Decarbonizing the Healthcare Estate: Lessons Learned from NHS Trust Green Plans in England
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Existing Strategies to Decarbonize Healthcare Estate
2.1. Reaching Net Zero Through Built Asset Management in Healthcare Estate
2.2. Implementing Heat Decarbonisation in Healthcare Estate
2.3. Switching to Renewable and Low-Carbon Sources of Energy in Healthcare Estate
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
4.1. Reaching Net Zero Through Built Asset Management in the Green Plans
4.1.1. Planning
4.1.2. Built Asset Management Strategies
4.1.3. Monitoring
4.2. Implementing Heat Decarbonisation in the Green Plans
4.2.1. Interventions on Existing Heating and Ventilation Systems
4.2.2. Low-Carbon Heating Technologies
4.2.3. Heat Loss Reduction
4.3. Switching to Renewable and Low-Carbon Sources of Energy in the Green Plans
4.3.1. No-Renewable Energy Sources Divestment
4.3.2. Generating Renewable Energy On-Site
4.3.3. Purchasing Renewable Electricity
5. Discussion
5.1. Reaching Net Zero Through Built Asset Management
5.2. Implementing Heat Decarbonisation
5.3. Switching to Renewable and Low-Carbon Sources of Energy
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
BEMSs | Building Energy Management Systems |
HDP | Heat Decarbonization Plan |
HVAC | Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning |
ICBs | Integrated Care Boards |
KPI | Key Performance Indicators |
PPAs | Power Purchasing Agreements |
REGO | Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin |
SMART | Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound |
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Pascale, F.; Tabakov, P.; Bhutta, M.F. Decarbonizing the Healthcare Estate: Lessons Learned from NHS Trust Green Plans in England. Sustainability 2025, 17, 8375. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17188375
Pascale F, Tabakov P, Bhutta MF. Decarbonizing the Healthcare Estate: Lessons Learned from NHS Trust Green Plans in England. Sustainability. 2025; 17(18):8375. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17188375
Chicago/Turabian StylePascale, Federica, Petar Tabakov, and Mahmood F. Bhutta. 2025. "Decarbonizing the Healthcare Estate: Lessons Learned from NHS Trust Green Plans in England" Sustainability 17, no. 18: 8375. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17188375
APA StylePascale, F., Tabakov, P., & Bhutta, M. F. (2025). Decarbonizing the Healthcare Estate: Lessons Learned from NHS Trust Green Plans in England. Sustainability, 17(18), 8375. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17188375