By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
East Midlands Ambulance Service has an ‘immense task’ to reduce its carbon footprint, the organisation’s director of finance said.
The ambulance service covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.
Around 35 per cent of the trust’s emissions are from vehicles.
Around 43 per cent of emissions are from ‘supply chain and capital’ and building emissions, including gas, oil, electricity and water contribute 16 per cent.
EMAS says it has 108 electric vehicles in its fleet and 77 electric vehicle charge points.
But Mike Naylor, Director of Finance at EMAS, said “nobody’s quite cracked the issue” on electric ambulances.
EMAS has adopted the NHS targets for the emissions it controls – to be net zero for the emissions it controls directly by 2040.
For the emissions it does not control – for example, staff commuting, construction and catering – it aims to achieve net zero by 2045.
The board approved the trust’s Carbon Reduction Plan at a board meeting on August 1.
Mr Naylor said: “2045 does seem a long way off but we’ve got a lot to do.
“We’re making good progress on our vehicles now. We’ve gone from having 200 vehicles to 108 now.
“We’ve done a lot to reduce our carbon footprint. It is quite an immense task for us, like most organisations.
“The key will be the electric ambulance. There’s not much happening nationally on that but we are hoping to try our first electric ambulance next year.
“Our ambulances require so much power and the batteries are going to weigh more than the ambulance.
“There are some new models on the market being trialled in London.
“At the moment nobody’s quite cracked the issue. It’s okay in big conurbations like London but for us, we’ve got long runs and the recharging time would be difficult.
“We’ve put out three [electric] fast response vehicles on the fleet this week.”
Currently, electric ambulances are “far more expensive” than diesel ambulances. And Mr Naylor said one issue is the availability of charging points.
EMAS projects a five per cent reduction in carbon emissions in the next five years.
This includes the removal of oil boilers by 2025 and gas boilers by
2032, utilising exclusively zero emission vehicles for non-Double Crewed
Ambulance (DCA) vehicles from 2028 and exclusively zero emission electric vehicles for all new vehicles by 2032.
Board papers stated: “The opportunities to transition to zero emission ambulance vehicles is currently limited by the range of these vehicles, the cost of purchase and the required infrastructure at acute settings.
“We are working with colleagues and partners across systems to try and scale up the opportunities in this space which may facilitate faster decarbonisation as we re-model our emissions trajectories in future years.”
EMAS says it has already replaced an oil boiler at one site with an air source heat pump, and is replacing broken lighting with LED technology wherever possible
In the future, it intends to develop a heat decarbonisation plan for the buildings it owns.
It will also “continue to expand the electric vehicles within the fleet and charging infrastructure on our estates, including developing an Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure Strategy”.
