A special project to assess Eden Valley Hospice and Jigsaw, Cumbria’s Children’s Hospice’s carbon footprint and explore ways to make the charity more energy efficient has been completed.
With energy bills rising sharply over the last two years, the hospice is keen to explore ways it can reduce costs, meaning more of the money it raises can go directly to providing care for local patients, and reduce its impact on the environment.
Julie Clayton, hospice CEO, said: “Our building is now over 30 years old and has been added to over the years and our system could be a lot more efficient.
“As bills have tripled over the last year, we have been really focused on how we can become more sustainable. We can’t simply switch the heating off, keeping our patients comfortable is a priority.”
The work has been carried out by MBA student Aniket Deshpande, of Lancaster University, through the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation’s ECO-I NW Programme funded through the European Regional Development Fund and the Northern Powerhouse.
Julie added: “Aniket has brought fresh eyes to the issue and challenged us to think about things differently. To make some real investment in doing things differently we now have a clear understanding of our energy use and carbon footprint – a baseline from which we can improve.”
Aniket said: “It was a really interesting challenge working with the hospice. Patient rooms have to be kept comfortable and as a 24/7 health facility it must remain resilient at all times.”
The report found energy usage could be cut by retrofitting parts of the hospice building to make it more energy efficient.
It has also indicated potential options to generate or offset energy use through solar energy, ground source heating or combined heat and power, a highly efficient process that captures and utilises the heat that is a by-product of the electricity generation process.
It also recommended exploring green financing options for our sustainable initiatives to make it more economically viable.
