ERS Medical Patient Transport Sustainability Outlook
With the Climate Emergency generating dire warnings — from accelerated extinction that endangers up to a million species to higher sea levels that threaten highly populated urban areas — there is a clear and pressing need for action.
Businesses in urban areas consume a lot of natural resources. Sustainability and sustainable development focus on balancing that fine line between competing needs – our need to move forward technologically and economically, and the needs to protect the environment.
ERS Medical recognises these and its responsibilities to make a positive contribution towards environmental initiatives and targets.
We are actively bringing in measures to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our waste and packaging, implementing specific recycle bins at our offices and encouraging our employees to work from home where possible to reduce unnecessary travel.
We also have the following initiatives in place to reduce our environmental impact and improve the sustainability of the services we deliver.
ERS Medical ‘Green PTS’ initiative – Electric Vehicles
In line with the government’s ‘Road to Zero’ targets and the NHS Long Term Plan (https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/), we aim to replace more than 40% of our fleet with ultra-low emission vehicles by 2025 and 100% by 2030.
Working towards ISO 14001
ERS Medical are working towards the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Accreditation
Commitment to ‘Carbon Net Neutral’
ERS has set out a plan to become carbon neutral by 2025. Our goals will closely follow the development of universally acknowledged goals and will align with the goals of our customers.
Carbon emission reporting is also available to our customers to track Carbon Emissions usage.
Reducing auto dependence
ERS Medical has procedures and incentives in place to reduce the number of journeys and length of the journey people need to take, for example,
- Sustainable Business Travel – Advocate train travel to training courses and meetings to reduce CO2 and congestion while potentially making better use of travel time.
- Travel Blending – reducing the frequency of business travel by combining meetings into one trip and introducing car share schemes.
- An alternative to Travel – replacing face to face contact with video conferencing, interactive webinars and using the latest technology to implement remote working when possible.
Improving driving styles – providing advice and training to improve fuel efficiency, optimise emission reduction equipment and reduce tyre and brake wear.
Waste management
We have trained all our staff in waste segmentation and storage. This ensures that all waste that is produced throughout the service delivery is segregated, stored and disposed of correctly.
We continually explore new options to make recycling facilities more accessible in the workplace.
Commitment to reduce plastics in our supply chain
Working with our suppliers we will push for reducing the amount of plastic used in our consumables and aim to use recycled material whenever possible.
Commitment to raising awareness
- ERS will support NHS Sustainability Day and Clean Air Day to help raise awareness
- We will ensure there is a clear route to communicate key sustainable activities
- Through online surveys, we will explore the knowledge, skills and attitudes of employees
Opportunities for the year ahead
As a business, we are always looking for new ways to be more sustainable and regularly implementing changes in our business model.
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