Climate & carbon

In 2022 we continued carrying out 8-week energy reduction workshops for 40 of our larger sites to develop carbon reduction roadmaps and drive the reductions needed to achieve our goal. Our larger sites develop and report on their carbon reduction roadmaps as part of an annual governance process, and it is our priority to execute the planned reduction projects identified in these roadmaps. We have an internal fund to support carbon reduction projects and during 2021/2022 this mechanism financed projects that we anticipate will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by over 15,000 metric tons. This fund is continuing to finance reduction projects and we are starting to see the impact, anticipating increased carbon reductions in 2023 as more projects are completed.

We have a global fleet of over 10,000 vehicles. The largest proportion of these are for our service engineers to carry tools and parts for installation and servicing of hospital equipment. In 2021, we started the process of transitioning vehicles in North America and Europe to electric and hybrid vehicles. We are also exploring other efficiency options to try and reduce the environmental footprint of our fleet, such as servicing equipment remotely. In 2022, we have continued to optimize our vehicle use and extend our transition to electric vehicles as availability of suitable vehicles and recharging infrastructure makes it a viable option. We have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from our fleet around 12% compared with our 2019 baseline.

Our carbon reduction strategy includes transitioning to renewable energy sources, and we are increasing our purchase of renewable energy. In 2021 we moved all our UK sites onto renewable energy, and in 2022 we are continuing to execute our roadmap to increase renewable energy purchase across all regions.