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Green Plan Webinar Q&A

In our recent Green Plan webinar, our Energy and Environment experts shared our ambitious three-year plan, based around four Focus Areas: Energy, Environment, Utilities and Data, and Waste.  

Attendees learned about our KPIs, key initiatives to achieve our objectives and got advice on how they can make a big impact on carbon reduction at your site.  
 
Read this blog to find answers to all the great questions attendees asked.

If you missed the webinar, you can watch the recording, download the slides, and find our Green Plan on our Delivering a Greener NHS page.

Watch the webinar 

Your questions answered

NHS Property Services (NHSPS) works closely with the Greener NHS programme team at both regional and system levels. We align our sustainability initiatives with the broader goals of the Greener NHS programme. This includes: 

 

  • Regional Coordination: Working with regional teams on energy efficiency projects like LED lighting upgrades and EV charge-point installations. 

  • System-Level Integration: Ensuring our property strategies support the Greener NHS objectives, including carbon reduction and environmental sustainability. 

  • Monthly Meetings: Holding monthly meetings with key stakeholders to discuss progress and align efforts. 

  • Metrics and Reporting: Providing the Greener NHS team with metrics on our enhancements. 

These collaborations help us effectively contribute to the Greener NHS programme and support the transition to a more sustainable healthcare system. 

Section 106 (S106) funding refers to financial contributions secured through planning obligations. These funds are usually used to offset the impact of development on local infrastructure and services. NHSPS has secured S106 funding in London to upgrade properties with LED lighting, supporting broader sustainability and energy efficiency efforts. 

Learn more about funding

Yes, we’re actively working to make green travel more attractive for colleagues and customers at our sites. While active travel isn't currently a core objective of our Green Plan, we’re keen to contribute where possible on a site-by-site basis.

 

  • EV Charging: We've made significant progress in installing EV charge-points, with legal works nearing conclusion. 

  • Secure Cycle Storage: Bike storage solutions are reviewed on a site-by-site basis to ensure tailored, secure options that meet the specific needs of each location. 

  • Change/Shower Areas: We’re exploring opportunities to enhance facilities such as change and shower areas in buildings to support colleagues who choose active travel options. 

 
Although we often don't fund these improvements directly, we work closely with our customers to agree on site enhancements that promote sustainable and active travel. 

Yes, we'll be linking in with ICBs regarding sustainable travel strategies as they develop them for their systems. We’re already engaging across the wider system as ICBs develop their own Green Plans. Our involvement includes: 

 

  • Actionable Advice: Providing ICBs with strategic development advice and insights into specific data related to NHSPS sites within their remit. 

  • Collaboration: Working closely with ICBs to ensure our property strategies align with their sustainable travel goals. 

  • Support: Offering expertise and resources to help ICBs implement effective and sustainable travel solutions. 

Energy questions

Our Green Plan aims to carry out decarbonisation projects across 90 properties, using the Backlog Maintenance Programme to support these efforts. We also aim to reduce emissions from our 'Top 100' properties by 3% during this period. These 100 properties account for 50% of our total gas emissions, making them our largest emitters. 

 

One of our first tasks is to identify the 90 projects and the properties involved. We're working on this now and will contact the relevant stakeholders once confirmed. We aim to develop a proactive process to create a longer pipeline of intended projects, involving various stakeholders. 

We're working closely with our Smarter Buildings team to trial new innovations and understand their benefits and potential issues. We're using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in our properties to gather data on factors like occupancy, CO2 levels, temperature, and humidity. By linking this data with information from our Building Management Systems (BMS), we hope to gain insights on how to better operate our buildings and identify energy and carbon-saving opportunities. 

 

We also aim to gather broader data sets to spot issues and anomalies, which can help prevent critical failures and enable targeted maintenance. We're collaborating with the Smarter Buildings team and others to effectively collect and analyse this data, likely using machine learning or AI. 

Funding and the cost of achieving net zero are big questions we all have, and they will continue to be important. 

 

As mentioned, we're currently not eligible for funding schemes like the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) or the NHS National Energy Efficiency Fund (NEEF). However, we have our own internal funding mechanism called the Regional Energy & Environment Fund (REEF). This allows us to allocate extra funds to the Capital Projects team. The goal is to add capital to projects to make them more carbon-efficient. For example, instead of just replacing an old gas boiler with a new one, we could use REEF funds to install heat pumps. 

 

We're also looking into other solutions to compare with heat pumps in terms of cost, disruption, carbon reduction, and resilience. One option is far-infrared electric heating, which might be a cheaper and less disruptive alternative for some properties. 

We work closely with the environment team, which has done flood risk assessments across the estate. This helps us understand the highest risks and adapt projects as needed. 

While climate change impacts can be unpredictable, we hope we're prepared to mitigate flooding impacts as much as possible. 

Environment questions

Climate adaptation is now a key focus for our Environment team, helping us to cross-reference with other environmental issues and develop a holistic strategy.  


We’re conducting physical risk assessments to find the top climate risks and their locations. We've also done detailed risk assessments at the highest-risk sites and plan to put mitigations in place.

We think being open and working together is the best way to address this issue. We're happy to share information about the 16 sites if you provide your contact details and the region you're interested in.

Our Green Plan aims to enhance biodiversity across the estate. We'll set up a routine process to ensure we comply with Biodiversity Net Gain legislation —a law that says new developments must leave nature in a better state than before. We’ll also measure how much biodiversity we currently have in our green spaces so we know where we’re starting from. 
 
On top of that, we’re helping out sites that are already doing biodiversity work by suggesting ways they can improve even more. 
 
Besides following current legislation, we keep an eye on upcoming nature-related policies and frameworks like Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) to ensure our strategy stays relevant..

We've set yearly goals for our three-year Green Plan. In the first year, we'll map all the green spaces we maintain. In the second year, we'll assess the biodiversity value at these sites. In the final year, we'll take action to improve biodiversity by managing the spaces in ways that help nature thrive. 

 

Understanding biodiversity at our sites will help us identify risks and opportunities, and determine funding needs for nature-based solutions. We'll follow TNFD - LEAP guidance and have started visualising our green spaces using GIS software, with a comprehensive dataset for sites we maintain.

Thank you for using the platform to share the most recent statistics. Now is the time to start putting measures in place that at mitigating this risk.  For us, this means making adaption part of our business-as-usual process. 

 

Thank you for sharing. We are open to collaboration and learning from those that have already undertaken work in this area to ensure we have a joined-up approach. We also participate in interorganisational working groups and forums to learn and share best practice.  

Utilities and Data questions

The asterisk just means that the 51% reduction in carbon emissions includes a forecast for the last months of 2425, as these have yet to be fully validated.  

These savings are a result of: 

  • space optimisation and disposal of properties where no longer required 

  • energy efficiency and decarbonisation projects  

  • changes in UK emission factor. 

We regularly share occupancy level sustainability data with subscribers, including benchmarks for electricity, gas, and water use across the NHSPS estate. This helps compare each building to an "average" one.

 

To subscribe, email Utilities@property.nhs.uk. 

 
Internally, we use a benchmarking tool to compare each property's consumption based on type and floor area. This helps us spot anomalies, share best practices, and prioritise buildings for reviews and interventions. 

This is still a challenge, especially since tenants often move around within buildings. The best advice is to check the occupancy percentage split on your bills. This is the agreed apportionment between NHSPS and the tenant. Our regular sustainability reports show the consumption per tenant based on floor area. If you'd like to receive this report, please email Utilities@property.nhs.uk. 

We work with several suppliers for metering, either directly chosen by us or through our energy suppliers. The data is automatically fed into our central energy management system, Systems Link.

Our water data collection isn't as advanced as our electricity and gas data, but we know it's important because it impacts our carbon footprint. We've moved 1300 meters to one supplier and are working on getting regular meter readings and usable data.  

 

We've used this data to set water benchmarks, and we'll be analysing it to find ways to reduce our water usage. 

Obtaining data from third parties is one of our greatest challenges. We have approached a number of Landlords directly with mixed levels of engagement. It’s not currently an obligation for superior landlords to provide this data to NHSPS, but that’s set to change. In the meantime, we will consider and trial other solutions to obtain the data.

Our water data collection is not as mature as electricity and gas, but we recognise that it is a key utility with an associated carbon footprint. 
 
So far, we have moved 1300 meters over to one supplier and have been working to achieve regular meter reads and obtain the data centrally in a usable format.  

As our water data collection is not as mature as electricity and gas we have only installed a small number of water AMRs. This solution sounds interesting and something we will look into, thank you. 

Waste questions

We’re working with our customers to introduce the new simpler recycling requirements. This includes food, recycling, and glass waste. We’re then installing the appropriate internal bins and caddies and setting up external waste collections with our national waste contractor.

We’re working with our customers to find out which bins, caddies and waste streams each site would like to introduce.  
 
If you’d like to discuss waste at your site, please reach out to your Estates Co-ordinator.

We’re working with our waste contractor to look at introducing additional waste segregation at a site level. This will include blister packs, and inhalers. 

 

Other waste streams could also include:

  • ·Vapes/e-cigarettes 

  • Coffee cups 

  •  Soft plastics 

  • Metals 

  • Textiles 

  • Batteries 

  •  Printer cartridges 

Get more expert tips 

 

Find more guidance on making your site more sustainable, including information on waste and recycling, saving water and protecting the environment. 

Visit our webpage 

If you’re looking to make sustainable upgrades to your property, you can also find information on funding green plans in our guide to estate funding. 


Download our funding guide