As all eyes are on COP26 and attempts to reduce carbon emissions, procurement teams at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have been quietly working on how to access renewed and refurbished products and materials as part of the ‘circular economy’. Using the Warp It platform – a resource reuse and management system, designed to make it easy for employees to give surplus work items to other individuals inside the health board – the team are now close to almost £3 million worth of cost avoidance, by re-using goods.
The Warp It system includes listings of reusable furniture, fixtures and fittings which are no longer needed and can be used elsewhere in the organisation. Many unwanted items are often thrown out, however, Warp It makes transfer of ownership quick and easy. NHSGGC is Scotland’s biggest health board and one of the country’s biggest employers with more than 38,000 staff – which means savings from reuse can be substantial.
Elaine Gray, NHSGGC Purchasing Lead, has been using the system since 2017. She said: “We have to think differently in procurement right across the organisation and embrace sustainable procurement. Now if I was going out to buy something, if something was in my house, I’m not going to get rid of it because there’s something that’s slightly wrong with it. I’m going to try and fix it. That’s what we have to do in the health service. We have to think differently and ask just because there’s slight damage on a desk or a chair, how do we go about fixing that rather than replacing it?”
By reusing equipment, you can reduce both disposal costs and our carbon footprint. Re-using furniture and office supplies saves money spent on purchasing new equipment and helps to free-up the space occupied by unused equipment. In addition to financial savings, Warp It has enabled NHSGGC to divert nearly 18,000kg of waste from landfill.
Every item transferred saves on carbon emissions as buying new is the last resort, ensuring resources are not wasted. Each item is given carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) value (KG) using established references and methods.
Carbon saved within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde equals 470,220 KG (as of August 2021), or equal to:
• 55,446,543 smart phones fully charged,
• 102 cars driven for one year,
• 1,145,553 miles driven by an average passenger car,
• Equivalent to 624 trees and 198 cars.