Since January first of this year, over 300 healthcare organisations have switched to renewable electricity. Via an agreement between Intrakoop, the purchasing cooperative for the healthcare sector, and energy company Eneco, they will together purchase 1.1 billion kWh of electricity generated from wind. This is enough to cover more than half of the total energy consumption in healthcare.
The switch is the result of an earlier (European) call for tender written out by Intrakoop and won by Eneco. As well as making a conscious choice for green energy, via the Intrakoop agreement, the healthcare organisations will also benefit from lower supplier costs. Moreover, Eneco will contribute to Social Return on Investment (SROI) by helping people with a distance to the labour market find a lasting job. Not only by employing these people but also by imposing the obligation to the companies they buy from. Five percent of the supplier costs will be used for SROI.
In October of last year, 132 parties from the healthcare sector (including Inrakoop), government and industry signed a Green Deal Sustainable Healthcare to promote a healthy future. In the Green Deal the parties have concluded agreements to make the healthcare sector more sustainable and support a reduction in CO2 emissions.
Apart from wind energy, the healthcare sector is also looking at investing in LED-lightning and solar panels. Source: Intrakoop
