The report highlights the highest carbon emission single-use plastic and waste items used in PHW’s Microbiology Laboratories and identifies recommendations to switch to more sustainable alternatives.
The solutions identified can be replicated across the wider healthcare sector.
The five infographics share the key findings and recommendations of the research project to look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to more agile working on Public Health Wales Carbon Footprint.
The infographics cover the overall findings and the impact on emissions for the four key areas; procurement, homeworking, business/ site and travel emissions. They include detail on the overall recommendations for PHW, along with suggestions on how individuals can help to reduce their carbon emissions.
The report looks at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and shift to more agile working on Public Health Wales’ carbon footprint, focusing on both operational and staff homeworking emissions.
The report covers four key areas of emissions, procurement, travel, business/ site and homeworking. The emissions for each area have been calculated for 2019/20 and 2020/21 to compare the difference between the two years, identifying the impact on our carbon footprint for each key area, along with key insights and recommendations.
Public Health Wales has a new strategic priority: tackling the public health effects of climate change, in recognition of the climate emergency being the greatest health threat facing humanity.
This webinar introduced a free online resource that helps individuals and teams to take action to reduce their environmental impact.
Procurement is costly. Welsh public sector spends £7 billion on procurement. A huge 62% of the 2018/19 carbon footprint for NHS Wales was from procurement.
Sustainable procurement can mean considering not buying things at all, buying energy and resource efficient goods, ethical goods such as Fairtrade coffee, or locally sourced products and services which support local businesses. It can also support the delivery of organisational priorities and well-being objectives, and ultimately improve the economic, environmental, social, and cultural well-being of Wales.
The e-guide gives advice for anyone buying goods and services on ways we can take action by thinking about what we need, where it comes from, how long it will last and the impact it has on people, nature and planet.
The first Public Health Wales’ ‘Biodiversity Duty report’ was published in 2019, in response to the enhanced biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty under Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016. The duty requires public authorities to “maintain and enhance biodiversity (so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of their functions) and in doing so promote the resilience of ecosystems”.
In 2023 we have published an updated Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty Report outlining the steps Public Health Wales is taking to promote biodiversity, highlighting progress made between 2019 and 2022 including against actions identified in our Biodiversity Action Plan, Making Space for Nature.
This infographic explains why climate change is a significant threat to health. It includes facts about climate change and suggests actions we can all take to reduce our impact to help protect human health as well as the health of the planet.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health and Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
Helping organisations and individuals to consider the natural environment and the health of the planet and people in everything they do.
The Resources for Sustainable Health e-catalogue gives a brief summary of all the resources produced by the Health and Sustainability Hub.
The resources promoted in the e-catalogue will help teams and individuals reduce their impact on the environment and climate change, and encourage sustainable behaviour in both their work and home life.
The resources are a mixture of e-briefs, reports and toolkits, which bring together research, ideas, suggestions and practical actions. Some are aimed at individual or team level, some at organisation, national, or international policy level, to support sustainability, improve health and well-being, help embed the Well-being of Future Generations Act and reduce our impact on the planet.
Public Health Wales’ Decarbonisation Action Plan (DAP) sets out the key actions and strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) supporting our journey to becoming Net Zero by 2030.
The plan identifies deliverable actions for two years from April 2022 to March 2024, aligning to and supporting NHS Wales’s Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan.
The SIFT Healthy Environment workshop provides an opportunity for teams to identify their environmental impacts and do something to reduce them. It not only looks at the activity of the whole team but also of the individuals that form the team.
The SIFT Healthy Environment workshop is based on four strategic themes (decarbonisation, biodiversity, zero waste and climate change) to enable teams to develop an action plan to reduce their environmental impact and contribute to any existing environmental management systems within their organisation.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health and Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health and Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
The autumn edition focuses on biodiversity.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health and Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
The summer 2021 edition focuses on sustainable and active travel.
This infographic, ‘Wales and the global goals: Ensuring that no one is left behind’ was commissioned by the Health and Sustainability Hub in Public Health Wales to provide a background summary of the global and Wales’ approaches to sustainable development, including the steps to deliver the global agenda in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. The infographic also provides information on elements of Wales’ approach, covering:
• A literature review on embedding Wales’ Sustainable Development Principle (‘five ways of working’)
• Annual ‘Well-being of Wales Report’ on progress towards sustainable development
• Wales’ national indicators to measure progress
• A short case-study on Wales’ ‘Health in All Policies’ approach to public policy
The Step Change for a Sustainable Planet toolkit was developed as part of the response by the Health and Sustainability Hub in Public Health Wales to take clear and positive action to help organisations and their staff respond to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
Providing information and knowledge, the toolkit also supports staff, on an individual level or by working together as teams, to become ‘changemakers’ by helping them to put into practice the principles of sustainable development.
We are living in a fast-changing and uncertain world, in the time of a global climate emergency and a global pandemic, which highlight the importance of acting and living sustainably to preserve and protect our world for both current and future generations.
Covid-19 has changed the way people live and work, instigating an immediate reorientation to home working, where feasible and providing opportunities to live more sustainably.
For those who are able to work from home, the rapid shift to home and agile working has brought both positives and negatives, some more challenging than others. This e-guide will help individuals take sustainable steps while working at home to reduce their impact on the environment.
The Well-being Goals Challenge sets out six separate behaviour change challenges that inspire us to act to live more sustainably. They are designed to be undertaken on your own, with your team mates or as a team to team challenge.
Drawing on Wales’ Well-being Goals and the wider United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the challenges focus on Slow Fashion, Plant-based Diet, Towards Zero Waste, Healthy Travel, Ethical Consumer and Supporting Wildlife, with sustainable steps provided to guide you on your challenge journey.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health & Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
The spring 2021 edition focuses on energy and air pollution.
Green Opportunities is a new e-briefing from the Health & Sustainability Hub. The quarterly updates capture learning to aid Wales’ green recovery from COVID-19, identifying sustainable opportunities to support population health.
As one of 14 leading public sector organisations, Public Health Wales signed the Cardiff Healthy Travel Charter in April 2019, showing their commitment to supporting and encouraging staff and visitors to travel in a sustainable way.
The Cardiff Healthy Travel Charter promotes walking, cycling, public transport and ultra-low emission vehicle use. The actions include establishing a champion of sustainable travel champions, developing targeted communications campaigns, offering and promoting the Cycle to Work Scheme and reducing the number of staff journeys.
Promoting and supporting sustainable active travel modes such as walking and cycling enables people to integrate physical activity into their everyday lives, which is essential for good health and contributes to well-being.
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts now likely on people around the world. Our health and well-being depends upon a healthy environment, which includes using our natural resources in a sustainable way and supporting biodiversity.
This e-guide will help individuals take action for biodiversity at every opportunity to reverse its decline in Wales and globally, for its intrinsic value, and to secure our own well-being.
Making Space for Nature is Public Health Wales’ Biodiversity Plan to maintain and enhance biodiversity and promote the resilience of ecosystems.
Healthy ecosystems are vital for health and well-being, providing our food, clothing and medicines, regulating our air and water and controlling disease. However, biodiversity is in decline.
The Environment (Wales) Act 2016 sets out the requirement for the ‘sustainable management of natural resources’ together with new ways of working to achieve this. Under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016, public bodies are required to maintain and enhance biodiversity and promote the resilience of ecosystems in order to reverse this trend, as part of the S6 Duty.
SIFT stands for Sustainability Improvements For Teams and the SIFT workshop is being developed to support the delivery of the Well-being of Future Generations Act which:
• makes public bodies accountable for appropriately embedding the five ways of working in all work;
• requires public bodies to demonstrate how they have done this. SIFT workshops create an evidence base and this pool of evidence can be incorporated into the objectives of the organisation to support improved learning, planning, collaboration and delivery of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.
This resource provides key learning and actions that public bodies, policy makers and practitioners can take to implement the sustainable development principle, as set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
‘Sustainability on the Agenda’ highlights some of the practical ways in which we can contribute to Wales’ Well-being Goals when we arrange meetings and events/ conferences.
Public Health Wales’ ‘Biodiversity Duty report’ has been produced in response to the enhanced biodiversity and resilience of ecosystems duty under Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 which requires that public authorities must seek to maintain and enhance biodiversity so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of their functions and in doing so promote the resilience of ecosystems.
The Biodiversity and Resilience of Ecosystems Duty Report 2019 outlines how Public Health Wales has addressed its biodiversity duty under the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 and achieved the actions identified in its Biodiversity Plan, Making Space for Nature.
‘A Healthy Heritage’ highlights some of the practical ways in which we can contribute to Wales’ Well-being Goals by supporting our culture and Welsh language in the workplace.
By preserving and learning from our history and culture we can re-energise, safeguard and share our heritage for future generations.
Our heritage is a key tool to support positive change, people who know more about each other and their local area tend to get more involved in their local communities, building a sustainable future where people feel they belong.
‘Creating Inclusive Workplaces’ highlights some of the practical ways in which we can contribute to Wales’ Well-being Goals by helping to create ‘a more equal Wales’ which enables people to fulfil their potential no matter what their background or circumstance.
Be the Change is a movement/campaign to encourage and support staff to take sustainable steps in the workplace to individually contribute towards Wales’ well-being goals.
Following the level of interest in the ‘Be the Change’ e-guides produced for Public Health Wales to-date, the Hub has developed a toolkit to help public bodies and wider stakeholders to adopt ‘Be the Change’ in their places of work. This toolkit aims to provide information and knowledge, but also support staff to become ‘agents of change’ by helping them to make small sustainable changes on an individual level, or by working together as teams.