EMSOL selected by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust as part of the TfL Freight Lab trials to monitor delivery-related air pollution
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has made a firm commitment to reduce their environmental impact, aiming to be “an NHS leader in environmental sustainability”.
Air pollution is now considered to be the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK and addressing this problem is a firm part of the Trust’s sustainability efforts.
The aim of the project is to test and showcase the EMSOL platform at both Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals. The Trust is very conscious of the public health impact from fleet and supply chain pollution. They hope that identifying which vehicles, drivers and/or suppliers are the main contributors, will help them to better understand and therefore reduce their impact on local air pollution.
This project with EMSOL and the Trust is timely. World leaders at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow are highlighting the urgent need for environmental action across the globe. As the Clean Air Fund has shown, action on air pollution should be an explicit priority in climate action to make policies bolder, faster and more effective.
In advance of COP26, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a list of recommendations for action from the meeting, one of which is the adoption of the new 2021 WHO Air Quality Guidelines.
The latest guidelines come from an evaluation of the latest scientific research and recommend up to 3x lower limits on pollution levels. A move which would greatly improve urban health outcomes.
1 in 3 GP surgeries and 1 in 4 hospitals in England are located in areas that exceed the level of PM2.5 deemed safe by the 2005 WHO standard. This raises the need for action from organisations and as pollution from road transport is a leading cause of poor air quality, it is a great place to start.
The NHS is looking to be an environmental leader and has specifically declared its ambition to reduce transport pollution. By adopting improved standards and a drive to low to zero pollution, the NHS believes it can have a multiplier effect across the supply chain, using its power of procurement to drive reductions and ultimately lower emissions.
EMSOL will provide the Trust with specific insights to reduce pollution by fusing air quality data and vehicle presence. Air quality breaches will be identified and attributed, where possible, to specific activity in real-time to enable the Trust and their supply chain to take immediate and daily action to improve the local environment.
The trial will explore how targeted pollution identification can help meet the Trust’s sustainability and Greener NHS targets. These targets are inspiring and ambitious and EMSOL is proud to be involved.
Freddie Talberg, EMSOL CEO said, “We are excited to work with the Trust to reduce pollution and hope to help drive a new greeer standard within the fleet and supply chain”.
Contact:
Web: EMSOL.IO
Address: Ben Fielden, EMSOL, 25 Lavington Street, London, SE1 0NZ
Email: ben.fielden@emsol.io
Call: 020 3982 9440
