8th December 2021
The Southern Trust has achieved Gold status in the 2021 Arena Network Environmental Survey.
They are the highest achieving Trust from Northern Ireland in the survey this year with a score of 81%.
Organised through Business in the Community, the NI Environmental Benchmarking Survey takes place annually, measuring organisations on how they are improving their environmental impact.
The Southern Trust Sustainability Team have achieved Gold status in the 2021 Arena Network Environmental Survey l-r Heather Brooks, Michael Cassidy, Geoff Flannagan and Peter Douglas from the Estates Sustainability team with Andrew Cunningham, Acting Head of Estates Development Services.
103 organisations from a range of sectors including: construction and manufacturing; local authorities; utilities; ICT; and food and drink took part in the survey, prioritising sustainability despite the challenges of the year.
The Southern Trust launched an Environmental Sustainability Strategy in June this year. Congratulating his Sustainability Team on their latest achievement, Mark Bloomer, Assistant Director of Estates said:
“As such large organisation with thousands of staff and a vast estate, we want to be at the forefront of delivering sustainable healthcare. We want to support people to live long healthy, active lives and this includes building a healthcare system that cares for people and the planet.
“Our ‘green plan’ outlines key environmental priorities over the next five years across our organisation for example, how we use our estate and utilities, waste management, developing more green spaces and improving biodiversity.
“I would like to pay tribute to the estates team and all the staff right across our organisation who have, despite all the additional pressures of the pandemic, still made a huge effort to reduce our carbon footprint by 29% and increase our recycling by 310 tonnes.
“Achieving Gold status demonstrates their commitment to improving our environment for patients, clients, visitors and staff. We look forward to building on this momentum by creating more opportunities to increase efficiency and save resources to improve the services we provide whilst promoting a greener future.”
To find out who else participated in the Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey and how they scored, visit www.bitcni.org.uk/planet