Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) has secured around £100,000 in funding for a partnership that will deliver a ‘Green Theatre’ project and help the trust to deliver on its carbon-neutral, ‘next zero’ target by 2030.
The funding from SBRI Healthcare is part of a ‘Delivering a Net Zero NHS’ competition, with this pilot project one of 10 across England to have been selected to receive the financial award.
The purpose of the funding is to ‘bring benefits to patients and care service users, whilst reducing carbon emissions’, with the Royal Cornwall project to focus on making theatres more sustainable.
In partnership with the trust, Rutherford Research Ltd.’s Revolution -ZERO will use the £99,689 to develop sustainable solutions to replace disposable PPE, drapes and other textiles that are used during surgical procedures.
The re-usable materials will also be processed and manufactured with zero waste and zero carbon emission footprints.
Thom Lafferty, Director of Strategy and Performance at RCHT, said: “We’re excited to have been awarded funding for this partnership project to take forward our ground-breaking ‘Green Theatre’ innovation; it has the potential to be a real game-changer for the NHS.”
