United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has won the Estates and Facilities Innovation Award at this year's Health Business Awards.

This award highlights the amazing work the Trust's Facilities Team has been doing to reduce its carbon footprint and at the same time make financial savings which can instead be used for patient care.

The Trust has joined forces with Veolia to manage improvements to its energy infrastructure over the next 15 years. In the first year of this contract the Trust has installed LED lighting in its hospitals at Lincoln, Boston and Grantham, and installed a new combined heat and power unit at Lincoln.

These energy upgrades are expected to generate financial savings of £1.4 million per year and will cut annual carbon emissions by 7,712 tonnes.

Veolia have worked with the Trust for 15 years and this extends that partnership for a further 15, in which we will continuously support the Trust to reach their Net Zero goals.

Associate Director of Strategic Business Planning, Claire Hall, said: "This award means a great deal to the team, over a number of years we have worked to develop projects with Veolia to invest in our energy infrastructure to improve our sustainability and resilience.

"The Trust received a grant from the National Energy Efficiency Fund for £2.6 million enabling the replacement of around 12,000 light fittings with modern LED fittings with smart technology that mean lights turn off after a period of inactivity saving energy and money for the Trust."

Chief Operating Officer, Simon Evans said: "I am so proud of the team and this award goes some way to recognising all of the hard work they have put in to improve our environments for patients and colleagues, as well as being better for the environment and enabling us to use the savings we have made for patient care."

This year's awards were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.