Improving Staff Engagement With Sustainability

The climate crisis is forcing the need for change within healthcare to reduce carbon footprint. As part of our sustainability drive within the Ophthalmology department of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals we have been actively engaging staff members with the process. We have no grants, financial support or proprietary interest.

Ophthalmology department within a large teaching hopsital proving cataract surgery

For the past six months we have sent regular emails about sustainability to the Ophthalmology department particularly regarding the cataract surgery pathway. Emails have explained changes made and given suggestions of ways individuals could change their habits. The format was deliberately informal and concise. We also launched a “Cleaner Cataract Commute Challenge” to encourage staff members to travel to work in a less carbon intensive way (e.g. bike, bus, car share), this was run over two months with sustainable prizes for the winners of each month.

We then conducted a survey of all ophthalmology doctors and cataract staff looking at awareness and support of our sustainability drive.

The commute challenge was well received and had over 20 participants with 88 return journeys completed in a more sustainable way. This initiative will be published in the trust Staff Engagement & Wellbeing Newsletter.

We had 30 staff survey responses with 90% of respondents saying they were aware of sustainability initiatives and changes made, and 100% felt that the sustainability was important and supported the drive.

Our staff engagement programme has been a great success so far, we have plans to run a similar scheme for staff working in outpatient clinics.