Our most popular dare!

Hundreds of you took this dare to get out and get some fresh air in your breaks – boosting wellbeing and a simple way to squeeze some exercise into your working day.

The wellbeing benefits of walking more are well known, our staff embracing walking are also cutting carbon and improving local air pollution.

4 flights from London to Sydney

We calculated that if everyone who took our meat free Monday dare stuck to it for the six months we ran the dare then the carbon emissions saved equated to four flights from London to Sydney!

Eco driving

We’re in the process of working out how much carbon you saved by adopting a more eco-friendly driving style – and you told us that you were saving £££’s on your fuel too!

With many new cars having an eco-mode this is a pledge that you might be doing without even trying!

Play isn't just for kids

As grown ups we forget that play can be as good for us a doing something ‘practical’ like going for a jog.

From team sports to group crafts, staff have embraced playing in various forms to boost wellbeing at work and at home.

Reduce the carbon footprint of your shopping

With this pledge we asked people to shop locally, and source local food options. The closer to home our things come from the less miles they travel to get to us which helps improve air pollution and also cuts carbon emissions.

It is also lovely to support our local economies and boost wellbeing in the community.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/dec/06/shop-locally-small-business-saturday-seven-reasons

Fairtrade Fortnight

This dare comes back every year to celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight – and staff have embraced it with choosing fair trade teas and coffees for the staff room.

Making these choices enables people across the world to live better, healthier lives and to grow things in a more sustainable way so they are there for us all when we want them.

Healthy eating is sustainable eating

Over 100 people have made the pledge to bring in their own meals to work which helps to reduce waste, especially plastic waste. It also means people are generally eating healthier too with a lot less salt and sugar involved.

Less car journeys for cleaner air

This dare is one that comes back often as people love the idea of saving money by choosing active travel, and doing their bit for the environment by cutting carbon.

At Sussex Community to date 436 people have made this pledge, and at Sussex Partnership where Dare to Care has only being in place for a year 115 people have made the pledge. Together this amounts to 551 people.

The average car journey based on government data is 8.2 miles. We calculated that the carbon saving was around 1.3kg CO₂ per week using average carbon emissions per mile for both petrol and diesel engines for our 551 darers.

Over the course of one year that adds up to an impressive 67 tonnes of CO₂ saved. To put that into context, it is the same as the energy needed to run 8 average homes for one year.

Plants are popular

You embraced this dare with pot plants coming into work spaces all over the Trust.

We have seen people smiling which is proof that green spaces definitely boost wellbeing!

We are also getting requests from teams for support with planting outside areas to have outside green spaces to enjoy too.

Saving paper, saving the planet

Paper cut asked people to print double sided, use scrap paper for note taking and not print at all if possible. Thanks to everyone who took this dare!

We are measuring paper use to see if we can save 70 trees worth together.

We're still daring!

This is one of those eternal pledges, that we all need to keep on doing.

We’ve switched to 100% renewable energy on the sites we own but it is still important to use energy wisely. When we ran phantom energy month we saw an average of a 3% reduction in energy use as people made the extra effort to switch things off.

Volunteers are great!

We love our volunteers who add so much to our Trust with their enthusiasm and diverse range of skills and experience.

We also salute the staff who have volunteered their time outside of work to do things such as beach litter pics and community gardening.

Heart healthy choices

The Step Up dare was inspired by a member of staff who wanted people to use the stairs more than lifts.

It is one of the most popular pledges and led to the creation of our Step Up Challenge and to date well over 1,000 people have participated walking well over 120,000 miles between them.

A super popular pledge with over 650 people choosing to give it a go.

We can save around £700 per Trust on waste water if people stick to the pledge and report drips and leaks.

We’ll also have a lovely hydrated workforce, with people pledging to drink the 2 litres per day that is national recommendation.

Our Hydration Challenge also saw 140 people participate.

Regular breaks and a bit of movement in the working day are important

This dare was’t as popular as others perhaps because people feel a bit shy stretching with colleagues around.

We asked our physio team to suggest some ways to stretch and here they are:

Lunch is the break your day needs

Take a HIIT! It’s good for you!

Face to face beats email every time

Staff taking this pledge have told us that talking face to face saves time, even a phone call is better than an email.

Less emails also makes for a more manageable inbox which helps reduce stress.

Let’s not forget that the servers emails sit on come with a carbon footprint, so the less emails we have to send and store the better for our environment.

Putting waste in the right place makes all the difference

Waste is unavoidable but we can manage how best to get rid of it.

Sorting our waste is something that staff have pledged to do – which we have seen evidenced in increased recycling and less to general waste.

We are the persuaders of our peers

People listen to other people, peer to peer influence is so important which is why we asked you to share your dare.

Loads of people took this on and anecdotally we heard of colleagues getting their whole team to change behaviour such as recycling more and switching off lights.

#Eatwell

For us, sustainable healthcare is all about prevention and self care because the most sustainable healthcare system is one that keeps people well rather than fixing them when they are sick.

If we’re honest this is not a popular pledge – people like sugar! But people have been willing to give this a go, and we are seeing a lot more refillable water bottles around instead of making trips to the vending machine which is great!

We also has our Sugar Smart Challenge which 50 people gave a go.

#reduce #reuse #recycle

Recycling is one of the most popular requests we get from staff across all the Trusts taking part in Care Without Carbon.

Our mission is to think in a more circular economy way, so rather than just how to dispose of something, also what else could we do with it?

We’ve got reuse networks in place for items that could have a lease of life elsewhere which reduces waste.

Saving ££ through smarter waste choices

There is about £7 difference between a bag of confidential waste compared to a bag of recycling and everyone who has made this pledge has helped to (safely and securely) reduce our spend on confidential waste, while ensuring we recycle appropriately.

Pedal Power Rocks!

We’re seeing applications to Trust cycle schemes go up which is great news! And now the schemes offer a higher amount which means people can access an e-bike and that has been encouraging people to get cycling too.

Trusts in the region are also taking part in Love to Ride’s Cycle September and rocking up some miles on that.

People swapping the car for a bike helps us reduce local air pollution and also cuts carbon emissions.

It's nice to be nice

This dare was really popular because it simply encourages people to be nice to each other at work and a friendly hello in a corridor can go a long way when you are having a tough day.

With workplace stress a high risk factor for illness all the little things we do to ease that help us all stay well.

Tackling air pollution

Many of our darers have opted to make this pledge, and quite a few people anecdotally told us they do it even though they haven’t made the pledge.

Informal car sharing is a great way to reduce the volume of cars on the road and in doing so also reduce air pollution and carbon emissions.

If you want to try car sharing outside of work there are some great national websites to link up cars with passengers.

https://www.blablacar.co.uk/ride-sharing/