An introduction from Marsali Caig, Interim Chair & Net Zero Board Champion

This week is Climate Week. The goal for NHS Scotland is seriously ambitious. We must have Net Zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2040 across every health board. So while the spotlight this week may be on climate change and Net Zero across Scotland, the work to reduce NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s impact on the environment goes on every week of the year.

It’s a team effort across the organisation. We have a formal group that reports into our Board governance arrangements called the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Board; this group seeks to review our performance and track our progress.

We have a Green Clinical Network – you can hear about that from the lead, Katie Percival, in her video message. Every day there are informal discussions with staff across the region about our environmental footprint. We are looking at every possible way of reducing the damage that our operations cause to the world’s climate, through what we buy and source and how we deliver our services.

There are huge opportunities for us to do things differently. As Sir David Attenborough has said: “What we do now and in the next few years will profoundly affect the next thousand years.”

There won’t be a single breakthrough moment. Instead, we’ll see a steady stream of changes, large and small, each one reducing our net emissions. Some of them are very visible – we’re changing to an all-electric vehicle fleet, moving from gas to electric heating for our buildings, and looking at the possibility of installing rooftop solar panels. Others are less obvious – the gases used in medical inhalers and anaesthesia are far worse for climate change than carbon dioxide, and our Green Prescribing group is working on how best to minimise the damage they cause. Because of the breadth and scale of the work, there really is a role for everyone.

So we do certainly have a challenging journey ahead to achieve our Net Zero goal. Individual steps can take us a little closer. Everyone in NHS Dumfries and Galloway can be proud of our collective achievements so far, and I am confident that we’ll continue to work together just as successfully in the years ahead.