Green ICU Team shares sustainability successes in new resource for UK Intensive Care Units
27 March 2025
'The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainability Recipe Book' is a new, practical guide designed to help Intensive Care Units (ICUs) reduce their carbon footprint.
Produced by the University of Brighton, the Intensive Care Society (ICS), the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM), and the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance (UKCCNA) with funding from the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), the guide will be distributed to every ICU across the UK - giving them the key ‘ingredients’ and ‘methods’ to cut waste and increase sustainability.
The guide features case studies from Cardiff and Vale UHB's Green ICU Team, spotlighting its experience of seeking to reduce waste, conserve energy and make financial savings.
These initiatives include:
- reusing unopened ventilation bags instead of disposing of them
- unplugging fully charged machines and installing LED lighting
- replacing medical sterile water with standard drinking water
With patients often on ventilators, being fed through a tube and requiring round-the-clock monitoring, Intensive Care Units are one of the most resource-intensive areas of healthcare. The guide tackles topics such as prevention, patient and family empowerment and low-carbon alternatives. Structured like a recipe book, each section offers step-by-step methods and ingredients for implementing change.
Dr Jack Parry-Jones, Chair of the Green ICU Team, Consultant in Adult Intensive Care Medicine and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine said: “People, Planet and Profit. Each element of this triple bottom line is vital, with this recipe book providing some of the necessary tools for critical care multi-disciplinary teams to contribute to preserving a planet worth surviving critical illness for, to reduce waste, and improve efficiency.”
The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainability Recipe book is available to download here.
Photo: Members of the Green ICU team, Clinical Development Nurse Jacqueline Sweetingham, Dr Jack Parry-Jones and Quality and Safety Lead Hayley Valentine