Trust seals national award for work on eco-friendly travel
University Hospitals of Derby and Burton has received national recognition for helping patients, visitors and staff to travel green around our hospitals.
The Trust has introduced a number of different initiatives to promote eco-friendly travel, such as offering incentives for staff that car share or choose to walk and cycle to work, rather than drive.
A Travel Plan is also created each year, which informs people of the most effective and efficient ways of travelling between the Trust’s hospitals, whilst also giving a breakdown of how staff currently make their way to work.
This work has now been recognised by the Energy Saving Trust, who awarded UHDB the Smart Travel Hero Eco-Driving Award at its annual Fleet Heroes Awards.
Andrea Booth, Transport Officer for the Trust, said: “This is not the first award we’ve won this year, but it is always brilliant to win another or even to be nominated. Our Travel Plan won the Transport and Travel Award at the NHS Sustainability Awards in May this year and we also won the Green World Environmental Award and received World Ambassador Status in 2017.”
The Travel Plan is a document which gives staff, visitors and patients the most effective and efficient ways of traveling to and from the Trust’s Derby sites, and gives a detailed breakdown as to how staff make their way to work at present.
Andrea said: “At the moment, 51% of our staff travel in single occupancy vehicles, whilst 20% use public transport and 15% walk. Our biggest challenge is getting staff out of their cars and onto buses, but this can be very difficult.
“I’ve been working on the Travel Plan for the past 10 years and it is constantly evolving to try to make getting to work easier, especially via public transport. I have worked with Arriva to change the routes of the number 5 and 5a buses to ensure they pass the Royal Derby, which makes things easier, but we constantly need to keep evolving and working on the Travel Plan to make more improvements.”
The Trust has also introduced a number of measures to encourage greener transport; including installing e-Bikes at the Royal Derby Hospital and opening the side gate to allow for more convenient pedestrian access to the site from King’s Drive.
However, there is yet more work and evolution in the pipeline for Andrea and her team.
She said: “Next year, the Travel Plan will be totally different, as we incorporate the sites in Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth: we will have to look at things in a different way. At the Royal Derby, we will also be working to install more electric car charging points and potentially bringing in a new bus route between the Derby and Burton sites.
Matthew Eastwood, Head of Transport at Energy Saving Trust, said: “In this pivotal year for zero emission vehicles which has seen the publication of the Government’s ambitious Road to Zero Strategy and Birmingham playing host the world’s first international Zero Emission Vehicle Summit, the 13th Fleet Heroes Awards and Conference highlights the extent to which zero emission vehicles are becoming more and more widely adopted into fleet operations, as well as what further innovative developments can be expected over the next five years.
“Congratulations to all the individuals and fleets recognised as Fleet Heroes at the 2018 awards. All are leading the way with their work to reduce carbon emissions and tackle air quality issues and can rightly be held up as shining examples of best in class.”