environmental strategies for healthcare providers

Introduction

This page concerns environmental strategies for companies in the private healthcare sector, focusing on organisations which need specialist equipment, materials and environments in which to deliver their services.

It therefore includes a wide range of practitioners, from small dentist surgeries to large hospitals.

If your healthcare company offers therapies without the extensive use of specialist equipment (psychologists, osteopaths, physiotherapists etc.), please refer to the section on services companies.

Whether or not taking action on the environment is worth doing right now will depend primarily upon the moral stance of your staff and management and, perhaps most importantly, the impact on demand for your services.

The usual starting point is for us to create a tailor-made Environmental Strategy Report for your company, to serve as a framework within which you can outline your ambitions, quantify your emissions and assess progress on your various positive actions.

The second part of the process is the attainment of carbon certification, the primary mechanism through which you can broadcast your environmental achievements.

Carbon certification is usually achieved through the purchase of carbon credits (most commonly from tree-planting projects), with the required quantity being determined by the annual calculation of your emissions and the level of certification that you select.

With the particularly high levels of trust required by customers in this sector, positive environmental messaging can lead to benefits which far outweigh the modest costs of taking action.

When it comes to carbon offsetting, healthcare providers are often in quite an unusual situation, with a high proportion of the carbon footprint being created by buildings and other long-term investments in equipment, which can be amortised over a reasonable lifespan.

For this type of company there are three levels of certification.

Carbon aware

Carbon aware is the entry level certification. It tends to work well for companies which are just getting started with the whole process and want to keep their initial expenditure to a minimum.

Being carbon aware means that you simply offer your customers the option to offset the carbon footprint of the hospitality products that they buy from you, which typically adds around 0.2-0.8% to the invoice value.

If a customer chooses not to take up the offsetting option, the product’s carbon debt remains unpaid.

This type of certification is rarely worth considering for healthcare companies, since customers tend not to react positively to a visible carbon surcharge being added to their bill, even if it is optional.

If you think this might work for you, then let’s discuss it. In the meantime we will move on to other more commonly recommended options.

Carbon neutral certification

Carbon Neutral is a popular level of certification amongst accommodation companies and is suited to a very wide range of forward-thinking brands.

Being carbon neutral means that you offset the carbon footprint of your company infrastructure, but you do not take responsibility for the carbon generated by your product (which remains the responsibility of your customers).

It’s a great place for most companies to start, usually being simple to achieve and relatively low cost.

Carbon neutral status is achieved through the payment of an annual fee, based upon our assessment of your carbon footprint.

For a healthcare provider that typically includes the carbon emissions resulting from your administration buildings, indirect staff, overheads and associated extras.

It does not usually include your service delivery buildings (hospitals, clinics, treatment rooms etc.), direct staff, customer consumables and associated costs, which are considered parts of the ‘product’.

Depending on your brand, products and customer expectations, you may also choose to offer your customers the chance to offset the carbon footprint of the products that they buy from you. This can be done in on the voluntary basis described in the Carbon Aware section above or on the more onerous way described in the Carbon Free section below. But this is not an obligation under Carbon Neutral certification.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. If you choose to go Carbon Neutral, that usually falls in the range GBP 275-525 / USD 330-630 per employee, depending on your level of emissions. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Carbon free certification

Carbon Free is the highest level of certification.

It is usually associated with companies which have environmental values deeply embedded in their brand strategy and whose customers who are highly responsive to positive environmental messaging.

For the right type of healthcare provider, carbon free status can be a very powerful motivating factor for customers, delivering commercial advantages which far outweigh the relatively modest costs.

Going carbon free means that you take full responsibility for the carbon footprints created by both your company infrastructure and the healthcare products that you sell.

The infrastructure footprint is usually offset by the direct purchase of carbon credits by the company.

The product footprint can be charged to the customer visibly or invisibly on their invoices, or simply wrapped into the prices and paid directly by the company.

For healthcare providers we usually recommend that you do not include visible carbon surcharges in your invoices, but instead simply roll the additional cost into the headline price.

This typically adds around 0.3-0.6% to your prices, so should not be a major factor if your brand is strong and your product is suitably differentiated.

It is usual to pay for the offsetting of you infrastructure up front, but the offsetting of the product is usually done retrospectively at the end of a convenient accounting period, after you have received payment from your customers. So it’s actually cash positive.

The required number of tropical trees will be planted in advance, so there’s no delay in getting your carbon sequestration underway.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. You may also like us to assist with implementing your Surcharge Process for around GBP 1000 / USD 1200. The cost of purchasing carbon credits can vary enormously (depending on your company description and the level of take-up from your customers), but typically falls in the range 0.0-0.6% of turnover. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Next section

Services and costs

In this article we describe the services that we offer and the process through which we would guide you, on the way to fulfilling your environmental ambitions.