Green endoscopy

What is green endoscopy?

Green endoscopy is the practice of gastroenterology that aims to reduce environmental impact, carbon footprint and high waste generation of endoscopy.

Healthcare generates a surprisingly large carbon footprint and endoscopy itself is a significant contributor as well as being the third highest generator of waste in healthcare facilities (source).

Here at JAG, we are passionate about supporting your service to become more sustainable and exploring ways we can all minimise our environmental impact. This why we have included our standard 1.8 in both our UK and ROI standards, this ensures that we are all continually reviewing our environmental impact and reflecting on how we can create meaningful change.

Simple actions you can take today

• Start the conversation – add sustainability as agenda item to your daily huddles, start the conversation about green endoscopy practices, share ideas, ask questions, and reflect. Ask what can we do to be more sustainable today?

• Posters – print out posters encouraging green endoscopy practices, visual cues are great reminders and conversation starters. We have linked some posters you could use in the section below.

• Become a green champion – get in touch with the sustainability lead at your hospital and ask how you can get involved in sustainability initiatives and ask to join the green endoscopy working group.

• Join the endoscopy sustainability network – the network brings together patients, clinicians, researchers, educators, students, and managers interested in sustainable endoscopy. It is free to join.

• Start a green endoscopy board – fill a board with relevant posters and information on projects currently being undertaken. It could be beneficial to put this board in sight of patients as living a more eco conscious lifestyle should be encouraged to everyone, not just staff.

• Consider waste management – are your recycling bins located in the best and easiest place for staff to reach? Is there any way the waste management in your service could be improved?

• Be mindful of single use items – for example, dignity shorts, ask the patient if they need or want them before giving them out. In general, be mindful of providing things without asking the patient if they would like it first otherwise it might land up in landfill without being used.

• Reduce, reuse, recycle – wherever possible, the goal is not to be perfect.

• Think about the big four:

  • Cups – offer recyclable single use cups and cutlery to patients rather than single use plastics or polystyrene.

  • Bags – you could use reusable and wipeable baskets for patient belongings instead of single use plastic bags.

  • Bottles – bring in refillable bottles to work with you rather than buying single plastic water bottles.

  • Straws – try to use paper or metal straws where possible.

• If you work in the NHS in England, contact the sustainability officer for your hospital – they will be listed on the telephone directory, ask them for ideas of what changes can be made in your service.

The bigger picture

There are larger projects you could get involved in such as embarking on a quality improvement sustainability project to help improve the knowledge and skills required for sustainable healthcare. You could also reach out to local charities and see if there are any opportunities to collaborate on sustainability projects. There are plenty of charities that are fighting to improve environmental impact in collaboration with healthcare, for example, there are charities that create bags for surgical drains out of recycled materials.

Ultimately we must campaign for change. Small actions made by lots of people can make a huge difference, but we need change within large organisations to fight climate change. Encourage your organisation to invest in waste solutions, reusable resources, appropriate patient selection and energy efficiency.

We value your opinion

Please let us know if you have any ideas about what JAG could do to further encourage sustainability and green endoscopy. We would also love to hear about your journey towards becoming a more sustainable service. Let us know what projects and changes you've been a part of and we can share your ideas here. Please contact us using the form below.