One furniture specialist’s journey toward Net Zero

With the NHS’s target of becoming Net Zero carbon by 2045, suppliers are soon to be required to demonstrate their carbon reduction activities in order to continue to supply the health service. Lizzie Leggatt, Head of Sustainability and Materials at furniture manufacturer, Pineapple Contracts, looks at what that means in practice for the Kent-headquartered business.

As part of its The Greener NHS programme, in October 2020 the NHS in England committed to delivering a Net Zero carbon health service by 2045. As well as focusing on the carbon emissions associated with the daily operation of the health services, this target also includes ‘emissions that the NHS has the ability to influence’ – which includes the carbon emissions generated by organisations which supply the NHS with goods and services.

A significant contributor to the NHS’s overall carbon footprint is ‘Medicines, medical equipment, and other supply chain’, responsible for 62% of the total carbon emissions, with medical and non-medical equipment accounting for 18% of the total. The NHS is therefore focusing on ‘decarbonising the supply chain’, firstly by switching to low-carbon product alternatives where possible, but also by encouraging suppliers to decarbonise their own processes too.