Green Guardian Award
Green Guardian Award
This award recognises colleagues – teams and individuals – who have implemented innovative and sustainable practices within their department or across the Trust. This could include reducing energy consumption, waste or carbon emissions, or the adoption of renewable energy sources. Here’s what their colleagues wrote about them in the nominations.
Fabio Di Maria, Research Radiographer Team Lead
Fabio is very passionate about sustainability and has been a driving force behind a project to make the Research and Development department paperless.
His project will equip the research team to use ipads to collect data for research. This information can then be stored digitally instead of being paper in the notes, dramatically decreasing paper archiving.
Fabio has executed several targets involving setting up software, IT training guides and creating a business plan. He has endlessly researched, consulted with the wider team, considered funding options and tenaciously pushed this very important project. He has sought ideas from other Trusts that have introduced similar initiatives and piloted it within radiotherapy trials to allow the rest of the team to be involved and feedback.
The commitment and dedication required to complete such an initiative is immense and Fabio has taken time out of his normal schedule to initiate and develop the project.
Jonathan Aldred, Head of Hard FM
Jon has worked so hard and assiduously to reduce our Trust’s use of fossil fuels and overall waste. He has tirelessly championed projects to successful conclusions and goes beyond his remit to support sustainability throughout our local community.
Jon has been instrumental in the success of many projects to reduce our carbon footprint, including the installation of 900 solar panels at the Guildford site. This is the equivalent of planting 19,880 trees per year and reduces 12,900kg of CO2 emissions.
He has also reduced gas consumption by two per cent a year by introducing heat pump technology, produced a tree planting plan for the Guildford site and upgraded all lighting to LED through a planned programme of works.
He has also proactively engaged within our local community to make sure we are both more sustainable and positively shaping regional decisions about the future of our local environment.
Jon’s commitment to sustainability and achieving our Net Zero goals, despite the challenges, is second to none.
Megan Light, Senior Operating Department Practitioner
Megan has been doing remarkable work in theatres to promote sustainability and reduce the carbon footprint in surgery – from encouraging recycling to making sure the team can shut down equipment overnight to reduce energy waste, and many projects in between.
She has taken on the role of sustainability lead for theatres and has implemented a number of environmentally friendly initiatives, such as a checklist to switch off equipment to close down the theatre at the end of the day.
She is also working hard to future proof our new theatres, advising on the development of the new Cancer and Surgical Innovation Centre to make it as sustainable as possible. She has carried out an audit on theatres' emergency drug usage and had discussions with pharmacy to get pre-filled emergency drugs to reduce our waste. And she’s introduced green recycling bins into every operating theatre and worked closely with our waste contactors to make sure the correct items are being recycled.
These are just a few examples of the initiatives that she has introduced with strong collaboration and zest.