David Walker, Executive Director, Sustainable Assets and Infrastructure
Earth Hour Switch Off is happening this Saturday 23 March at 8.30pm. Earth Hour has grown to become much more than switching lights off, but that switch-off moment is an important part of Earth Hour and symbolises a commitment to help protect the planet from climate change.
At the same time, it reminds us that environmentally sustainability is everyone’s responsibility and I am pleased to say that Green Metro North continues to progress a range of sustainability initiatives and actions that are helping our path to net zero by 2050.
A new Clinical Sustainability Framework is being developed including a governance structure, tracking and reporting of outcomes in clinical areas. The focus will be reducing waste and emissions during delivery of clinical care, empowering nurses, doctors, pharmacists and allied health to champion initiatives in their disciplines. We are aiming to recruit a number of part time clinical sustainability roles dedicated to this body of work to assist us in achieving our net zero targets for 2030, 2043 and 2050, and place us ahead of the game in future hospital accreditation requirements in sustainability.
In March, the third Sustainability Implementation Plan snapshot was finalised. The Waste Sustainability Implementation Plan snapshot outlines key initiatives already in action to divert waste from landfill and to improve waste reduction and recycling across our health service. Personally, I would like to see waste eliminated altogether. I am regularly encouraged by clinicians across Metro North who want to see the similar positive action across our hospitals. It is not only the effort to reduce or eliminate waste in clinical activity, but also seeking out alternative consumables and goods that can make a difference. To support ethical and impactful purchasing decisions, a Sustainable Procurement Implementation Plan is in development and will be available soon.
Also, we have reached a new EV milestone toward the end of February. Metro North took possession of our 100th EV and the vehicle was wrapped to mark this milestone. Metro North is one of the leaders in Queensland Health to transition our fleet vehicles to electric since we introduced our first EV in June 2021.