I've collated below the responses I've received. Not as many as I expected but, as is usual from this list, high quality and humorous as well.

The most interesting response was from Neil Squires [log in to unmask]
from Scotland (see below) who has been taking a lead through liaison with the Campaign for Greener Healthcare. Following a few emails we have set up a Green Campaign page on www.laboratorymedicine.nhs.uk to draw togther and share Neil's insights to date and findings. Neil has kindly agreed to edit the Green pages for now so if you have suggestions / links you post them on the site or directly to Neil.

The other big idea comes from Martin Myers - actually metering the Lab and setting a 15% reduction target. If this works then maybe we should all follow suit.

I particularly liked this - "PS: Should we measure carbon reductions as % saving or as mol . . ."

Best wishes

Rick

--------------------------
Neil

I've been liaising with the Campaign for Greener Healthcare for
approximately 6 months now. They were very keen to have labs on board
and are in contact with Ian Barnes and the RCP who are both very
supportive. I'm also aware that the lab in Truro has implemented lean
process management with an environmental emphasis and has made
significant energy and financial savings, so you might be interested in
contacting them.

I've been attempting some kind of literature review on greening clinical
biochemistry labs, but I've found very little. There are papers on green
chemistry and on green issues in the NHS in general, but none in
biochemistry. I would be grateful if you could share any responses you
get from your post with me.

Here is a link you may be interested in:
http://www.2degreesnetwork.com/collaborate/networks/greener-healthcare/
They already have lots of industry contact, although it's a new
initiative so it's still quite empty.

-----------------------------------------
Martin Myers

I am monitoring the power output from path, converting that to co2
equiv. In jan I am announcing a 15 percent reduction target in co2
output by 6 months. This can be done by power consciousness eg turning
off computers, incubators equipment etc. We did this over a weekend
when we changed our board. Laziness is stopping us now. Therefore
conversion to co2 with targets will focus minds and I will make the
target one of our KPIs

-----------------------------------------------------------
Other comments

I've been interested in this for some time. Is dry-chemistry better
than wet in terms of energy consumption?

-----------------------------------------------------------

The bins to collect the plastic consumables from our Roche analysers are
right outside my office door. I am horrified by the amount of plastic we
dispose of everyday. Perhaps an initiative with the diagnostic companies
around designing consumables for return and re-use might be a cunning
plan.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Does our UK NEQAS centre going paper-free count? Only works properly if
our participants don't print out the full report - but we've saved the
cost of transporting reports at least.

----------------------------------------

> Haven't found any others in the archive

I'm sure there was a discussion sometime during 2008 or 2009, perhaps
from Coventry? - the keyword may have been 'sustainability' rather than
'green', but no doubt those involved will tell you!

 > We must have a massive carbon footprint and surely could do a lot to
reduce it and probably save a fair bit in the process.

Agree fully, but it is an extremely complex calculation. For example:

 - the economics arguments can be very easily 'spun' based on vested
interests, mirroring the current discussions over POCT v lab assays.
Someone needs to ensure that apples are not compared with oranges,
eg even assuming electronic results transmission POCT appears to
save carbon-miles for both patients & specimens, but this must be
balanced against the instrument & reagent/cassette footprints as well as
operator issues (I seem to recall you suggesting that 'shed labs' could
be 'dark factories' whereas the nurses needed to see what they were
doing)

 - labs and others may be constrained by their parent Trust's and/or
landlord's requirements (I noticed last month that the A4 paper we
automatically get is manufactured in S Africa, and our FotE activist had
to restrain herself from screaming . . .)

 - we'd love to recycle the considerable amount of paper & cardboard
we (and other tenants) generate, but neither the Trust nor University
will arrange anything as we're off-site (for them) in the Research Park, and
the landlord can't the Council to provide the same service they demand
that householders use. At least Birmingham has an incinerator system
so at least it shouldn't go to landfill)


Rick Jones

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