COP26 has signalled a climate crisis is already looming, and we all have a part to play in responding to climate change. The consequences for the health and care system have already been well documented and explored, for example in early work by SCIE in partnership with the Sustainable Development Unit in 2014 where they set out a Sustainable Strategy for the sector and more recently The Kings Fund published a report on Sustainable Services. Finally, in October 2020 the NHS made a public commitment to reaching carbon net zero (NHS) by 2040.
IPC, as part of Oxford Brookes University (which has recently set out its own climate commitments) is working across the sector to support innovation and improvement and this offer reaches out by default to supporting sustainable and healthy communities. This is central to IPC’s work. Like many organisations, the ongoing pandemic has prompted us to change the way we work and most of our interactions with clients such as meetings, workshops, interviews, lectures and coaching, as well as internal business operations, are being undertaken online. So in a small but still important way this has resulted in reducing IPC’s impact on the environment. IPC will not change the world, but we are committed to making a difference.
