Clean Air Day takes place this Thursday 20th June. To celebrate, colleagues from our Sustainability Team will be in our new Wellbeing Garden at HRI between 12:00 and 13:30 giving out tree saplings to colleagues and visitors. If there are any saplings leftover, the team will also be there between 15:45 and 16:15.

There will be one sapling per person and they will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis. There are a few sapling varieties to choose from, such as birch and holly, for you to take home and plant in your own garden.

Your sapling will come with a care pack and a QR code. Please use the QR code to upload a photo once your sapling is planted and show your contribution to the 'CHFT forest'. As part of CHFT's ongoing Green Plan delivery, we have already planted over 600 tree saplings on site at HRI to contribute to improving local air quality and enhancing biodiversity on site.

Trees are a great way to tackle air pollution and they efficiently remove harmful pollutants from the air whilst providing us with clean oxygen. Air pollution can be caused by a variety of sources, such as traffic, agriculture, industrial facilities and domestic burning and has harmful effects on the health of humans, wildlife and the environment. Poor air quality is linked to health conditions including cancer, asthma, heart disease and stroke and according to the Woodland Trust, up to 36,000 deaths per year in the UK can be attributed to man-made air pollution.

Other small changes we can all make to improve air quality on our sites, at home and in our local communities include:

• Turning off our car engines when stationary for long periods of time. We also ask drivers not to leave their engine idling on CHFT sites.
• Avoid using the car for short trips. Consider walking, cycling or using public transport instead.
• Go hybrid or electric where possible. Electric vehicles have no direct tailpipe emissions, and research shows that in the UK the lifetime emissions of electric vehicles are around 30% lower than petrol or diesel engines.
• We do not allow smoking anywhere on hospital grounds so please ensure you leave the site to smoke, or consider giving up. (Support to stop smoking- Let's clear the air - help to stop smoking - CHFT Intranet (cht.nhs.uk).
• Use energy efficiently at home and at work.
• Open windows and keep air purifying houseplants to improve indoor air quality at home.
• Ensure wood burning stoves and fireplaces are well maintained.