A standalone motion at health conference on Tuesday afternoon cast ahead to UNISON’s 2026 Year of Green Activity.
The motion on ‘maintaining our commitment to a greener NHS’ was moved by the chair of the health service group executive (SGE), Tanya Pretswell (pictured above).
She said: “Globally the climate crisis is accelerating. Yearly we are observing record temperatures at each extreme.
“Across the globe the impacts of the climate emergency are felt most by those at the sharp end – those who are poor and from the most marginalised and oppressed group in society.”
She noted that, “The challenges we face in achieving a greener NHS are widespread. We’ve got inefficient and outdated equipment, we’ve got leaky, drafty and crumbling buildings, we’ve got high levels of food waste and we’ve got staff who can’t afford to access greener forms of transport to get to work, to name but a few.
The motion called on the SGE to, among other things:
- engage with de-carbonisation work across the NHS,
- support branches to encourage activist involvement,
- and to produce resources and training opportunities to encourage local organising.
Ms Pretswell told conference that greening the NHS “will not be an easy task”, but fits into the greater mission embodied by the union’s decision to make 2026 its Year of Green Activity.
Find out more about what the Year of Green Activity will involve:
The article Health conference: looking forwards to the Year of Green Activity 2026 first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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