How can healthcare buildings be delivered sustainably? In the UK the NHS aims to achieve net zero by 2050, but the embodied carbon in a new hospital structure could be as much as 16,500t – the equivalent of 300 million single use coffee cups.
This guide sets out the challenge facing the NHS and lays out how simple steps, taken early in the design process, can dramatically reduce both the embodied and operational carbon footprint of newbuild and refurbished hospitals.
It shows how early consideration of carbon maximises the impact design decisions can have on achieving net zero. It’s only by engineering low carbon options from the outset that estate managers and architects can deliver a carbon neutral NHS.
