Environmental and Energy Strategy in the Andalusian Health Service

Aware of the need to improve management of energy and environmental aspects, the Ministry of Health of the Regional Government of Andalusia has drawn up an Environmental and Energy Management Strategy, aimed at ensuring sustainable and socially responsible management of the regional ministry's activities. The Strategy has been prepared with the clear purpose of making Andalusia a benchmark for mainstreaming environmental and energy management within health strategies.

The various steps, which are at different stages of implementation, are:

• Maintaining certification of the Integrated Environmental Management System throughout the Andalusian Public Health System, in keeping with Spanish standard UNE-EN ISO 14001.
• Including the energy aspect within the Environmental Management System in keeping with Spanish standard UNE-EN ISO 50001. Annual inclusion of a series of centres.
• Reducing the environmental impact of the activities of health centres by setting targets for them: selective waste collection, minimisation of waste production, verification of traceability, monitoring of energy consumption and introducing awareness-raising measures.
• Optimising the environmental footprint, calculating the carbon footprint of the Andalusian health system.
• Investing in improving energy efficiency and introducing renewable energy sources in the organisation's main centres of consumption.