2024 Look Ahead: Spotlight on Sustainability
2023 was another year of exciting, yet challenging developments for sustainability in HealthTech. It should not be underestimated how much time and energy our member organisations have dedicated to understanding and implementing change within their businesses in order to make a positive difference, and we have aimed to support wherever we can.
With well over 100 member companies, the ABHI Sustainability Group continues to grow in size, which indicates the engagement and support this agenda is getting, and the increasing awareness of sustainability as a topic more generally. I encourage participation in the group from all kinds of roles, not just your sustainability leads, as it will take full organisational change to make meaningful impact.
We hosted numerous webinars in 2023. Several of which were with NHS sustainability leads, and were designed to engage with industry on the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap. We also held sessions on the approach taken by the health system to Modern Slavery, sustainability across the devolved administrations of the UK and sustainability concepts more broadly, such as the impact that climate change is having on our oceans. We will continue with this programme of work into 2024 and beyond, and if you have any areas of particular concern, or topics you would like to know more about, please do write to me.
The second ABHI Sustainability Conference took place in September, where we welcomed an exceptional cast of speakers. Aimed to provide an update as to the work going on across the whole ecosystem, we are excited to be planning our third conference for later in 2024, and we will keep you updated with all the details. You can watch recordings of our previous conferences and webinars here.
Moving towards more circular, net zero healthcare will require whole system change. We have continued to expand the stakeholders we work with in order to make this shift, and offering opportunities to members wherever possible. The Department of Health and Social Care Design for Life project launched in earlier 2023, and has seen great involvement across the ecosystem, including many ABHI members. This initiative between government, industry, academia and the health and care sector, is designed to identify practical solutions that address the challenges of areas like supply resilience, net zero and the use of single-use plastics. Like all of our work, we are inputting regularly, ensuring that any asks of industry are reasonable and recognise some of our unique challenges. Further to this project, we have connected with international Trade Associations, the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, the Health Foundation, the Royal Colleges and some of the leading universities that are researching recycled medical devices and circulatory techniques. The breadth of our network seems to expand every week!
In 2022 we became the first Trade Association to join the corporate partnership programme of IEMA, the internationally recognised Institute for Environmental Management Assessment. We have led several sessions between IEMA and the ABHI membership since then, and following input from our members, IEMA recently produced a guidance document, ‘Transition Planning for SMEs.’ Whilst being a sector agnostic publication, it has a particular focus on the HealthTech industry, and aims to assist SMEs in planning how their organisation will improve their ongoing relationship with the environment. ABHI members can access this document here.
We have also recently updated the sustainability page of our website to make it easier to navigate based on the area you need support with, be it NHS England requirements or wider government legislation, and I implore you to take the time to look at all we have available here.
With the NHS Net Zero target of 2045 just over two decades away, last year saw the staggered introduction of Carbon Reduction Plans as a requirement for contracts with the NHS in England, which will be expanding this April for the vast majority of tenders. We understand that this is a big ask for many companies, requiring resource and time to complete. Our own support to aid with this, including guidance and webinars, can be found here.
Highlighted in the NHS England Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023, the health service is making positive progress in reducing its environmental impact. On track to reach Net Zero for the NHS Carbon Footprint and NHS Carbon Footprint Plus, it cites the supply chain as one of the means by which it has stayed on target, through the implementation of social value questions as part of the procurement process (despite a rocky introduction) and Carbon Reduction Plans. It is heartening to see how the efforts from organisations are having a tangible benefit with regards to the environmental impact of the ecosystem.
As we continue through the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap milestones, it is our role as ABHI to represent the industry to ensure that what is asked is achievable, with reasonable timelines and consistent industry engagement. This is of particular importance as we look to the 2028 milestone of product level carbon footprinting, and this will be a key workstream of ours in 2024.
Alongside this, our focus for the year will be to continue our programme of education for ABHI members in this area, and working with the health systems to ensure that what is asked of industry is reasonable, attainable and done in collaboration. The world is looking to the NHS as a blueprint of sustainable healthcare, with other countries following its lead, so communicating internationally is also a priority, and one that should help raise the sustainability agenda within your organisations across the globe.
As always, if you have any queries or concerns please do write to me.
