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Cairn’s Carbon Reduction Plan 2024 reduces Scope 1 emissions to zero

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Cairn Technology has released its Carbon Reduction Plan for 2024, showing a negligible 2.6% increase in its overall carbon equivalent emissions, despite a significant increase in business activities.

What’s more, it has also reduced its Scope 1 carbon emissions to zero.

All of the above has been achieved through a combination of insetting and offsetting approaches.

Scope 1 Insetting & Offsetting Measures

In terms of insetting, our move to having more hybrid and electric vehicles for our field-based team of consultants has continued to have a positive impact on minimising Scope 1 carbon emissions from our company vehicles.

This is reflected in the fact that we have only seen a 17.5% increase in our Scope 1 emissions in 2024, despite our field-based consultants travelling 22.7% more miles than in 2023.

That said, the short-term goal for our carbon reduction journey outlined in our 2023 Carbon Reduction Plan was to bring our Scope 1 net carbon emissions down to zero for 2024.

To achieve this, we have used carbon offsetting, by investing in the Carbon FootprintTM UK Tree Planting Scheme.

This scheme saw 85,000 native broadleaf trees planted in the UK over 2024, across 27 different species.

Our funding will help support the planting of trees in the Yorkshire and Humber region in school locations, helping to educate children and support wildlife habitats, whilst sequestering carbon emissions.

Scope 3 Insetting Measures

Carbon emission insetting also had a positive impact on our Scope 3 emissions total, through the continued use of our hybrid working model and consolidation of product deliveries, wherever possible.

These measures ensured that we only saw an increase of 4.19% in Scope 3 emissions from 2023 to 2024, despite the turnover of the business increasing by 6.3% in the same period.

Sharon Evans, Sales & Marketing Manager of Cairn Technology says: “We recognise how important it is to support our NHS and private hospital clients in their journey towards Net Zero.

“For this reason, our Carbon Reduction Leadership Team is drawn from across sales, marketing, logistics and finance to ensure a truly business-wide focus on minimising our carbon footprint within the company.

“For 2025, our eye is already on further opportunities for carbon insetting and offsetting to ensure that our carbon equivalent emissions are kept to a minimum as our business activities continue to grow.”

See our Carbon Reduction Plan 2024

To see our full Carbon Reduction Plan for 2024 just click here.

 

Cairn’s Carbon Reduction Plan shows sharp fall in emissions

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Medical product and service supplier to the NHS and private hospitals, Cairn Technology, has completed its Carbon Reduction Plan for its base year, 2023.

Although 2023 is the first year that the company has actively calculated its carbon emissions, it already has an ethos of trying to minimise its impact on the environment.

This has included suppling reusable surgical instruments that come with a 30-year warranty to superabsorbent theatre mats that can significantly reduce the volume of less absorbent mats going into clinical waste.

2023 saw Cairn Technology also focus on reducing carbon emissions relating to its operations. Whilst it already sources products from Europe to minimise delivery miles travelled, it has significantly reduced carbon emissions in two other key areas:

1. Scope 1 emissions have been slashed by almost 30%

2023 saw Cairn Technology make a 29.9% reduction in carbon emissions from the company cars used by some of its staff, including its consultants who deliver workplace exposure monitoring in hospitals across the UK.

This reduction was achieved by switching to lower carbon emission company cars, such as hybrid or fully electric.

2. Employee commuting emissions have been cut by 45%

Post pandemic, Cairn gave its office staff the choice to work flexibly with a split of home and office-based working.

By implementing this hybrid working structure, we have lowered our scope 3 category 7 employee commuting emissions by 45%.

Carbon emission reduction aims for the future

The company aims to become Net Zero for Scope 1 for the reporting year 2024 through carbon offsetting schemes.

Its longer-term commitment is to achieve Net Zero across all relevant scopes and categories by 2050, at the latest.

Director Peter Binns says: “Cairn Technology began in 1999 as an environmental consultancy that helped companies to reduce their emissions to atmosphere through continuous monitoring and manage the environmental impact of chemical spills. So environmental performance is deeply ingrained in Cairn’s identity.

“Our yearly Carbon Reduction Plans are a useful way to show our NHS and private hospital clients how we are supporting them in their own plans towards Net Zero.”

Read our full 2023 Carbon Reduction Plan

To find out about other ways in which we have reduced our carbon emissions, click here to read our full Carbon Reduction Plan for 2023.

If you would like to see the independent audit of the plan email info@cairntechnology.com for your copy.

 

Supporting Sterile Services Departments with quality instruments

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The role of Sterile Service Departments (SSDs) is critical to the smooth running of operating theatres across the UK.

The timely decontamination and turnaround of full sets of instruments that are safe to use and perform to their optimum ability is critical to the smooth running of surgical lists.

But unfortunately, too many SSDs and instrument managers are being hampered by underinvestment in quality instruments, leading to a number of significant issues.

Damaged or missing instruments can cause a range of problems, not just for the sterile services department, but also for surgeons and patients:

  • Surgical procedures can be delayed or cancelled.
  • Hospital stays may be extended, aggravating bed-blocking situations.
  • Interoperative instrument breakage can put patients at risk.
  • Inability to effectively decontaminate instruments risks surgical site infections.

 

A sizeable problem for Sterile Service Departments

An audit carried out by the ABHI on 2020(1) showed that out of 32,000 instruments checked at 48 hospitals, less than 20% were in a good enough condition to be used.

In fact, 31% of the instruments needed to be replaced, 32% needed to be repaired, and 18% had issues with surface finish, including corrosion.

Another report, by Efthymiou and AR Cale(2) in 2022 revealed that surgical equipment failed in 92% of cardiac cases, 80% of which were surgical instruments. The report concluded that there may be as many as 1500 incidents a year of patient harm caused poor quality instruments.

 

Cheap reusable surgical instruments

There are many makes of resusable surgical instruments that are made from high quality stainless steel, are designed for optimum cleaning and come with warranties lasting decades. However, there is no doubt that the cost of investing in these upfront can be significant.

Budgetary pressures can mean that SSDs and instrument managers are forced to order much cheaper instruments. Unfortunately, these often come with only a one- or two-year warranty They are also made with lower quality stainless steel and have a more rudimentary design. This in turn means that decontamination is more difficult and damage more likely.

High quality instruments in contrast are often designed to optimise performance, decontamination and maintenance, even to the extent that their parts can be taken apart during servicing, allowing them to be restored to their original levels of functionality.

 

Carbon Footprint Considerations

Investing in good quality instruments also makes sense for the NHS’s plans to attain Net Zero. The NHS Carbon Footprint Plus considers an expanded scope of emissions, covering the products procured from its 80,000 suppliers. Sourcing cheap disposable or reusable instruments from thousands of miles away is not a sustainable approach for the long term.

Short-lived instruments also lead to more waste, not only in terms of instrument disposal, but also as a result of the increased number of manufacturing processes involved in making them.

Of course, having safe and complete instrument sets can be enhanced through consistent auditing, maintenance and training, but sterile services managers and instrument managers can only do so much with the instruments that they are given.

As the ABHI 2020 audit concluded, “Investment in the replacement of aged surgical instrument inventory should be considered as a priority for NHS spending” and “The procurement of surgical instruments should be based on overall quality and value, with the demonstration of strong ethical and resilient supply chains recognised and rewarded in purchasing decisions.”

In this way, we can support our Sterile Service Departments to help ensure that instrument performance and availability is always optimised.

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