LEADERSHIP SUPPORT
Leading Great Ormond Street to become the first London Hospital to embed a Climate & Health Emergenc
Building the understanding, confidence and coalitions needed to turn sustainability ambition into an organisation-wide commitment.
The challenge
After joining Great Ormond Street Hospital as Head of Sustainability, I began building momentum around an agenda that had previously been relatively fragmented.
There were already individual sustainability projects, but they were often seen as separate initiatives rather than part of a wider organisational response.
I believed the hospital needed to recognise publicly and internally that climate change was a health issue - particularly for children - and that the organisation itself had an opportunity to show leadership beyond its walls.
The challenge was not simply persuading the Board to approve a declaration. It was building enough understanding, confidence and organisational support for that commitment to become meaningful.
What changed
The Trust Board formally acknowledged the Climate & Health Emergency and incorporated it into the organisation's strategic direction. They were the first hospital in London to do so.
The organisation committed to:
- net zero direct emissions by 2030;
- net zero indirect emissions by 2040.
The commitment created a stronger platform for action and helped secure greater organisational attention, staff involvement and funding.
It supported the development of a much wider network of sustainability leads and advocates, alongside work on site decarbonisation, new construction, fleet electrification, clinical plastics, learning and education, green teams, and other programmes.
Most importantly, sustainability moved from a collection of individual projects towards something that leaders and teams across the organisation understood as part of their responsibility. Now and in the future.