This year we’re celebrating the season in a new way by supporting the NHS Forest - with a pledge to plant a tree for each of the 625 medical centre buildings we own.
NHS Forest is a green space project organised by The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. They aim to help with sustainable healthcare research and practice to national and local programmes.
The NHS Forest project works with healthcare professionals and organisations to make green spaces available for health purposes.
Their range of programmes seeks to inspire healthcare professionals to use green space to improve patients' lifestyles and aid recovery processes.
Since 2009, over 200 NHS sites around the UK have joined the NHS Forest network – a nationwide good practice network for improving and increasing the use of green space in healthcare for social and environmental benefit. As of 2021, the sites have also planted over 77,000 trees.
Claire Rick, our Head of Public Affairs, said: “We wanted to avoid adding to the mountain of packaging and delivery miles that Christmas involves and given the NHS’s big ambition to become the world’s first net zero carbon health system, supporting the NHS Forest seemed like a great alternative. It’s a way to mark the festive season for everyone working in our buildings across the country, at the same time as helping to build green spaces for the future at NHS sites.”
