’ To a
Who’s
society….
‘sustainable’ involved?
society
*Running out of stable
energy supplies
*Threat of run-away
climate change
*Species extinction
*Increasing human
anxiety
?
Individuals
Business
Public
sector
NGOs
Other
Schools
Hospitals
Inland Revenue
Local Councils
Fire service
Prisons
Health Centres
Universities
Public Parks
Social Security
THE PUBLIC SECTOR
& SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT:
EXPLORING THE LINKS
UK SD STRATEGY 2005
‘Securing
the
Future’
http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/publications/uk-strategy/uk-strategy-2005.htm
Strategy Objectives
• ‘All central Government departments
and their executive agencies will
produce focused sustainable
development action plans based on
this strategy by December 2005’
• ‘We want the public sector to be a leading
exponent of sustainable development’
Strategy priorities
• Their words….
Sustainable consumption and production
Climate change
Natural resource protection
Sustainable communities
• My words…..
 Running out of stable energy supplies
 Threat of run-away climate change
 Species extinction
 Increasing human anxiety
Sustainable development in the
public sector – what does it mean?
•
•
•
•
A) What is their influence in society?
B) What are their impacts now?
C) How could their impacts be different?
D) What’s going on to try to change
things?
Case study – the NHS
The NHS
A) Influence
•
•
•
•
Employs >1m people
Buys goods and services worth £11b/yr
Spends £500m/yr for >300m meals
Owns more land in London than 6x Hyde
Park
• Issues 77000 prescriptions every 20
minutes
The NHS
B) Current impacts on SD
600 000 tonnes of waste a
year, £42m to dispose of it
Produces 7.5m tonnes of
CO2 per year from
primary energy use
Most employees
and patients arrive
by car, most goods
by road
Currently has minimal
monitoring of the impacts
of it’s many many
suppliers
C) How could their impacts be
different?
NHS Resources
Decrease in level of
demand for health
services
Increase in health of
local population
Improvement of
environmental
conditions
Sustainable
Increase in NHS capacity
to deliver services
Increase in health of
population
Decrease in demand
for health services
From Coote, 2002
Good Corporate
Citizenship
assessment model
http://www.corporatecitizen.nhs.uk/
This presentation and the good corporate citizenship assessment model have been
developed by the Sustainable Development Commission with the support of the
Department of Health and are aimed at an NHS audience.
D) What’s going on to try to change
things?
•
•
•
•
•
FOOD:
NHS spends £500m on food & catering/yr
Largest food procurer in Europe
Over 300m meals served in 1200 hospitals
This includes:
250 000 litres orange juice
12.3m loaves of bread
61m litres of milk
1.3m chicken legs
13.5m kg potatoes
The Food Chain &
Sustainable Development
• Food Production – farming methods
• Processing - manufacturing activities
• Transport – road & air
• Consumption –storing, disposing
Combined miles = approximately
31,200km
0.78 times around the earth
Food Miles –
Steak & Kidney Pie
Flour, carrots, butter and
peas from within the UK
Steak and kidney pie
Onions from Spain
(1,300km)
Beef from Argentina
(11,000km)
Ref: Jochelson et al, 2005
Lamb’s kidney from
New Zealand
(18,800km)
http://www.sustainweb.org/hospital_index.asp
Good Practice 1: London Hospitals Food Project
Local organic
farmers
Local economy
Royal Support
£
Environment &
health benefits
4 London
Hospitals
Good practice 2:
Cornwall Food project
•
£1.5m per annum on food products
Could this wealth be brought back into Cornwall
(a county with low GDP)?
Already succeeded with ice cream, cheese,
vegetables, sandwiches, fruit
Central Production Unit planned (CPU)
All 5 NHS Trusts in Cornwall working together
This work is so commendable: it is exactly what
is needed to support local economies, reduce the
pollution from long distance transport and
agrichemicals and develop a healthier diet’
(Jonathon Porritt)
Public Health Policy
• A health promoting NHS?
• ‘ensure that health improvement and
prevention services are of a high quality
and benefit from the same drive for
modernisation and improvement as exists
across the rest of the NHS’
Choosing Health –
Government White Paper, 2004
Can this succeed?
•
•
•
•
Difficult to measure results in conventional way
Procurement policy & regulation
Working with small suppliers
Training procurement staff
Political pressure for
short-term gains
Vote of the day
• NHS Trusts currently purchase food for as little as £2.20
per day per patient.
Would you be happy with an increase in
the waiting times for non-emergency
treatment to fund an increase in food
expenditure in the NHS?
Yes or No
Schools
Hospitals
Inland Revenue
Local Councils
Fire service
Prisons
Health Centres
Universities
Public Parks
Social Security
Public sector food procurement initiative:
£2b per year on food
Final thoughts
A) What is their influence?
(eg 2m students/yr,
300000 staff)
B) What are their impacts?
(5.2b kwh energy, £3b
on goods/services, 1m
journeys/day)
C) How could their impacts
be different?
D) Signs of change?
www.leeds.ac.uk/environmental
The parable of the
frog in boiling water
‘if you put a frog in hot
water, it immediately
jumps out. If you put a
frog in cool water and
slowly heat up the
water, you can
eventually boil the
frog. The frog doesn't
seem to notice the
adverse change in its
environment.'
References
(see also websites cited throughout)
• Coote, A. (ed). 2002 Claiming the Health Dividend. London: King’s
Fund (available from www.kingsfund.org.uk)
• NHS Estates, (2005). Sustainable Development: Environmental
Strategy for the NHS. London: The Stationery Office, Ltd. (available
from www.dh.gov.uk/publicationsandstatistics/fs/en)
• Jochelson et al, (2005). Sustainable Food and the NHS. London:
Kings Fund (available from www.kingsfund.org.uk)
• Department of Health, (2004). Choosing Health. London: HMSO
• www.corporatecitizen.nhs.uk – the NHS guidance tool
developed by the Sustainable Development Commission