Green Nephrology in the BMJ! Commenting on a Green Nephrology study into savings from green initiatives in kidney units, National Clinical Director for Kidney Care, Dr Donal O'Donoghue, said "it’s not unreasonable to expect approaching £1 billion per year saving if the enthusiasm and focused work of the kidney community spread across the whole NHS."
The NHS Forest at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust planted 50 trees which were funded by exchanging mobile phones collected as part of climate week in 2012. Some of the trees were planted on site at the trust, the others nearby at Sandwell Valley.
Why not sponsor a tree to mark the start of 2013- it could be one New Year's resolution that is easy to keep! The NHS Forest has launched a new online tree sponsorship system and an easy to use online shop to select the preferred healthcare site where your tree could be planted. All trees sponsored will be native and planted in on a healthcare estate in the UK. For more information please use the following link www.nhsforest.org/sponsor
The NHS Forest is taking part in NHS Sustainability Day on the 28th March 2013 running our campaign planting 2 trees at 2pm which was very successful in 2012. We already have a number of NHS Forest sites keen to get involved and are able to provide whips from our tree sponsorship scheme to all trusts interested in taking part. We have so far 25 trusts who have registered to do some tree planting on the day with some planting over 100 trees.
Staff from NHS trusts across Kent and Medway donned wellies to plant trees in the largest NHS Forest site in the country.
Family, friends and dogs accompanied the staff for the planting day at the new area of woodland at West Farleigh in Maidstone. The woodland is being planted as part of the national NHS Forest project which aims to ensure one tree is planted for every NHS employee in the country – a total of 1.3 million trees.
With 3,700 trees now planted at the site, the Maidstone woodland has been named as the largest NHS Forest site in the country.
Radio 4 broadcast a timely and very interesting programme about the Healing Power of trees discussing the case study in Telford run by the Small Woods Assocation, one of our project partners.
National Tree Week organised by the Tree council, is running from the 24th November to the 3rd December to mark the start of the tree planting season. It provides a great way to showcase your work and to get more people involved in planting trees at your site. Do share activities and ideas with the NHS Forest team.
Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust held an apple harvest day as part of their gardening initatives to promote active lifestyles and more sustainable living. The event involved volunteers picking apples from the site's orchard and distributing them to the Step Down Unit. Volunteers included staff, local residents, partner groups and campers from a local site. An apple juicer was provided by the Abundance project so pickers were able to taste the produce too!
Elizabeth Harrison, Lead for the Grown Your Own project said of the day:
