LOCs Discuss Sustainability As Climate Change Talks Take Place
16 November 2022
With the COP27 summit taking place in Egypt the topic of climate change has once again been back in the headlines.
Closer to home sustainability was the subject of a drop-in session hosted by ABDO at last month’s NOC.
ABDO Sustainability Lead Dr Antonia Chitty facilitated the event and told us what the objectives were. “The main message to delegates is that LOCs are key players in developing a more sustainable NHS eye care service. Attendees were able to take away copies of a discussion paper with ideas to consider within their own LOC when looking at existing work and when considering the commissioning of new pathways.”
Oxfordshire LOC has become the first to create a specific role. Ruth Shelton is their ‘sustainability officer’. “The idea originated with my LOC chair Hayley Brunsden. She knows how passionately I extol the need to become more sustainable and suggested that when I stepped back from being vice-chair this could be my focus.”
Ruth might be the first official champion of sustainability but she’s quick to point out that others like Abi Page the Vice-Chair of Bexley, Bromwich and Greenwich LOC have been working on it for years and have inspired her along the way. But how does the role work?
“It’s one of the great things about any innovation is that you get to set the direction of travel, respond dynamically to challenges as they present themselves, record the success along the way and make changes as they are needed”, adding, “this is also known as ‘making it up as you go along’”.
Antonia says LOCs are ideally placed to take a leading role in their area, and she thinks the sustainability officer role should be rolled out across the country.“Divide the focus into carbon foot printing, followed by travel, energy and water, procurement, and waste, so you can break down the actions needed into manageable chunks. Bring local practices on board and ask about the support they need to take the next steps towards sustainability.”
In her role at Oxfordshire LOC Ruth says her colleagues are already factoring sustainability into all their LOC decisions. “Our web provider is powered solely by green energy, we choose meeting locations with the greenest credentials we can find with the least travel involved to decrease our carbon footprint, I’m looking into ways to offset that footprint that don’t cost any money.
“The next step is to reach out to all the practices in Oxfordshire and encourage them to look at their sustainability. The great thing is that often sustainable changes come with a cost saving too so it’s a win win.”
Antonia from ABDO says the reaction from delegates at the NOC was “fabulous”. Adding,
“A number of LOCs are hoping to become the first sustainable LOC, and lots of participants are going away with ideas for their area.”
As for Oxfordshire LOC, Ruth says it’s a case of ‘watch this space’. “We all know we are experiencing a global climate emergency but there is still a window of time to make positive changes and becoming more sustainable is one of them. Keep an eye on oxfordshireloc.org.uk I’ll be sharing how it’s all going.”
For any LOCs looking for ideas ABDO has created some online resources: