Every business and individual is being urged to go green but how far can environmental concerns be pushed? For example, consider the the National Health Service. When it comes to curing people and saving lives, does it really matter how green we are, as long as the ultimate objective is achieved?

Rachel Stancliffe, director of the Summertown-based Campaign for Greener Healthcare, agrees that people’s livelihoods are of paramount importance but argues that by creating a better, more sustainable NHS, then everyone will benefit.

The campaign started two years ago with the aim of tackling the problem of climate change in public health, which it sees as the biggest challenge to the NHS in the 21st century.

Ms Stancliffe said: “We started looking into what is being done in the health service to make it more sustainable and there seemed to be very little.”

As she suspected, the priority in healthcare is to cure people and green issues are not given much consideration.

But at the same time the NHS is one of the UK’s biggest carbon generators, responsible for 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, representing 25 per cent of all public sector emissions in England.

And this is growing, thanks to the use of more power-hungry equipment such as MRI scanners, which represent major breakthroughs in patient care but at a cost to the environment.

The campaign argument is that by helping the NHS cut its carbon footprint and operate in greener ways, then everyone will have a better environment and will need its services less in the future.

The impact of hot summers, for example on the elderly population and those with respiratory problems is well known. Cutting the risk of global warming will reduce the pressure on hospitals.

Such is the vastness of the NHS and its complex management structures, it has been difficult to know where to start.

Internally, the NHS has set up the Sustainable Development Unit and has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, in line with Government guidelines.

It is externallythat the campaign has been tasked with concentrating on policy and barriers to change.

Ms Stancliffe said: “The environment is actually a health issue and should be part of everday practice. Climate change is a health threat and, if things go wrong, people will be assaulting the doors of NHS hospitals.”

The idea is to engage all healthcare professionals, as well as patients and the wider community, to think about sustainability within the NHS.

For example, the campaign is working with the East of England Teaching Public Health Network and the student organisation Medsin to promore climate change as a subject in medical school training.

It is also involved with groups connected to clinical specialities, such as the British Renal Society, in a bid to promote greener practice at every level of the NHS.

Other significant campaigns include the NHS Forest, which will consist of 1.3 million trees being planted on and near NHS grounds.

This green space will be made available to patients to aid the healing process, as well as the local community, and Ms Stancliffe has been amazed by the enthusiasm shown by staff and residents living near hospitals.

More than ten NHS Trusts have signed up to the project, which begins its main phase next year. And more than 40 trusts have also signed up to the 10:10 Climate Change Campaign to commit to a ten per cent cut in carbon emissions in 2010 from a 2009 base level.

Add to this projects such as mapping sustainable development across all the organisations across the south east, and the campaign’s workload is considerable.

But is not just about making the NHS greener, as 60 per cent of its CO2 emissions come from procurement, with two thirds of that coming through drugs and machinery.

Ms Stancliffe said: “The NHS has grown up around institutions and ways of doing things. There is a lot of waste in the system.”

Ms Stancliffe has always been interested in the environment and previously worked for the ministry of health in Georgia in the former Soviet Union, as well as charities such as Unicef and Save the Children, all of which gave her a wider perspective on the way we live our lives in the UK.

“It showed me how much we depend on things, and how much we can use alternatives,” she said.

Like her, the campaign’s staff have strong links to the health service. For example, its figurehead, Muir Gray, has worked in the service for 35 years and has been instrumental in bringing about change, for example with the creation of national screening programmes.

Finance comes from project work and the likes of the Forestry Commission and Natural England, while a national lottery grant has also been applied for.

And the campaign takes care to ensure its own operations are as green as possible. For example, marketing materials are ecologically sourced using Botley-based Imageworks.

The message is that change is possible — it is just a question of how fast it can meaningfully be implemented in an organisation on the scale of the NHS.

Name: Campaign for Greener Healthcare Established: 2007 Director: Rachel Stancliffe Number of staff: Eight Annual turnover: £500,000

Contact: 01865 515811 Web: www.greenerhealthcare.org