An academic and sustainability champion has contributed to the first NHS resource empowering Allied Health Professionals to embed sustainability into their practice.
Dr Clare Pettinger, Lecturer in Public Health Dietetics at the University of Plymouth, shared her research and practice on sustainable food systems to inform the co-creation of the NHS Greener Allied Health Professional hub.
Allied Health Professionals, or AHPs, comprise of 14 disciplines, ranging from physiotherapists and dietitians, to radiographers and paramedics. As the third largest clinical workforce in the NHS, AHPs are hoped to play an important role in the strategy to deliver a Net Zero NHS.
Dr Pettinger has worked with the British Dietetic Association to co-produce its One Blue Dot campaign, highlighting how dietitians can be leaders in raising awareness of how food and diet contribute to climate change. She is also currently co-leading a UKRI-funded project on the 'Co-production of healthy, sustainable food systems for disadvantaged communities'.
She added:
"What this work has really highlighted to me is how collaboration is so important. We all have a role to play. Every little effort or change we make individually creates a collective movement for transformational change."
The launch of the Greener AHP Hub coincides with the 'One year on' campaign run by the Greener NHS team, acknowledging and sharing the progress that the NHS has made one year since becoming the world's first health service to commit to reaching net zero carbon emissions, in the lead up to COP26 - the world's largest climate action conference.
In addition to the new hub, also view Dr Pettinger's blog written for the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare - Sustainable eating: how Allied Health Professionals can reduce the environmental impact of food and diet.
