Endoscopy is considered to be the third biggest contributor of carbon emissions in the hospital department, creating around 3kg of waste per bed per day. With the NHS aiming to become net zero by 2040, sustainability is a huge consideration for everything we at PFE Group do going forward.
PFE Group currently hold ISO14001 certification and as part of this we have compiled a number of KPIs to try to lower our carbon footprint.
We are always looking for different, innovative ways to become greener as a company. Our automated cleaner, the Khamsin, lowers the usage of disposables such as manual brushes, PPE, sponges, wipes, gauzes and even the plastic packaging all of these products come in.
Using local sterilisation and shortening the transportation are also helping in our goal to lowering our carbon footprint. Shorter journeys means that products can be distributed a lot quicker, which obviously helps on gaining trust from our customers.
Our intentions over the next 12 months are to lower our plastic waste even more by using recyclable packaging for our suction buttons and biopsy caps, hopefully saving at least 700kg of plastic.
We are currently in the process of completing our Carbon Reduction plan ready for April 2023. As an SME company our deadline for publishing a CRP following the Net Zero Supplier roadmap is not until April 2024, but we pride ourselves of being ahead of our counterparts and so intend to have this in place 12 months prior.
Positive Planet, a sustainability solutions agency, are also helping us calculate our carbon footprint covering scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions across our operations including:-
- Fuel usage
- Energy usage
- Company vehicles
- Unintentional/undesirable emissions
- Employee commuting
- Waste disposal
- Water usage
- Business travel
- Upstream Transportation and distribution
- Downstream transportation and distribution
- Purchases goods and services
- Leased assets
- Capital goods purchased
- Investments and pensions
Finally, we have already pre-registered for the Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment ahead of the system launch later this year, in order to engage with the NHS on our sustainability journey in the NHS Net Zero Supplier Roadmap.
With all of this in place, PFE Group are well on the way to becoming more sustainable.