Environmental Sustainability and Surgery

 

The NHS currently emits over 1/3 of the UK’s public sector emissions and produces 590,000 tonnes of waste. This makes it the largest public sector contributor to climate change in Europe, contributing equal municipal waste to the whole of Luxembourg.

Surgery is the most resource intensive aspect of healthcare, responsible for a large portion of these emissions. A study published by the Lancet estimates that theatres are between three and six times more energy intensive than equivalently sized other areas of the hospital due to their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning requirements. Furthermore, one operating theatre suite in a UK teaching hospital had a comparable annual carbon footprint to over 2,000 homes.


Sustainability Champions

In recognition of the clear and present danger that the climate emergency poses, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has put together a working group of “Sustainability Champions” to devise practical solutions, helping the surgical profession to understand and reduce its environmental impact.

Group Members

Katie Hurst (Chair)

General Surgery SpR within Thames Valley, currently undertaking a DPhil with the University of Oxford. ​Past member of RCSEd trainees committee.

Professor Michael Griffin OBE

Immediate Past President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Nathan Stephens

Consultant Oesophagogastric Surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and current Chair of the RCSEd Younger Fellows’ Committee.

Jasmine Winter Beatty

Surgical Registrar in the North-West London deanery and Clinical Research Fellow at ICHNT, pursuing a PhD on the application of digital technologies and AI in surgery and the essential role of sustainability in surgical innovation.

James Chu

ICAL medical student in urgent and emergency care at Treliske Emergency Department. Affiliate and sustainability champion of RCSEd.

Haroon Rehman

Chair of the RCSEd’s Trainees Committee and a Specialty Registrar (ST8) in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery based at Wrightington Hospital.


Our Initiatives and Resources

Green Theatre Checklist

The UK and Ireland surgical colleges recognise the urgent need to act collectively on this issue. Our compendium presents peer-reviewed evidence, gudelines, and policies that inform the interventions in the Intercollegiate Green Theatre Checklist.

View Checklist
Steps To Improve Your Environmental Impact

The College is committed to driving change and has established a team of Sustainability Champions to raise awareness. They have shared 12 ideas for environmentally friendly interventions that can be implemented at home and in the workplace to improve our environmental impact.

Read the 12 Steps to NetZero Surgery
NetZero Surgery Webinar Series

The NetZero Surgery Webinar Series presents evidence-based solutions to improve the sustainability of healthcare that the audience can apply to their daily surgical practice, patient pathways, anaesthetic selection, and operating theatre departments.

Watch Here
Surgeons' News

The Sustainability Champions group provides regular articles in our Surgeons' News magazine.

Read Here

Starting the Conversation and Raising Awareness