What a whirlwind couple of months it has been! There seems to be a real appetite for sustainable anaesthesia now which is great to see. We’ve had a few exciting developments that have come to the fore since the Association of Anaesthetists’ Annual Congress at the beginning of September. This saw the launch of the Green Star Awards – our first step in embedding sustainability into the abstract marking process at the Association and a great example of their commitment to promoting sustainable anaesthesia on a national level.
What is the Green Star Award?
The Green Star Award aims to recognise and acknowledge work which demonstrates embedding of sustainable anaesthetic practices. As part of this pilot project, members of the Association’s Environmental and Sustainability committee reviewed all abstracts accepted to this conference. Those which suggested a consideration of sustainability within their projects were reviewed and scored against the following criteria:
- Originality
- Financial impact
- Social impact
- Environmental impact
- Implementation and scope
The collated scores were used to determine which of these longlisted abstracts had demonstrated a consideration of sustainability within their projects and these were shortlisted for informal poster review and discussion by a small panel during Annual Congress. All shortlisted posters received a green star rosette with the top poster and project receiving the inaugural Green Star Award.
How will this feed into strategic work on sustainable anaesthesia?
The shortlisted posters will help to feed in work being done by our network of Environmental Champions and the creation of a Case Studies Library – sharing of amazing locally embedded sustainable projects and giving them a national platform so that other departments can see how people have got these projects off the ground and kept them moving forward. This will allow us as a speciality to get up to speed as a nation with sustainability and minimise re-invention of the wheel, something which is so important in the time-poor environments that we are trying to evoke a positive change in.
Dr Cathy Lawson, Association of Anaesthetists and Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Fellow in Environmentally Sustainable Anaesthesia, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals.
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