The Green Nephrology Advisory Group recently voted on the top two projects to take forward in 2015-16. One of the two chosen was the development of a "Green Guide" for new facilities.
There is scope to reduce the environmental impact of many of the processes occurring within renal services. Many such opportunities have been explored by the Green Nephrology Programme and are available as case studies or ‘how to’ guides. However, the infrastructure within which these processes are occurring can be a limiting factor. For example, water salvage may be hindered by the lack of space for a storage tank. The Green Guide is intended to provide guidance to renal services developing new facilities, particularly satellite dialysis units, such that timely consideration can be given to the layout and infrastructure in order to facilitate the adoption of greener models of service delivery.
It is envisaged that the Green Guide will include considerations and recommendations relevant at the time of planning and designing new facilities and that it will support the relevance of these with brief explanations and, where possible, links to relevant case studies. There may be an opportunity to incorporate the Green Guide into the Health Building Notes (specifically Note 07-01: Satellite Dialysis Unit) if these are revised. In the interim the Green Guide will be developed in a format that is intended to be used alongside the existing Health Building Note.
Project coordinators are Dr Andy Connor (Plymouth nephrologist and Green Nephrology Fellow 2009-10) and Leo Bailey (renal matron in Reading). The group is currently working through a list of the different physical spaces within a renal unit to identify opportunities/possible recommendations relevant to each one. The next phase will be parcelling out more detailed research to feed into recommendations and signposted resources.
If you would be interested to contribute to this project please get in touch!
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