Transforming the UK’s health sector into a Net Zero service by supporting the decarbonisation of over 14% of the NHS estate’s carbon emissions.

The UK’s health sector is one of the largest public sector emitters. NHS England and NHS Scotland have committed to delivering a Net Zero estate by 2040. To support that objective, Energy Systems Catapult has provided thinking and learning that can be adopted across the health sector to enable a consistent and more efficient method of decarbonisation.

Our knowledge has been developed through:

• programmes such as Modern Energy Partners (MEP) and supporting the NHS in Scotland where systematic approaches to decarbonisation have been developed;
• supporting the development of business cases to remove oil boilers;
• research on how to apply target operating models to unlock organisational barriers;
• scoping projects considering how to unlock key technical challenges.

The innovation

Through funding from the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), now the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) the £20 million MEP programme explored how public sector decarbonisation targets could be met, at scale, to drive efficiency and gain consistent results. This was achieved through utilising a repeatable whole systems approach to develop an end-to-end decarbonisation process. Through this programme, a range of resources (including insights, tools, templates, and guidance) have been developed and applied to a health setting. These tools developed through the Catapult’s work in MEP have proved to be robust and actionable across complex NHS sites.

After the MEP programme concluded in 2021 the Catapult has continued to work closely with the NHS. We have developed specific tools to reduce the uncertainty in implementing decarbonisation pathways and giving decision makers more data to make informed decisions on the best route to decarbonise. Through the publishing of Public Sector Decarbonisation Guidance, the NHS has access to the latest guidance and support.

The challenge

In addition to legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions by 75% by 2035 and achieve Net Zero by 2050, the UK government committed in the Prime Minister’s Ten-Point Plan to reduce direct emissions from public sector buildings by at least 50% by 2032 against a 2017 baseline. The NHS has an even more ambitious target of becoming Net Zero by 2040 for the emissions the NHS controls directly. With NHS England aiming to achieve an 80% reduction (compared with a 1990 baseline) by 2028 to 2032. NHS Scotland Health Boards are targeting an emissions reduction of 75% by 2030 against a 1990 baseline.

The NHS contributes around 4-5% of total UK carbon emissions, and is responsible for around 40% of UK public sector emissions, in 2017:

• NHS England’s emissions were 2,385,570 tCO2e
• NHS Scotland’s emissions were 508,877 tCO2e

Meeting the necessary reductions in emissions will require a scaled delivery across the NHS estate. It has been identified that a repeatable, whole-system approach would be the most efficient method.

The NHS delivers healthcare across a system of NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Systems in England, through 22 Health Boards in Scotland, seven health boards in Wales and six Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland. Ensuring consistency and learning is shared across this complex landscape will be an important challenge to overcome.

An additional challenge with working on the NHS estate, is that whilst decarbonising their operational emissions, the healthcare services and operations must be maintained.

The solution

The MEP programme, which ran between 2019 and 2021, developed a scalable, replicable methodology for the decarbonisation of campus-style sites based on the experience gained from a testbed of 42 sites, where three aspects of decarbonisation were tested. They were:

• Rapid deployment of sub-metering and data analysis;
• The creation on Concept Designs that offered each site a decarbonisation plan;
• Taking forward some no-regret measures on site.

By following this methodology sites across the NHS can benefit from the learnings of MEP and develop robust decarbonisation plans. The MEP programme developed full decarbonisation pathways for 13 NHS England Sites. At Goole and District Hospital for example, the MEP innovation pilot developed a decarbonisation plan for the site that demonstrated how a £2.8million investment could decarbonise the site by 66%.

Following the completion of MEP in 2021 the Catapult continued to work alongside the NHS across the UK to deliver:

• Created a bespoke Techno Economic Model to create Decarbonisation pathways for 12 Health Boards for NHS Scotland (with Jacobs).
• Creation of further guides and tools through the launch of Public Sector Decarbonisation Guidance.
• NHS Target Operating Model report that researched the attributes that an organisation requires to be able to decarbonise. The report drew 16 overarching conclusions to support the NHS to decarbonise.
• Creation of a GSHP screening tool that can be deployed to give an initial indication on if geothermal heating could be a viable decarbonisation option at a site.
• As part of Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) the Catapult worked with Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to test a self-serve high voltage connection tool that will allow sites to assess the grid connection costs of installing different decarbonisation technologies.
• Developing an energy data insight platform that will allow NHS sites across the UK to access an independent information source benchmarking performance of their site, giving confidence in investment decisions, and checking on operational performance of technologies once running.

Impact

Through the implementation of full decarbonisation pathways more NHS sites will be able to meet their Net Zero targets. When scaled to the whole NHS estate, the Catapult is driving a significant impact.

• 2% of energy consumption from the NHS England’s estate has been covered by MEP work
• 6% of carbon emissions from the NHS England’s estate has been covered by MEP work and further sites
• 63% of carbon emissions from NHS Scotland’s estate have been covered by the Catapult’s work with Jacobs.

Development of the GSHP screening tool and the self-serve connection tool will enable the NHS to make quicker and easier decisions on the implementation of Net Zero pathways and help ensure Net Zero goals can be reached.

Next steps

The decarbonisation process developed through MEP will continue to be adapted and applied to decarbonise the public sector. Energy Systems Catapult will continue to:

• Deliver with NHS England and the British Geological Survey a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) screening tool that will help to determine if NHS sites across England would be suitable for below ground drilling and achieve decarbonisation through installation of a GSHP.
• Working closely with Northern Power Grid through Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund the Catapult will develop and test a self-serve connection tool on a NHS site and apply for further funding to build a commercial ready model.
• Build and launch the Catapult’s new energy data insight platform that will allow a range of stakeholder to take advantage of independent energy benchmarking data to support quicker and easier decisions on how to achieve Net Zero.