31 May
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is a major provider of mental health, intellectual disability and community health services in the county.
The Trust recognises the importance of reducing air pollution associated with its activities and is committed to increase its electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure to help reduce exhaust emissions.
They applied for a grant through our Workplace Travel Service and received £21,000 to install ten new charge points. Now that the installation is complete, we asked Istvan Sereg, Energy Manager of the Trust in Nottingham, to share their experience and future plans for sustainability.
What did you apply for?
We applied for funding to expand our existing EV charging infrastructure and to more than double the number of charge points available to staff in Nottingham alone.
We also included two additional locations, in Leicestershire and Yorkshire, because there is frequent staff travel between these sites and the Trust headquarters in Nottingham.
How was the application process and ongoing support?
The web based application process was simple, easy and very user friendly. The ongoing support from the Workplace Travel Service (WTS) team was outstanding and the communication between the parties was effective right from the start and throughout the delivery phase.
Would you have considered doing what you did without the grant and support?
Local air quality and climate change are already a growing concern among the public and we are committed to reducing our environmental impact and carbon footprint. However, without the grant and support from the WTS team we would not have been able to increase the number of our charge points and start making the shift toward low emission transport and a low carbon economy so quickly and effectively.
How has it helped your business or organisation?
The EV charge points and associated engagement that has taken place has raised awareness of the wider sustainability agenda, sustainable travel options, widened understanding of climate change and helped to highlight the impact that delivering healthcare services has on the environment.
The increased number of charge points with dedicated parking spaces gives confidence to staff that they can choose more environmentally sustainable travel alternatives as they will be able to charge their ULEVs (Ultra Low Emission Vehicles) at work.
How will it benefit your business?
The charge points help to facilitate the electrification of fleet vehicles, reducing local air pollution levels and our impact on the environment, as well as delivering financial savings. This has been received positively by staff who already have ULEVs and, going forward, it will hopefully contribute positively to staff recruitment and retention. To both internal and external stakeholders it demonstrates we are committed to making changes to ensure our services are delivered sustainably.
How will it encourage growth in sustainable transport now and in the future?
We have experienced an increased uptake in EVs – the number of registered users is continuously growing and so is the number of individual charges per month (illustrated in the graph below). Our fleet vehicle provider is offering more and more ULEV models, supporting and enabling more staff to switch to green vehicles.
The additional charge points have enabled us to:
- Redistribute our existing assets, meaning that one of the existing chargers has been relocated to our Transport and Logistics Department (TLD), responsible for the delivery of services within both Nottingham and Derby city centres;
- Lease the TLD’s first EV, expected to arrive in summer 2019, supporting the transition to an electrified fleet;
Usage of charge points at the Trust Headquarters over 4 years
What’s next?
We’re planning to further expand our EV charging infrastructure due to an increasing demand at Millbrook Mental Health Unit in Mansfield, which is the centre of mental health services in the north of the county.
Secondly, since the start of the collaboration with Nottingham City Council, one of our community teams has applied for two electric pool bikes and been using them to deliver services in and around the centre of Nottingham. The feedback from staff has been very positive, so much so that another mental health team has recently expressed their interest in getting one too.
