15 ways to get cracking...
These are the top 15 areas you can start taking action on -
and join everyone else who already is.
You can also download the 15 point plan here - with thanks to
Cheshire NHS who developed the 10 point plan it's based on.
Thanks, y'all - it's good to share. :)
Each of the 15 action areas is below - with its own
bank of examples and information when you click. Enjoy!
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If you want people to take action - you gotta say why! The climate emergency is a health emergency. And the first thing to do on your journey as an active practice, is say so.
We use inhalers to help people breathe and inadvertently add to the burden on our atmosphere of carbon through the propellant. There are ways to do better ...
Once you know how much each bit of your operation is kicking out carbon, you can take action to get it down and out ...
Every practice uses energy. So that means we can control where it comes from; how much we use; and how we don't lose what we pay for through the building itself. Money, and carbon saved: double whammy!
Our banks hold our money and decide how to invest it. Almost every high street bank invests in fossil fuels, arms, tobacco and unethical labour. You can make a monumental impact by pulling your money out of that and into good projects. Overnight. Bingo.
The biggest chunk of your practice footprint is pharmaceuticals. So everything you do to manage polypharmacy, over-prescribing, and ensure social prescribing can contribute fully to patient health, is great for patients - and great for our planet. Simple as that.
Everyone is a patient somewhere - and that means loads of people who care about our climate and natural systems come through your doors. Here's how to get good green collaboration going for everyone's benefit ...
Thousands of people visit our surgeries every year. Imagine if we turned that into healthy walks and cycle rides for those who can, and delivered as many visits as possible the same way? Making the trip to the practice part of our health care!
Does what is says on the tin. Plastic, paper, equipment, food, water, energy, furniture: there's tonnes of stuff we can avoid, or repurpose, or reduce. What a great way to get everyone involved...
The Greener Impact Toolkit is tailor made for practices - and gives you a To Do List, a framework, and a sense - crucially - of making progress. Just the job - and we're here to help! Five of the top ten UK green practices are Cornish: are you the sixth? :)
We can't say enough about how much joy and human and planetary health is being sown left, right and centre as practice after practice is seeing the staff and patient and nature co-benefits of creating beautiful green spaces... find out more here!
What we eat, how it's grown, where it's grown, and who it's grown by, has monumental impacts on human, and planetary health. Time to join the food and climate and health dots ...
GP practices aren't isolated islands in an ocean - they're a deep-rooted part of a complex community. Making the most of that role, and collaborating with communities on climate and nature, is worth its weight in gold ...
This collective effort to grapple with our climate and nature crises is fundamentally one of inspiring each other to take action. There are tonnes of ways of doing this - find out more here...
Advocacy is about speaking up, giving others a platform, and using our voices to work towards a better future for us all. And there are a million ways of doing this ...