Our environment

It takes a lot of energy to care for patients in multiple organ failure. There are electricity and heating costs for the critical care unit, as well as energy travel costs of large numbers of staff necessary to care for people in critical care.

We also generate large amounts of clinical waste in plastics, water, paper, cardboard, and sharps. These are either incinerated or buried in land-fill sites.

Our impact on the environment is of huge concern to us. A healthy, clean environment is good for the physical and mental health of our patients, their relatives, our family’s, and us. A sick and unhealthy environment contributes to physical and mental illness e.g asthma and traffic fumes, which can themselves contribute to critical illness.

We can reduce our impact on the environment by:

1. Better disposal practices - e.g. only incinerating those items that truly need to be incinerated
2. Off-setting our carbon footprint - planting trees as a celebration of patients, relatives and staff
3. Clean up the environment - staff doing plastic pick-ups from local beaches and hospital grounds
4. Environmentally friendly commuting - cycling, walking, park and ride, using remote (on-line) meetings
5. Purchasing which includes an environmental impact assessment

We have a green group in the unit who lead on environmental concerns for the unit. We are always looking for new ideas or help so please let us know by contacting us here.

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has produced a case study on enhancing biodiversity throughout Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, which you can read here.