/ News
The Nexus Green Team
The statistics around greenhouse gas emissions in healthcare are alarming – did you know that if healthcare was a country, it would be the 5th largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet with a carbon footprint equivalent to 7% of Australia’s net emissions? Globally, healthcare is responsible for more than twice the greenhouse gas emissions of the aviation industry. ¹
About a third of these emissions result from energy use: electricity, gas, steam, air conditioning and operational emissions; and the rest is from our supply chains.
And waste? Hospital waste is estimated at 5kg per patient per day, with 85% of this being non-clinical: no different to normal household waste. ² This results from excessive packaging and a swing towards single use items in the name of infection control. ³
We can do better, and Nexus is committed to finding sustainable solutions – to reducing waste, choosing reusable and sustainable items where possible, and recycling.
So we’re putting together a Green Team – passionate team members who are working together on a three-pronged approach to sustainability:
- Partnering with suppliers who share a commitment to sustainability and are finding creative ways to minimise the carbon footprint of their production processes or to produce reusable hospital products such as theatre gowns and hospital blueys.
- Participating in renewable energy solutions such as our Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Australian electricity and natural gas company Origin Energy Ltd. Under the long-term PPA, our NSW, ACT and Victorian hospitals will be 100% powered by renewable energy from January 2025 and we are currently working on other states.
- Benchmarking ourselves against GRESB, a global environmental, social and governance (ESG) measure, showing how effectively ESG is incorporated into our operations.
We are excited about what we have achieved so far and are proud to announce that in 2022, we jumped to a 4-star GRESB rating, a sign of how making lots of small changes can add up to something big.
We invite you to get on board with us, and help create a sustainable healthcare system.
If you have a sustainable hospital product for Nexus to consider, please contact us at greenteam@nexushospitals.com.au.
¹ https://www.pwc.com.au/health/health-matters/net-zero-emissions-in-health.html
² https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/health-care-waste