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Sustainability

The Climate and Ecological Emergency is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It threatens all alive today. We all must do our part to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and halt loss of biodiversity.

Human activity has caused atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to soar, with CO2 emissions rising to levels not seen for the past 3.6 million years.1, 2  Despite a short stall related to pandemic shutdowns, their concentrations have continued their relentless rise.2 

Such gases trap energy - the equivalent of 5 Hiroshima Bombs every second. The result is massive energy gain by our oceans and atmosphere. Land surface and ocean temperatures, and sea levels, are rising and extreme weather events are becoming ever more frequent. The ice caps and permafrost are melting. With immediate severe and rapid impacts, such changes may now also continue to progress for millenia- even if emissions rapidly cease, and large-scale drawdown of these gases is implemented.1 

These are matters of life and death. The time to act is now- and the Intensive Care Society is committed to doing so.

Critical Care Susnet

The Intensive Care Society and the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) are proud to endorse the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s (CSH) Critical Care Susnet.

The Susnet is a network where those working in intensive care can come together to share their sustainability-focussed projects and ideas. We are strongest and most effective when working together, which is why the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Intensive Care Society are delighted to announce our endorsement of the platform. Many useful resources are already available via the Susnet, to help our community tackle climate change, and we look forward to seeing this expand in the future.

Critical Care Susnet

Join our working group

Are you a member of the Society and passionate about sustainability? Then we need you to be part of our working group and help us develop plans to operate sustainability as an organisation, and to drive sustainable intensive care practice.

We’ll be working with partner organisations, setting standards and guidelines to embed sustainable operating throughout healthcare, and facilitating educational sessions to increase knowledge of carbon literacy and environmentally sustainable practice in our community.

The group is open to all members of the Society, and if you’d like to know more you can check out our Terms of Reference.

To express your interest please complete the form below and return it to [email protected]

Our webinar series

In the lead up to the UN climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow we ran our Climate Change Urgency and Action webinar series, to help us understand what actions we can take to make a difference.

The programme ran across seven lunchtime sessions and included presentations from outstanding speakers, all of whom are experts in their fields.

If you missed out on attending any of the sessions you can find the recordings below, or catch up on our YouTube channel.

 

 

 

 

 

Further reading

Looking for some information about climate change and healthcare?

The speakers at each session in our webinar series have handpicked articles, books, podcasts and more, that they think you'll find interesting and are a good place to start if you want to learn more.

#ShowYourStripes

The Climate Stripes were created by Ed Hawkins, world-renowned climatologist, and professor of climate science at the University of Reading, using data from across the globe. They illustrate rising temperatures over the past 200 years.

You can find yours, and detailed breakdowns, on their website.

Your Carbon Footprint

The best place to start if you'd like to minimise your carbon footprint, is to understand what it's made up of. We're calculating ours to help us determine what changes we can make to reduce our impact on the planet. And you can calculate yours too!

The WWF environmental footprint calculator tool is easy to use and can help you understand the impact your daily choices have on the environment, like food, travel, your home, and the things you buy. It's a great place to start if you're not sure how you can start to make difference.

References

  1. IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson- Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press. 

  2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2021, April 07). NOAA research news - Despite pandemic shutdowns, carbon dioxide and methane surged in 2020. Retrieved from https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2742/Despite-pandemic-shutdowns-carbon-dioxide-and-methane-surged-in-2020