Environmental Sustainability in Transplantation

The need for change

All human activity is climate relevant; the climate emergency faces all health services with the need to assess, plan, and adapt, adopting the most sustainable practices available.

What you can do

Sign our pledge via Microsoft Forms and become an Environmental Sustainability in Transplantation (ESIT) champion.

Read our top tips for making your unit more sustainable and learn more about sustainability through our events and resources.

Climate change, the NHS and transplant services

On 1 July 2022, the NHS became the first health system to embed net zero into legislation, through the Health and Care Act 2022. This places duties on all NHS organisations to contribute towards reaching environmental targets and reducing our collective impact on the economy, with two key overall targets:

  • For emissions directly controlled by the NHS (the NHS Carbon Footprint), to reach net zero by 2040, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2028 to 2032.
  • For emissions the NHS can influence (our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus), to reach net zero by 2045, with an ambition to reach an 80% reduction by 2036 to 2039.


Within transplantation there are serious challenges – organ shortages, growing transplant waiting list, and significant workforce shortages, alongside growing costs of service delivery. As innovative solutions and technologies are identified to support transformation within transplantation and deliver much-needed widespread improvements.

The ESIT group will focus minds to ensure environmental sustainability is a golden thread throughout all transformations, making use of the most innovative environmental sustainability solutions at the same time.

About ESIT

Further information