The Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG Act) (2015) means that Public Health Wales and other public bodies, must strive for a sustainable Wales. This means thinking more about the long-term, working better with people of Wales, with each other and with our communities to prevent problems and take a more joined-up approach.
The WFG Act remains pivotal to helping us to work towards a Wales where people live longer, healthier lives and where all people have fair and equal access to the things that lead to good health and well-being, now and for future generations.
As an organisation we have embraced the Sustainable Development Principles and when making decisions we take into account the impact it could have on people living their lives in Wales in the future. We will continue to apply the Five Ways of Working through the development of our Decarbonisation and
Sustainability Plan:
There is a significant link between the impacts of climate change and the health and well-being of people. IIn 2023, we identified tackling the public health effects of climate change as one of our six strategic priorities within our Long Term Strategy. Public Health Wales has a key role in reducing its own carbon footprint, not only to support the NHS Wales net zero target and deliver the relevant actions within the NHS Wales’s Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan, but also to make our contribution to reduce the impacts of climate change.
Published by NHS Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP) in March 2021, NHS Wales’s Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan (2021-2030) sets out key initiatives and targets to deliver an ambitious but achievable reduction in carbon emissions from NHS Wales’s operations including:
One of the headline commitments requires all health boards and trusts to develop Decarbonisation Action Plans, which will be updated regularly and committed to within Integrated Medium-Term Plans on a 2-yearly basis. The NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan will be assessed and reviewed in 2025 and 2030.
| NHS Wales Decarbonisation Target |
Emissions (tCO2e) |
Percentage reduction from 2018/2019 |
Cumulative savings from initiatives will total (tCO2e) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 845,600 | -16% | 459.000 |
| 2030 | 661,500 | -34% | 1,982,500 |
Achieving Net Zero means reaching a balance between Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions released into the atmosphere and the GHG emissions removed through natural carbon sinks and/or carbon offsetting. To reach net zero, GHG emissions from buildings, transport, service delivery, and procurement will have to be reduced/offset in alignment with actions set out in the NHS Wales Decarbonisation Strategic Delivery Plan in order to meet the ambition for the Welsh public sector to be collectively net zero by 2030, set out in the second carbon budget in October 2021.
Our Decarbonisation and Sustainability Plan has been co-produced, incorporating feedback and suggestions received through engagement with staff and representatives across the organisation. The Plan outlines several key milestones identified within five activity streams to support the decarbonisation of our operations:
The foundational economy work considers how we spend money in Wales and how we can make better decisions on how to spend it. NHS Wales accounts for a significant share of public spending in Wales. We want to ensure that we spend this money in a way that will benefit our people and our economy.
The Foundation Economy programme focuses on:
It looks at how and where we can procure goods and services that can help the Welsh economy and support our population. By spending our budgets in Wales, we will support Welsh companies that provide jobs and training in a local supply chain. Local supply chains are also better for our environment and more resilient to global changes.
As an employer we want to ensure that local people have opportunities to train and find work in NHS Wales and social care at all levels. This will benefit our communities further. When considering the value that our spending can add to communities, we can also affect where services are located and how different services can be placed together to make them more accessible. We are working with stakeholders and suppliers to achieve the ambition of the foundational economy programme to prioritise spending our budgets in Wales.
We have established a Foundational Economy Oversight Group which is tasked with coordinating and driving forward opportunities and activities to further develop the Foundational Economy in Wales. This is a multidisciplinary group with representation from across the organisation.
We have made significant progress in supporting the Foundational Economy over the last two years,
including:
The circular economy is an alternative to traditional linear economies. In a linear economy, we take
resources, make products, consume them, and then discard them as waste. This approach depletes finite raw materials and generates vast amounts of waste. In contrast, the circular economy aims to create a more sustainable and efficient system with the following benefits:
By adopting circular economy principles, we can become a more sustainable organisation and the is crucial for conserving resources, minimizing waste, and mitigating environmental impact. It’s a step toward a more resilient and sustainable future.
Healthy communities rely on healthy ecosystems. The ecosystems provide everything we need to survive –from clean air and water to food and medicines – and an interconnected network of plants and animals is vital to keep them functioning.
Categories and examples of ecosystem services- taken from Welsh Parliment Sendd Research, 2021 Biodiversity Research Briefing. Based on UK National Ecosystem Assessment.