Celebrating sustainability in the NHS
Today marks the NHS’ commitment to improved energy performance and a celebration of sustainable development within our national health services. Through NHS Sustainability Day, we seek to support Trusts across the country in managing and delivering their long-term sustainability plans through enhanced utilities management and consumption reporting.
The delivery of NHS services has a significant impact on the environment; it is the largest public sector producer of carbon emissions in Europe. Each year the organisation emits 21 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The NHS is responsible for 25% of all public sector greenhouse gas emissions in England.
Accurate data = successful SDMP
As a requirement of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) and NHS Standard Contract, all NHS Trusts are required to produce a Board-approved Sustainable Development Management Plan (SDMP).
Due to the complex energy infrastructures of most hospitals, including meters across multiple sites, CHP systems and a decentralised utilities database, recording accurate data for sustainability purposes can often be a troublesome task.
Our holistic services provide peace of mind that you are accurately recording all of your utilities consumption, without overspending on bills. In turn, this data can form the basis of your energy/carbon reduction goals embedded within your SDMP.
How we can help
Our package of services ensure that NHS Trusts have complete oversight of their energy consumption and utility costs. From creating the business case for energy efficiency projects, to implementing an SDMP and creating a carbon footprint; accurate utilities data is a key requirement for your sustainability vision.
In turn, this data can be used to support energy efficiency projects, SDMP benchmarking and carbon footprinting.
1. Smart asset management
Understanding your energy and water portfolio is the first step in achieving better value for money across your utilities. An effective, well-managed asset register means you will never miss an opportunity to reduce your consumption and expenses. To achieve savings and efficiencies, you need to be aware of what assets you have and how much an individual asset contributes throughout its life, taking into account its age, location, and consumption pattern. With our Smart Asset Management for utilities we promote a ‘holistic asset management approach’ to ensure that quality, affordability and value for money are key measures of success.
2. Invoice validation
Nearly 20% of all utility invoices contain at least one error. Invoice validation finds these errors.
We have the most thorough invoice validation process in the industry – we validate a total of 3.5 million invoices annually, which totals 250,000 per month. We check every utility invoice from your gas, electricity and water suppliers for consistency and accuracy, instead of only 1 in 100 invoices. In addition to the full audit, we also conduct an analysis to ensure your consumption is in line with historic trends.
Retrospective cost recovery
When we sign up a new NHS Trust, we will always perform a retrospective bill audit. This has proven, time and again, to be very successful in setting a solid foundation together with your asset register for the ongoing invoice validation and Efficient Cost Management for utilities. For example, we recently obtained savings and refunds of £48,292 after a retro audit for Trust Housing Association. Our retrospective audit analyses the previous six years’ worth of your billing history to find potential recoverable refunds.
3. Utility reporting
Our web-enabled ‘Customer Zone’ portal securely hosts all your consumption and cost data, alongside daily market reports and insights; providing 24/7 online utility reporting.
You can select data columns for display and export reports as images, PDF, Excel and in CSV format.
You can access all your reports, analyses and your scanned invoices on the Customer Zone at customer.wwwtest.monarchpartnership.co.uk.
Our insightful utility reporting for asset management, energy cost control and financial planning enable you to better understand your expenditures on gas, electricity and water. We can also tailor the reports as per your organisation’s needs, such as directly linking to your SDMP, sustainability reporting, ERIC returns and Annual Reports.
Free SDMP review
As part of NHS Sustainability Day, we are offering a free SDMP review for NHS Trusts.
See our full SDMP service here.
Next steps
If you would like to find out how we can help with your utilities management and sustainability reporting, get in touch today: david.carlyon@wwwtest.monarchpartnership.co.uk
