Greener Practice

The Grove Medical Centre is delighted to be signed up to the Green Impact for Health Toolkit and is actively taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint. The climate emergency is also a health emergency, and health care in the UK contributes 5.4% of the UK's carbon emissions. We need to enhance the health of our current population without compromising the health of future generations, and this means operating within the sustainable boundaries of the planet.

The Grove Medical Centre is delighted to be signed up to the Green Impact for Health Toolkit and is actively taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint. The climate emergency is also a health emergency, and health care in the UK contributes 5.4% of the UK's carbon emissions. We need to enhance the health of our current population without compromising the health of future generations, and this means operating within the sustainable boundaries of the planet.

Fortunately most of the solutions for the planet also make our health better - for example eating a mainly plant-based diet, engaging in active travel and exercise in nature, avoiding smoking, reducing pollution etc all enhance our health and reduce our need for medications, with further benefits to the NHS, your health and the carbon footprint of healthcare. Take a look at www.greenerpractice.co.uk to learn more about this.

As part of our drive, we are trying to minimalise the number of paper letters sent out by, or on behalf of, the practice.

Using email or phone text alternatives is a less resource intensive alternative than sending letters with plastic window envelopes in the post.

Tens of millions of envelopes are sent to landfill each year because they contain plastic windows. While these can be recycled through some recycling schemes, some schemes do not accept them.

According to 'How Bad Are Bananas' by Mike Berners-Lee, the carbon footprint of a delivered letter is about 20 grams of carbon dioxide, whereas an email (without big attachments) uses 4 grams, an 80% reduction!

Therefore, where we can we will email or text any letter to you as an attachment in future. You can help us by making sure we have your up-to-date email address and mobile number (if you don’t think we already have it, please email us with your details: reception.thegrovemedcentre@nhs.net– this email address is not to be used for medical questions).

We appreciate that not all our patients will have email addresses or mobile phones and please be assured this will not disadvantage you, however, where we can, we must start to make this change.