The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM) is an International Professional Engineering Institute specialising in the Healthcare Estates Sector. IHEEM exists to keep members up to date with developing technology and changing regulations. IHEEM supports Healthcare Engineers in registering as EngTech, IEng and CEng and offers several activities and initiatives to support engineers in their continued professional development.
IHEEM has over 2,000 members, belonging to an international network of professional support and expertise.
IHEEM is committed to promoting sustainability. Our members have the potential to make a dramatic difference in the area of sustainability and we recognise our responsibility as an organisation to manage the effects of our own operations too.
We aim to follow and to promote good sustainability practice, to reduce the environmental impacts of all our activities and to help our clients and partners to do the same.
We expect our members, employees, volunteers, suppliers, sub-contractors and all partners are aware of our policy and to comply as appropriate. We consider sustainability to encompass environmental, social and economic elements, with a focus on having a net positive impact.
Principles
Our Sustainability Policy is based upon the following principles:
- To comply with all applicable legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
- To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.
- To ensure that all staff, volunteers, and members are fully aware of our Sustainability Policy and are committed to implementing and improving it.
- To make our Sustainability Policy available to other stakeholders and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices.
- To minimise the impact on sustainability of all office and transportation activities. To review, annually report, and to continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.
In order to put these principles into practice we will:
Travel and Meetings
- Avoid physically travelling to meetings where alternatives are available and practical, such as using teleconferencing or video conferencing and efficient timing of meetings to avoid multiple trips.
- Walk, cycle and/or use public transport to travel to work, attend meetings, site visits etc. apart from in exceptional circumstances where the alternatives are impractical and/or cost-prohibitive.
- Include the full costs of more sustainable forms of transport in our financial proposals, rather than the least cost option which may involve travelling by car or air. Where the only practical alternative is to fly, we will include costs for full air fares rather than budget airlines in our financial proposals.
Purchase of equipment and consumption of resources
- Minimise our use of paper and other office consumables, for example by double-siding all paper used, and identifying opportunities to reduce waste.
- As far as possible arrange for the reuse or recycling of office waste, including paper, computer supplies, and redundant equipment.
- Reduce the energy consumption of office equipment by purchasing energy-efficient equipment and good housekeeping.
- Seek to purchase electricity from a supplier committed to renewable energy.
- Improve our lighting systems to LED bulbs.
Updates since COVID-19
Since the spread of COVID-19 we have seen a necessary rise in the number of videocall meetings and webinar events. This has had a huge decline on our carbon footprint as an organisation and we shall now be adopting these processes across the Institute moving forward.
Engineering Council Guidance on Sustainability
Professionally registered engineers and technicians are required to carry out their work in a way that contributes to sustainable development, as outlined in UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC).
The six principles set out by the Engineering Council to support professional engineering and technicians when making decisions for clients, employers and society that affect sustainability are as follows:
1. Contribute to building a sustainable society, present and future
2. Apply professional and responsible judgement and take a leadership role
3. Do more than just comply with the legislation and codes
4. Use resources efficiently and effectively
5. Seek multiple views to solve sustainability challenges
6. Manage risk to minimise adverse impact and maximise benefit to people and the environment
