Meet Amy Greengrass, Sustainability Clinical Lead
Amy Greengrass, Paediatric Anaesthetic Consultant, is the new Clinical Lead for Sustainability. She is currently part of our Sustainability Committee who are working together to make our hospital eco-friendly and help deliver our Green Plan to get to net zero.
Amy began working with us as a Consultant in 2018. “I did a couple of bits when I first started, like starting to look at segregating waste in theatres,” she said. During her maternity leave in 2020 Amy found an increased awareness and passion for sustainability, which led her to create a presentation for the Hospital Management Board (HMB) in July 2021, where she discussed the importance of implementing sustainable practices within healthcare.
She also set up the Sustainability within Theatres Committee, a group of like-minded individuals who were interested in sustainability. “It was definitely a personal interest for us,” she added. Amy faced challenges when starting the committee as there was no proper governance structure. However, her drive to make a positive change kept her going, and she has now been appointed as the Clinical Lead for the new Sustainability Committee.
In her new role, Amy continues to push for change, such as reducing the use of unsustainable gases such as desflurane in favour of more environmentally-friendly options and leading the way for other trusts to follow. “Desflurane gas was obviously a big issue and that was something that I didn’t need anybody else’s permission to choose other techniques that have less environmental impact. And so it wasn’t very difficult to make that change.”
Amy’s work shows the importance of creating a greener culture in the NHS. She wants to encourage individuals to reach out to her and the sustainability team with their ideas for implementing sustainable practices in their departments.
One of the keys to creating a more sustainable future is to empower individuals and departments to take action. She said: “We’re here to help and to make changes. And people can reach out to us with their ideas for their departments. I’m hoping more people will reach out to us and we’ll be able to empower them to make the changes they want to see.”
Amy emphasises that making sustainable changes can feel overwhelming, but as she says, “it’s not about a small amount of people doing it perfectly, it’s about everyone doing it imperfectly. The more people engage with sustainability and make changes, the more it will become the norm.”
She champions the importance of engaging with the climate crisis and making NNUH a more sustainable and “green” place to work.
If, like Amy, you are keen to make a positive sustainable change to our Trust, get in touch with Sustainability@nnuh.nhs.uk to let us know your ideas.
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