Development Unit 2 NHS Sustainable Development Unit- Route Map for Sustainable Health

This document is a collaborative effort across the NHS and its partners to describe a sustainable health system and the components that are needed to achieve it. By its nature, the NHS must be sustainable – we must meet the needs of our patients today, while ensuring we have a service fit for tomorrow and beyond. At a time when we are driving forward significant change to improve outcomes and meet the financial and practical challenges of increasing demand for our services, we have the opportunity to create a truly sustainable NHS. This is not limited to financial sustainability, but must focus too on social and environmental sustainability, so that the NHS of the future remains in the best possible position to improve quality and to limit its impact on the environment within which it works. This document sets out a number of ways for organisations to progress towards a sustainable healthcare system and builds on the progress already made to reduce carbon emissions since the launch of the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy in 2009.1 We would like to thank everyone for the work already underway to drive real improvements locally and welcome this Route Map to a sustainable future