Platinum Status awarded to the Southern Trust

The Southern Health & Social Care Trust has achieved Platinum status at the recent 2016 Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey, the highest scoring level.

The Survey, which is run by Business in the Community, recognises and rewards those organisations that are going above and beyond their legal requirements to minimise their environmental impacts and better manage their resources.

Through its Sustainability Strategy 2020, the Trust promotes a proactive approach to management of its environment and aims to maximise benefits and minimise risks to clients, staff, visitors, contractors and others.

The Trust’s principal environmental objective is to promote the achievement of “Single Planet Living” in all Trust activities and across its wider sphere of influence. The concept of “Single Planet Living” is based on the principle of everyone living within their available environmental resources i.e. living a sustainable lifestyle.

Currently, in Northern Ireland, we consume resources (energy, food, materials) at a rate which would require a country three times the size of Northern Ireland to support the
on-going replenishment of those resources.

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If everyone on earth consumed resources at the same rate that we do then three planets would be needed to generate adequate resources to sustain our lifestyle and consumer habits.

The Trust has been able to reduce its carbon emissions through a number of initiatives over the past few years and continues to look for further opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce its impact on the environment – releasing vital resources to improve patient care and protecting our environment at the same time.

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust is working in partnership with Power NI to educate staff, patients, visitors and contractors on how they can improve their energy efficiency at home and in the workplace. Click here to see when an Energy Roadshow is coming to your location.

To find out who else participated in the Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey and how they scored, visit www.bitcni.org.uk/planet

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