Sustainable Healthcare: Greening the NHS and Climate Resilience

Rachel has been working on the intersection of health and the environment for the past 18 years since she founded The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) in 2008. Her team at CSH is supporting the transformation of healthcare in the UK and internationally for a sustainable future.  

Rachel has a first degree in Human Sciences from Oxford where her interest in systems thinking and population health was stimulated by Muir Gray. Her interest has always been in working across disciplines on complex problems.

Following an MSc in Demography from the LSE, she worked in public health in the UK. She then spent 5 years in Moscow, Georgia and Kazakhstan where she worked for Save the Children, The Norwegian Refugee Council, UNDP, UNICEF and the Red Cross on projects including capacity building for the government, running household surveys and writing the Human Development Report.

Moving back to Oxford, she helped to develop The Cochrane Library for its first ten years which gave her a thorough understanding of evidence-based medicine, an appreciation of the importance of methodology, and practical experience of how to integrate evidence with healthcare guidelines and policy.   

She remains interested in the best use of good quality evidence for maximum impact of our scarce resources and in creative partnerships to achieve change.

She is also a founding Director of the Community Interest Company, Global Healthcare Information Network and is on several Advisory Groups.

I am Clinical Director of Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire NHS at home service, Clinical Governance lead for the surgical division in North Bristol NHS trust and a vascular surgeon by trade. I am passionate about the role that innovation can play in creating more time to care. 

Judith has over 25 years of experience in procurement across both the public and private sectors. She has spent much of her career working within the NHS and wider health sector and is passionate about ensuring that the patient and public voice is reflected in procurement activities. She has worked across a broad range of specialisms, procuring goods and services across a variety of categories. In her role at HQIP, she is responsible for the strategic development, operation, and management of the organisation’s procurement function.

Garry Perry is a leading voice in patient experience and co‑design across The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. He is the creator of the nationally award‑winning Little Voices programme and a key contributor to the Patient Experience Enabling Strategy 2025–2028, championing approaches that place lived experience at the centre of improvement.

Garry’s recent work includes supporting the Stroke Rehabilitation Transformation Model, engaging directly with stroke survivors and families to listen, involve, and embed their insights into redesigned care pathways. His commitment to meaningful participation also spans Community Paediatrics, ensuring children, young people, and families shape the services they rely on.

Recognised for his practical, compassionate, and inclusive approach, Garry advocates that “better outcomes start with better listening.”

Professor Scarlett McNally OBE BSc MB BChir FRCS(Tr&Orth) MA MBA FAcadMEd HonMFPH MRSPH FRSM FMWF

Consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Eastbourne, Honorary Clinical Professor at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and BMJ columnist (see all 67 articles FREE at: https://www.bmj.com/search/advanced/mcnally). OBE 2026 for services to Medicine, Surgery and the NHS. Previously an elected Council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (2011-21), past-President of the Medical Women’s Federation (2023-25) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Perioperative Care (2020-26).

Perioperative care = patient preparation + shared decision-making + team-working + pathways. This can halve complications. 

Lead author for the Academy’s Exercise the miracle cure and The Bristol Declaration linking transport and health. Frequent speaker and writer - on careers, diversity, respect, bullying, sustainability, perioperative care, pathways, myeloma, exercise, active travel, leadership and how to fix the NHS. See www.scarlettmcnally.co.uk. #100WomenInCycling 2024. Patient, mother, surgeon.

Clare is the net zero programme lead in the North West region, supporting the three integrated care systems with delivery of the programme ambitions. The programme has 9 areas of focus: Workforce & Leadership,  Clinical Transformation, Digital Transformation, Medicines, Travel & Transport, Estates & Facilities, Supply Chain & Procurement, Food & nutrition and Climate Adaptation.

Clare joined the NHS in September 2020 as the Sustainability Manager for Salford Clinical Commissioning Group before moving to a regional role in January 2022. 

Prior to joining the NHS, Clare started her career as the Environmental Officer at Nottinghamshire County Council before spending 10 years with NHS Supply Chain as the Corporate Environment Manager and then Sustainable Operations Manager.  Clare also spent 8 years working independently, providing environmental management advice to organisations as well as external auditing to ISO 14001 the environmental management system standard.

Clare holds a master’s degree in Pollution and Environmental Control from the University of Manchester, and a BSc (Hons) in Agricultural and Environmental Science from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.  Clare is a Chartered Environmentalist and a Full member of ISEP (Institute of Sustainability & Environmental Professionals).

20 years+ experience in sustainable retrofit and renewable energy systems, now Head of Sustainability for South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. Main activities include leading the Trust’s strategic response to Net Zero legislation, writing and implementing the Trust’s Green Plan and Carbon Reduction Plan; sourcing capital investment from National Energy Efficiency Fund and GB Energy; sustainability reporting; helping procurement reduce supply chain emissions and leading the programme to install electric vehicle chargers across the estate to support the transition to an electric fleet.

Chris Naylor is a Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund and the Policy Lead at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. He leads The King’s Fund’s work on climate change and sustainability and has extensive experience on sustainable health care including as a consultant to the World Health Organization. In previous roles he has worked at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and the Public Health Foundation of India in Delhi.

Anna-Lisa Mills is the Sustainability Manager at Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Foundation Trust (part-time) and also Executive Director at SmartCarbon Ltd (part-time).

With a specialism in Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Carbon Footprinting, Anna-Lisa has experience of supporting companies across a range of sizes and sectors, including NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Universities, Housing Associations, Architects Practices, Construction and manufacturing companies.

Her role at the Newcastle Hospitals is to deliver on the Trust Climate Emergency commitments in areas such including Procurement, Greenspaces and Biodiversity, Clean Air and Climate Adaptation, leading on the goal to reach Net Zero across the full supply chain by 2040.

Anna-Lisa is a Chartered Environmentalist and a Fellow Member of the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals (ISEP). She has completed Al Gore’s training programme to become a Climate Reality Leader.  Anna-Lisa is an Associate Lecturer at Northumbria University, teaching on the environmental management degree and masters courses. Anna-Lisa is the author and lead tutor for the ISEP approved Carbon Footprinting (GHG Accounting), Net Zero targets and Carbon Reduction Planning for Organisations course, delivered through Northumbria University.

Aly has been a midwife for 30 years. After studying French at university (spending her year abroad in Senegal), her path into midwifery began shortly after becoming a mother herself. Since qualifying, she’s worked across a range of settings – both in hospitals and the community – first on the south coast of England, where she’s from, and later in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Aly worked in research delivery for 12 years before taking up her current role within the Trust’s Sustainability team, where she has been leading on the Born Green Generation pilot project, alongside colleagues from Great Ormond Street Hospital, and a French and group of Danish hopsitals. This is a maternity sustainability project from Healthcare Without Harm Europe, which aims to reduce exposure to plastics and toxic chemicals in the first 1000 days.

In her current role, Aly has led projects to reduce single use plastics within her maternity unit. This is delivering financial savings alongside reducing the environmental impact of maternity care and infants’ exposure to toxic chemicals contained within plastics.

Away from work, Aly is a keen allotment gardener and enjoys getting away in her motorhome with her husband and her well travelled cat, spending time in the beautiful British countryside.  

Having built up a career in the fields of Environmental Management and Sustainability, over 17 years in the construction and manufacturing sectors, in 2019 I decided I needed a fresh perspective, aligned with my personal sense of purpose and jumped headlong into the Health Care sector. What a time and place to jump!

For me Sustainability has always been much more than a job, it is the personal choices, and values I live and the recognition of the interconnected ecosystem all life resides in. It is a core part of who and what I am.

Clare is a registered nurse, and Head of Clinical Procurement for two Black Country acute trusts. After eight years spent influencing greener procurement, Clare co‑chairs the Dept. of Health and Social Care "Design for Life" priority adoption groups — blending clinical expertise and sustainability knowledge with practical delivery to shape national policy.

In my role at NHS England, I am responsible for the delivery of supply chain decarbonisation across the NHS's 80,000 suppliers, and work with the supply chain, NHS Trusts, and the wider system to deliver meaningful change. In addition to working towards net zero carbon, the work I lead seeks to stamp out modern slavery in the healthcare supply chain, as well as deliver social value and ensure local communities benefit from health care spend.
I am a confident and strategic sustainability and net zero carbon specialist who has led on embedding net zero and sustainable development across several organisations, including the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and the health system of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

I am a persuasive communicator with expertise in strategy development and execution, heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency, including framework development for the acceleration of zero carbon technologies, circular economy, sustainable purchasing, social value, legislation and policy as well as carbon literacy.